The holiday season allows retailers who may have struggled the rest of the year to go into the black. Or it can be the cherry that tops off an already good year.
"A retailer's entire year is often determined in the months leading up to the holiday season," said Bryan Segal, CEO at Engagement Labs. "Social media is a major avenue for retailers to utilize to increase brand awareness and showcase holiday campaigns to drive both in-store and online sales."
Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year is approaching and the National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December to increase 3.7% to $630.5 billion, which is significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent.
Engagement Labs, creator of eValue Analytics tool, released its 'Total Social' data rankings on the top U.S. retailers for both social media and word-of-mouth conversations. See their chart of the most popular brands on Twitter and Facebook.
Nordstrom was ranked first on Facebook with the highest eValue score of the list of 93.11 and also had a fan growth of 89,536 within the one month period of tracking
When it comes to customer service, Nordstrom had the best response speed average across the entire list of brands with an average response time of only 17 minutes
Macy's performed the best on Twitter with an eValue score of 89.06. "The brand actively opened up two-way conversations with its followers and boasted the highest response rate of the group and had an impressive average response speed," according to a press release from Engagement Labs.
Hollister Co. has one of the highest active users base percentages on Instagram.
According to Engagement Labs' Instagram data, clothing retailers dominated the top ten with Hollister Co. taking first place with an eValue score of 94.97. American Eagle, ranked second, had the highest number of posts and most active user base, which resulted in the highest Engagement score of 86. Third place for overall eValue score was granted to H&M with the highest Impact score and Responsiveness score. The brand had the highest number of followers and experienced largest increase in follower growth during the timeframe measured.
"While we're seeing large clothing retailers like Nordstrom, Hollister Co., American Eagle and H&M excel online, we also see that their online success isn't necessarily translating offline," said Segal. "With social media focusing on visuals, it's no surprise these clothing brands are performing well on social. As indicated by our TalkTrack Word of Mouth rankings, their social media strategies aren't converting into positive conversations offline. Instead we're seeing retailers like Costco, Amazon and Kroger taking top spots for WOM sentiment, as they offer a wide-range of products that are driving conversations."