UK Retail Industry Snapshot

Transcription

1 UK Retail Industry Snapshot

2 After years of difficulty for the retail industry, how are some of its main players performing now, and how are they perceived, and described, by consumers? This is an industry snapshot of social media sentiment around several high profile retail brands using Crimson Hexagon s ForSight, a powerful social sentiment analysis tool that distils meaning and context from social media conversations. We are looking here at some major UK fashion retailers, tracking conversations that took place between January and September Five consumer brands - ASOS, New Look, Primark, Ted Baker and Topshop - were analysed to uncover consumers opinions, activities as well as potential actionable insights for retail brands. 2

3 The opportunity social sentiment presents for UK retailers Social media conversations provide a genuine, real-time opportunity for brands and retailers to bypass the limits of traditional market research and engage directly with consumers to understand what audiences truly think and feel about their brands, products and services. As a melting pot of public conversation and opinion, social media is the largest source of unsolicited (and relatively untapped) information available to date about how consumers truly think and feel. This information is being expressed openly, and publicly, but not necessarily directly to the organisation being discussed: it s not just consumers who have liked or followed your brand, but people talking about you behind your back! If used correctly, this invaluable social intelligence can drive audience interaction for brands to uncover specific themes and drivers of conversations to activate, improve and recalibrate their marketing and business strategies. 3

4 One very evident topic of conversation among consumers on Twitter and other leading social media platforms is retail experience. This is even more true as e-commerce continues to become an ever-larger proportion of retail activity, with customers browsing for goods at the same time as interacting through social media. People want to enjoy shopping, and frequently discuss their opinions and experiences of everyday brands, products and services online. Many are not afraid to hold back in either their praise or condemnation. In isolation, one consumer remarking on the quality of a brand s customer service, the value of a particular product, or the impact of a marketing promotion, may only be of passing interest to a brand, rather than of strategic value. But by charting social sentiment across a large and vocal sample over an extended period of time, Crimson Hexagon s ForSight platform derives vital strategic data from actual consumer opinion and drivers of sentiment that can be developed into real-time, actionable business decisions. 4

5 5

6 We analysed over 235,000 tweets to look at online sentiment surrounding the ASOS brand. 75% of these posts were positive, and only 25% negative: 6

7 Key to truly understanding how ASOS is viewed by consumers, however, is establishing what drives this sentiment. Positive opinion is spurred by a wide variety of customer experiences: 25% of posts are live posts of customers shopping, or saying they cannot wait to place an order 20% discuss the ASOS site, praising the clothing, selection or range of sizes 19% remark upon on the fast delivery service, and excitement at receiving ASOS packages 8% say how great the customer service is 3% mention specific ASOS services, such as Premier or Marketplace Negative posts, meanwhile, were split between criticism of customer service and goods presented online. 17% of users argue that images on the website are misleading, or that clothing choice, size range and material quality of online items is poor. 8% post claim that either customer service or delivery speeds are poor. 7

8 Of almost 215,000 posts about Topshop, 53% were positive, 32% neutral, and 15% negative. Positive posts predominantly focused on general praise for Topshop, with smaller conversations about good value, durability, and quality of the products. Similarly, negative tweets offer general criticism, while also touching on the poor value or quality of goods. Neutral tweets revolve around promotions and visits to store, but there was also a significant proportion of mentions of celebrity sightings and famous names approval or endorsement of the brand. 8

9 Positive tweets (35% of the total Ted Baker conversation, itself almost 20,000 posts) can be split into two main drivers. Firstly, consumers mention the attractiveness of items, how good they look, and the general high quality of Ted Baker clothing. Second, there are many people looking forward to shopping in a Ted Baker outlet, or commenting on how good the shopping experience is. There was a large proportion (61%) of the Ted Baker conversation that was neutral about the brand. This revolved largely around live promotions, competitions, and giveaways, as well as editorial features. Ted Baker s marketing communications is clearly generating a lot of coverage and online share of voice. 9

10 At 9% of the conversation, negativity about Ted Baker may appear to be only a small share of online sentiment. However, this negativity is rather focussed on one thing: the relative value of Ted Baker goods. Many consumers are taking to Twitter to express the opinion that Ted Baker clothing is expensive, not good quality, or simply not worth the price. 10

11 High Street fashion retailer New Look, was much less discussed online than online-only ASOS, with around 41,000 tweets analyzed. Of these, 14% were positive sentiment, 74% neutral, and 12% negative. Positive tweets focused on the value and quality of goods sold, while neutral tweets were more varied, and ranged from comments on goods, to views on physical stores. 11

12 Negative tweets are usually undefined, except in one very specific case, where consumers were expressing condemnation for a particular line of 'Wifey' t-shirts for sending a bad message to children. 12

13 Going beyond sentiment on the brand in general, the Forsight technology was also used to contrast online opinions of New Look s online ecommerce channel with its stores. There was a much larger volume of conversation around New Look s online channel than stores. Sentiment about the online experience was overwhelmingly negative, while in-store did not show such pronounced negativity. 13

14 14

15 The language and phrases used by people expressing negative opinion of the online channel, focused on issues with out-of-stock products, customer service, failed attempts to order, and an inability to try items on, like customers would in store. 15

16 The Primark brand is an interesting one to look at online, as it, famously, is store-only, with little or no ecommerce presence. Analysis of 129,201 tweets identified a less-than-positive theme, with just 21% of the conversation positive, and 57% negative. 16

17 While most of the positive tweets concentrate on favourable prices of Primark goods, there was still a proportion mentioning the quality and integrity of products sold. Negative tweets mainly focus on the lack of an ecommerce channel, and poor physical store experiences 20% of tweets express a general distain for the Primark brand. 15% comment of the poor durability and quality of products themselves. 12% bemoan the lack of an e-commerce channel and are calling for an online store. Additionally, 2% are negative about the in-store experience itself, complaining about time spent in queues at Primark or how busy the shops are. 17

18 7% discuss factory conditions of Primark s supply chain: an issue which gained significant media attention due to scandals and controversies around the safety, working conditions, and wages of the workers producing some Primark goods. 18

19 19

20 What have we learned about Retail? It would be easy to decide on winners and losers here, based purely on share of voice, or relative positive and negative sentiment towards our retailers, as shown in the Share of voice comparison chart below, showing that ASOS, TopShop, and Primark get the highest volumes of online chatter. However, the drivers of this sentiment give us a more granular, and interesting, insight into these retailers. 20

21 The shopping experience is clearly highly important. From anticipation of visiting high street stores, to complaining about queues, the online conversation covers many aspects of the traditional retail experience. However, the rise of ecommerce is a trend clearly driving significant opinion and chatter. Whether it be questioning Primark s lack of ecommerce options, identifying the increasing expectation of instant gratification from next day delivery, or criticising the NewLook online shopping experience, retailers clearly need to take social media insights seriously in their ecommerce strategy. 21

22 Of course, the actual goods themselves are vital to the success of retailers, and social media gives consumers a forum to review products constantly and instantly. Price (and value), and the quality, durability, and aesthetics of clothing products were all commonly discussed online, and cannot be ignored by retailers, whether from a customer service perspective (which items are getting negative reviews?), supply chain (which items are generating online chatter and demand), or marketing (any items being mentioned as too expensive? Are there any hero products that could drive promotional activity in store or online?). Lastly, we notice another area of insight gained from social media analysis: Crisis issues come to the fore. Just among the brands looked at here, Primark s supply chain ethics, and New Look s controversial Tshirt range are both scrutinised, and both potentially harming the brands. How could consumer feedback help these organisations better manage these situations? 22

23 Overall Conclusion With social media sentiment analysis, brands such as the retailers covered here can easily tap into billions of online conversations to uncover vital consumer conversations, sentiment and insights on their company, products, campaigns, and competitors. Crimson Hexagon s ForSight platform enables retail brand marketers to get answers to key marketing and business questions, such as: What do my customers think of my brand? Which products are they excited about? What are the most important factors to consumers when they are shopping? What complaints do people have about my brand and my competitors? Why do buyers choose another brand over mine? Every second of every day, customers are telling retailers precisely what they want, why they want it, and how they want to get it. The examples above give just a brief insight on the breadth of social sentiment available. Now is the opportunity for retail brands to seize this genuine opportunity to engage with customers and be responsive in real-time. 23

24 Every second of every day, customers are telling retailers precisely what they want, why they want it, and how they want to get it. The examples above give just a brief insight on the breadth of social sentiment available. Now is the opportunity for retail brands to seize this genuine opportunity to engage with customers and be responsive in real-time. 24

25 Founded in 2007, Crimson Hexagon s ForSight software is a unique patented social media analysis platform that provides powerful social media monitoring and analysis. The technology was developed at Harvard University s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and is relied on by leading global organizations including Microsoft, Samsung, Paramount Pictures, Starbucks and Twitter. The company has a historical library of over 350 billion posts, adding a billion new posts every two days. 25