Sears.com was the most popular US department store website and Walmart.com was the most popular mass merchant store site on Facebook during the 2014 holiday season according to new research bySearchmetrics, the global leader in data-driven search and content optimization.
The Searchmetrics study analyzed the number of weekly Facebook Likes, comments, and shares for pages from the websites of nine top US department stores and three mass merchant stores[1] during November and December 2014 (see tables underneath). Sears topped the list of department stores with 12,032,546 Facebook links (Likes, comments, shares) for its web pages per week, followed by Kohls with 5,209,287 Facebook links per week.
Walmart was the most popular of the three mass merchant stores analyzed with 40,312,744 Facebook links per week for its web pages during the period.
“It makes sense retailers are trying to generate social activity and mentions on Facebook as growing evidence shows that consumers are using social media as a key discovery tool for finding information online,” said Marcus Tober CTO and founder of Searchmetrics. “And of course it is a powerful recommendation if consumers see Likes, shares and positive comments about a retailer or its products from their own Facebook friends.”
As an indication of Facebook’s growing power in this area, Tober quoted a recent Forrester study of nearly 5,000 US consumers, which revealed that Facebook came second only to Google as a source for finding information – ahead of TV ads and TV shows.
Searchmetrics’ own study of UK consumers (conducted in December 2014), found 23% of people were turning to Facebook friends, company pages, ads and promotions for researching Christmas gift ideas. The survey found nearly twice as many women (30%) were using the social network to research gifts during the holiday shopping season as men (17%).
Top department store websites on Facebook (Website Facebook links per week - likes, comments & shares)
- sears.com 12,032,546
- kohls.com 5,209,287
- macys.com 2,331,733
- nordstrom.com 1,621,226
- jcpenney.com 393,934
- neimanmarcus.com 260,775
- saksfifthavenue.com 187,440
- belk.com 39,568
- dillards.com 4,405
Top mass merchant store websites on Facebook (Website Facebook links per week - likes, comments & shares)
- walmart.com 40,312,744
- target.com 16,505,929
- costco.com 5,324,495
Facebook and other social networks are increasingly playing a role in product purchasing decisions as part of the growth of social commerce. This refers to the way in which social media sites support social interaction and user contributions in order to drive the online buying and selling of products and services.
Source: Searchmetrics
