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Shoppers Stop Intends To Convert Its Facebook Fans Into Loyal Consumers
Not a day goes by without Facebook being in the news. Only yesterday we reported about Facebook’s plan to launch autoplay video-ads in news feeds. Over a period of six – eight months, Facebook has updated its privacy settings, made the modifications to its TL mandatory and announced changes in its policies.
In April, the social media behemoth launched Facebook Offers. Simply put, these offers are a tool for brands to connect with consumers who have ‘liked’ the brand’s Facebook page.
The video below describes how Facebook Offers works:
Shoppers Stop, a name to reckon within India’s retail sector, was one of the earliest brands to adopt Facebook Offers. A Facebook user came across a Shoppers Stop Facebook Offer in April and wrote about his experience in this article.
Shoppers Stop has always maintained its Facebook page as a way to excite consumers about their products and to get them to purchase these. While discounts and offers are promoted on the brand’s Facebook page, direct links to the e-commerce site are posted along with the picture of an item to get consumers to act.
Shoppers Stop has 2.7 million loyalty card members called First Citizens. These members are included in the Shoppers Stop First Citizen family only when they shell out Rs. 300. While all other brands offer free loyalty membership, Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Senior Vice President – Marketing and Loyalty, Shoppers Stop justifies this joining fee. He says, “Unlike other retailers who give away free loyalty cards, we have decided to charge our customers as we want only those members who are serious about the programmes. Despite this charge, we have been adding 4 lakh members every year.”
These 2.7 million loyal members account for approximately 70% of the total sales and around 50% of these are fans of the store on Facebook. This means there is an obvious overlap, an overlap that needs to be exploited and tapped into.
Kumar Subramaniam, Executive Vice-President and Head of Contract Mumbai says, “As we see growth opportunities on both these platforms, we would like to leverage it to convert more fans into becoming loyalty members. There is cross promotion happening between social media and the loyalty programme and we see this as one of biggest business opportunities.” (i-Contract, the digital arm of Contract handles the Shoppers Stop account).
I think that tapping into this inter-connected market is a smart move. The fact that Facebook is being used to promote Shoppers Stop products and push for sales via Facebook offers and links to the Shoppers Stop e-commerce site is direct and thus the chances of it working are high.
Moreover, Shoppers Stop (at least for now) isn’t pushy or in-your-face with its Facebook updates. If it continues with its efforts to gradually get customers to embrace “Facebook Shopping” then I think they have a winning strategy on their hands. Other brands can learn from this effort.
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2012-12-20 01:10:38
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