A Q&A with Brad Klaus, Founder & CEO, Extole

Facebook is a valuable social network for today’s connected consumers to follow their favorite brands, receive real-time updates on sales, and access behind-the-scenes information on new products. In fact, a vast majority (82%) of consumers believe a company Facebook page is an effective place to interact with a brand, according to a research study from Lab42, a market research firm.

This holiday season, Facebook will be a key channel for retailers and brands to connect with their audience, and encourage them to spread buzz on new developments, according to Brad Klaus, CEO of Extole.

“The holiday season is an ideal time for retailers to tap into the power of customer advocates,” Klaus said. “In doing so, these consumers will share information about a brand and generate more buzz.”

Let’s face it: the retail industry’s first-to-market acknowledgement of the world becoming an ongoing 24/7/365 omnichannel experience has set the pace for how all industries should be thinking about changing the paradigm. Retail got it, mostly from that real life example of how customers can showroom browse the walls within a Home Depot and purchase by mobile from a Lowes simply because… they can. Omnichannel Retail is inescapable whenever you are in the retail B2B space—at conventions, seminars, corporate hallways and vendors’ shops. The Holy Grail is obvious: the brand that becomes the preeminent omnichannel retailer, will set the new market leadership position, raising the bar forever.

Now, enter Omnichannel Loyalty: the need for retailers to elevate their existing loyalty plays or programs to the enterprise level so that shoppers can access and engage in all that it offers, including promotions, earning opportunities, rewards and the overall shopping experience through every channel desired, simultaneously.

In other words, deliver everything loyalty marketing affords you — behavior tracking and analysis, improved engagement and customer experiences, business intelligence and true data analyses and multi-channel engagement that inspires customer love and brings them towards true brand affinity—everywhere they want and choose to be.

Facebook has certainly drawn its share of grief this year. There’s the mishandled IPO and a stock price that has underwhelmed us all so far. General Motors pulled its Facebook ads earlier in the year, and there were the widely publicized Facebook store closings by big brands such as Gap, Gamestop, Nordstrom and JC Penney. 

When these big players closed their Facebook stores, many sounded the death knell for Facebook commerce, also known as “F-Commerce.” Yet from where we stand at Ecwid, the picture appears far from bleak. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

As the second largest store-building application on Facebook, we analyzed data from all of our merchants globally (primarily small- to medium-sized ventures) who use Ecwid to operate both web site and Facebook storefronts. Here’s what we found:

Consumer technology is forever changing the shape of the retail marketplace and forcing retailers to consider how they can better serve shoppers who are equipped with smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. In growing numbers, retailers are realizing that the use of mobile and other technologies is creating a need for more sophisticated social media strategies. When used in combination with mobile & local strategies, social allows consumers to broadcast their experiences to large online communities and to engage in two-way brand dialogues.

This trend of SoLoMo (or Social, Local, Mobile) is having a profound influence on the way retail brands interact with their customers and will lead to greater shopper loyalty and advocacy when done properly.

With smartphone users turning to their mobile devices for an ever-expanding list of in-store activities, retailers need to target the social channel as a venue for creating real-time connections with consumers and for achieving meaningful improvements in the customer experience management process.