Social Media Marketing

Physical gift-giving site Wantful — a joint venture with Nordstrom — was forced to suspend operations on Monday. Nordstrom and Wantful formed the joint gift venture earlier this year, but Wantful recently lost a planned follow-up investment. Nordstrom put up $100,000 in last-minute cash to help ease the blow to the 16 Wantful employees who would be losing their jobs. "What we didn't accomplish yet, both by circumstance and execution, is the kind of highly accelerated growth required to secure later-stage venture capital, despite the enduing enthusiasm around what we've built," Wantful Founder and CEO John Poisson wrote. 

The data for this list was collected in July of this year by social commerce platform provider 8thBridge. Companies from ROI's 100 Fastest-Growing Retailers’ list were compared. Scores were out of 100 possible points and calculated based on if the brand had a presence on the social platform, how large its following was, how engaged it was with its followers and how engaged people were with the brand. Note: Each brand's Klout score was factored into its overall social score. 

On Aug. 20, J.Crew demonstrated its increasing confidence in the influence of Pinterest by posting a "Style Guide Sneak Peek" of its September fashions. With the move, the retailer showed considerable savvy in stirring waves across the social media waters. Since J.Crew's September apparel didn't go on sale until the next day, its Pinterest board led with the following message: "Just for our friends on Pinterest, an exclusive first look at our September Style Guide. Love what you see? Our Very Personal Stylist team can help you pre-order the looks before they become available on Wed., Aug. 21."

According to Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, the purchase decision-making process is about 70 percent emotional and 30 percent rational. If your brand isn't emotionally connecting with consumers, there's a good chance that you're missing out on a huge number of sales.

You may have noticed over the last few months that when you look at a person's LinkedIn profile, you're asked, "Does ‘Joe Blow’ have skills or expertise?" It's a blue box at the top of your screen, you can't miss it. Or you may have received an email telling you that you've "been endorsed for specific skills." This is a great feature on Linkedin, and here's why:

The potential for Facebook commerce has been a topic of much debate. eMarketer took a close look at this trend in its recent report, "F-Commerce: Evolving, Not Extinct," stating that "nearly every leading online merchant in the U.S. now has a Facebook page. The question is whether retailers can crack the commerce half of social commerce and use Facebook to go beyond awareness and engagement."

J.Crew's at-home catalog subscribers won't be the first to glimpse the brand's September issue: That honor will fall for the first time to J.Crew's Pinterest followers on Monday morning. It's a big

For omnichannel retailer QVC, social shopping isn't so much about the platform consumers are using (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), it's about consumers talking with each other about shopping via word-of-mouth. For example, "I like that shirt, where did you get it?" That's social shopping, according to Alex Miller, the vice president of e-commerce at QVC. Miller was a keynote speaker yesterday at the eTail East conference in Philadelphia.

Expion today announced the results of its first-ever, in-depth F.A.V.E. 50 Social Retail Report, uncovering the first half of 2013 (H1 2013) as the slowest growth period for retailers on Facebook since 2011, marked by a decline in fan engagement and volume despite an increase in the number of brand posts published.  The report analyzed the top 50 retail brands performance in H1 2013, identifying two luxury brands, Tiffany & Co. and Victoria's Secret, as leaders in Facebook engagement across the retail industry.

When it comes to selling luxury via social media, some brands are far more artful than others, according to a new analysis of social-media platforms from L2's latest report. The report ranked some 250 prestige brands across 15 social media platforms. Swarovski is batting a thousand and present on all of them, followed by fast-fashion chain Uniqlo, active on 13.