IRISH RETAILERS HAVE been told that should get rid of their individual apps and focus on developing their social media presence in an effort to win new shoppers.
That is according to a new survey of 1,000 Irish shoppers from accounting firm PwC. The study, carried out between autumn and winter 2016, found that a quarter of Irish consumers said that they shop online at least weekly.
This was well behind our nearest neighbour, the UK, where almost half of people shop online on a weekly basis. Ireland was also behind countries such as China, where almost three-quarters shop online every week.
In-store shopping is by far the most popular way to shop in Ireland. Some two fifths of Irish respondents said that they shopped in-store at least once a week.
The company said that a likely cause of this is the fact some of the major Irish grocery retailers don’t have a decent web presence.
“Of the large grocery players, only Super Valu and Tesco currently offer an online grocery shopping service in Ireland, it is hardly surprising that consumer adoption levels are relatively low,” it said.
Social media
However, among people who do shop online regularly, the report found “the importance of social media to inspire shopping trends is clear”.
Over a third of Irish respondents use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to find inspiration for their purchases. This figure rises to 50% for 18-34 year-olds.
Some 40% of consumers also said that interaction with their favourite brand on social media led to more spending.
However, the survey also found that customers are less inclined to use a retailer’s app.
“App usage is declining as mobile users tire of loading up with multiple apps they just use a few times,” it said.
“Less than one in ten of Irish shoppers use mobile apps to find inspiration for their purchases.”
PwC said that companies should identify “brand advocates, who have considerable reach (in terms of followers or friends) and will endorse your brand”.
“Given that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat can reach up to 2.5 billion people, brand advocates can interact instantly with an audience that is much larger than the population of Ireland,” it said.
Website
Alongside social media, the study also found that companies could better use their time and resources by investing in their own websites.
Owen McFeely, a senior manager at PwC Ireland Retail, said that consumers “thirst for authentic information they can find at their fingertips, what are their friends doing and which brands are hot on social media”.
“Given such high levels of engagement, investment in social media strategy should prove profitable,” he said.
He added: “At the same time, nearly half of Irish respondents reported that the individual retailer website is the most popular online source for inspiring purchases. This is a warning to Irish retailers not to ignore their website at the expense of social media.”
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
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