Benchmarking Christmas and early 2019 trading and social media performance

A number of key retailers have released their financial results following the all-important Q4 and Christmas trading period. We worked with JLL to combine leading retailers' Christmas trading data with their social media ranking, compiled by the patent-pending Maybe* platform.

Some retailers such as John Lewis,  who reported a 1.4% rise in sales year on year, and Next who lay claim to a period boosted by online sales, have done well. Others have struggled.

Among the doom and gloom, there is some optimism, but overwhelmingly the picture being painted is still one of uncertainty and a challenge for the British High Street.

For those businesses who continue to grow, some of their success is attributed to a growing investment in digital and social media.

Deploying social media marketing via the use of influencers on YouTube and Instagram, higher ad spends, and robust customer service delivery via sites such as Twitter and Facebook is now commonplace among the marketing mix.

While retailers continue to invest their marketing activity into publishing content on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, we want to demonstrate what they could learn by listening to the wealth of comments, opinion and feedback published by others in the social space, and how the retailer can use this insight to inform communication strategies and business decisions.

social-media

Through a four-part blog series, we’ve looked at online conversations about Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Next, and Lush to see what we could learn. Specifically, we looked at what might explain why customers behaved the way they did over the festive and sales season.

Our research will allow you to learn from what worked and help you to avoid common mistakes.

To see how your social media performance is faring, sign up to your 30 day free trial of the Maybe* platform to learn what your customers are saying about you online and how you can better target your ads, your approach, and your messages.

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JLL - Christmas Update
JLL - trading update