Study: Nordstrom has a ‘superior’ social media IQ

Seattle – Nordstrom came out on top in a study that ranked the social media performance of department stores by digital marketing analytics company Rival IQ. The Rival Results Index (RRI) for High-end Department Stores scored 12 department stores based on their social media performance during first quarter 2015. Macy’s followed Nordstrom in the overall rankings, with Harrods (London), Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman rounding out the top five.



Of the department stores evaluated, Nordstrom was the only one to achieve the top honor, called the Superior Social IQ, achieving the maximum score of five in six of the eight categories surveyed, for a total score of 35 out of 40. (The categories studied included social presence, social audience, social total engagement, average engagement rates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and top social content across the three platforms.) Macy’s was next, with a total score of 30.



The study revealed that while all the evaluated department stores are active on social media, nearly all of them are missing the boat when it comes best practices and the full viral benefit of social channels. For example, none of the retailers connected a social media presence with an e-commerce store, and activity was inconsistent across multiple social channels. The stores also missed cross-promotion with product or partner brands on social media, thereby missing the potential influence and extended reach of those brands.



In other findings:



• One of the biggest surprises revealed in the study was the retailers’ low level of engagement on Twitter and Facebook. While most of the stores were active tweeters on a daily basis and had millions of followers, the highest engagement rate achieved was 0.33 by Lord & Taylor. Nearly all other stores had engagement rates of less than 0.10, meaning less than one follower out of every 10,000 is retweeting or favoriting a tweet. By comparison, a business-to-consumer (B2C) company on Twitter should target an engagement rate of at least .50, according to the study.



• The retailers achieved the strongest engagement on Instagram, which is typical of fashion-related companies, according to Rival IQ. Harrods outscored all other stores with an Instagram engagement rate of over 30, followed by Nordstrom with 17.81. The industry average for B2C companies is approximately 20.