Walmart, Sears top study of most popular store sites on Facebook

San Mateo, Calif. -- A pair of veteran retailers were among the most popular store sites on Facebook during the 2014 holiday season. Sears was the most popular U.S. department store, while Walmart.com was the most popular mass merchant store site, according to a study by Searchmetrics.



The Searchmetrics study analyzed the number of weekly Facebook likes, comments and shares for pages from the websites of nine top US department stores and three mass merchant stores during November and December 2014.



Walmart was the most popular of the three mass merchant stores analyzed with 40,312,744 Facebook links per week for its web pages during the period. Sears topped the list of department stores with 12,032,546 Facebook links (likes, comments, shares) for its web pages per week, followed by Kohls with 5,209,287 Facebook links per week



“It makes sense retailers are trying to generate social activity and mentions on Facebook as growing evidence shows that consumers are using social media as a key discovery tool for finding information online,” said Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics. “And of course it is a powerful recommendation if consumers see Likes, shares and positive comments about a retailer or its products from their own Facebook friends.”



As an indication of Facebook’s growing power in this area, Tober quoted a recent Forrester study of nearly 5,000 US consumers, which revealed that Facebook came second only to Google as a source for finding information –- ahead of TV ads and TV shows.



Here are more detailed findings from the study:



Top department store websites on Facebook:

1. Sears.com 12,032,546 (Facebook links per week, including likes, comments and shares)

2. Kohls.com 5,209,287

3. Macys.com 2,331,733

4. Nordstrom.com 1,621,226

5. Jcpenney.com 393,934

6. Neimanmarcus.com 260,775

7. Saksfifthavenue.com 187,440

8. Belk.com 39,568

9. Dillards.com 4,405



Top mass merchant store websites on Facebook:



1. Walmart.com 40,312,744 (Facebook links per week, including likes, comments and shares)

2. Target.com 16,505,929

3. Costco.com 5,324,495