New Study Finds Socially Engaged Facebook Fans Spend More on Groceries

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Collective Bias, a shopper social media company, released new data today that reveals the relationship between Facebook fans and bottom-line revenue for grocery stores. The results help answer a primary question faced by marketers: can social marketing impact a business' bottom-line?

The recent study looked at the purchasing habits of a large regional grocery chain's 600,000+ loyalty card members before and after they became Facebook fans. It found a direct link between social engagement and sales, demonstrating the integral role social media is playing in today's marketing mix.

The full study conducted by Yeti Data, "Social Engagement and its Impact on a Buyer's Purchases," revealed that a Facebook fan of the retailers spent almost 50% more than a non-Facebook fan over time. Incidentally, this 'customer signal' became stronger over the last three years, instead of weaker, in the face of other social marketing options.

• Facebook fans who posted 10 or more times on the grocer's Facebook page spent over $1000 more annually than a typical customer, 95 percent more than a typical customer;
• Facebook fans who posted 10 or more times on the grocer's Facebook page visited the store 40 more times annually than a typical customer, 2.5 times the visits of a typical customer;
• Facebook fans bought 125 more items than a typical customer, 35 percent more than the typical customer.

"We've intuitively known that an omni-channel marketing strategy is the most effective way to increase sales. This study was conducted to help marketers solve measurability challenges when it comes to social's role in driving sales," said Bill Sussman, CEO of Collective Bias. "Identifying the link between a strong social program and bottom-line revenue helps clients better allocate their future marketing budgets."

"We are thrilled to be able to validate Facebook as a key factor in driving in-store sales," said Victor Szczerba, CEO of Yeti Data. "This gives our customers what they really need: social media with quantified results."

Additional Key Findings:

• A direct relationship between the length of time a customer is a Facebook fan and the average amount he or she spends each week at the grocer;
• Facebook fans visited the store 30 percent more than a typical customer per year;
• A majority of Facebook fans were female, but male Facebook fans visited the store seven percent more often than female fans.

To download the entire whitepaper and learn more about the work being done by Collective Bias, please visit www.collectivebias.com.

About Yeti Data

Yeti Data is a next-generation customer analytics company focused on helping companies understand and engage their customer's journey in today's world of proliferating touch-points from social, digital, and mobile. Yeti Data solves the big, hairy data problem in marketing by putting the customer at the center of everything they do - from the customer journey analytics to the data model. Yeti Data's customer-centric analytic applications enable organizations to analyze, quantify and better respond to their customers' needs.

About Collective Bias

Collective Bias® is the only shopper social media company that solves shopper marketing problems by weaving together organic social content with engaging, real-life stories to generate millions of impressions, increased share of voice, SEO and retail sales for brands and retailers. Top brands such as Tyson, Nestlé and Duane Reade rely on Collective Bias to sell their stories socially. Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, with satellite offices in New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Cincinnati and London, Collective Bias was named one of America's 25 Most Promising Companies by Forbes and a part of the Inc. 5000.

Social Fabric® is Collective Bias' proprietary community of nearly 3,000 shopping-focused influencers with an aggregate multichannel reach in excess of 130 million. For more information, please visit Collectivebias.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact:
Mailena Urso
Collective Bias
[email protected]
479-414-5819

Ben Shannon
SHIFT Communications
[email protected]
617-779-1886

Martyn Crew
Bootstrap Marketing
[email protected]
1.650.394.4749

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SOURCE Collective Bias