Increasingly, retailers and brands in the direct-to-consumer space seem to be understanding the importance of social media. It has established itself as a key part of the retail strategy.

As one of Hootsuite’s 2019 series of social media trends, this report reveals how enterprise organizations within the retail industry are using social media in their marketing strategies. The report also forecasts the five key trends to help you improve your social media strategy and how to get all the tools you need to put them into practice, as well as expert advice, and inspiration from pioneering retailers and the wider business world.

Let’s take a quick glance at the top-line social media trends in 2019

Social Media Trends in 2019: Will the News Feed One Day Be an Endangered Species?

• Stories are now growing 15x faster than feed-based sharing, with 4 out of 5 major brands already using the Stories format.
• 64% of social media users surveyed have either implemented Instagram Stories into their social strategy or plan to do so in the next 12 months.
• The vertical, ephemeral slideshows pioneered by Snapchat are now growing 15 times faster than feed-based sharing.

A Figure Shows the Number of Daily Active Users of Stories Product

Social Media Trends in 2019: The Pay-to-Play Era on Social:

• Marketers are increasing social Ad budgets (up 32% in 2018 alone) and producing more ads than ever before.
• 78% of the survey respondents have either invested in social advertising or plan to do so in the next 12 months.
• 64% identify a decline in organic reach and the need to increase paid Ads budgets moving forward.
• Today, 1 out of four Facebook Pages use paid media, with 58% citing the volatility of Facebook’s algorithm changes as a problem.
• Moreover, Facebook clickthrough rate (CTR) costs have increased by 61% in the last year.

A Figure Shows the Average Facebook Page Post Reach

The Content of “The State of Social Media in Retail Sector, 2019“:

• Executive summary
• Methodology
• Trend 1: Rebuilding trust
  • Brands get human as the circle of trust on social media tightens
• Trend 2: Storifying social
  • Content teams adapt as Stories offer new formats for sharing
• Trend 3: Closing the ads gap
  • More competition on paid social forces marketers to up their game
• Trend 4: Cracking the commerce code
  • Improved social shopping technologies (finally) fuel sales
• Trend 5: The dominance of messaging
  • Customers demand better 1:1 social experiences
• Appendix: Hootsuite 2019 Social Trends Survey

Number of Pages:

• 42 Pages.

Pricing:

• Free.

Methodology:

Data was driven from a survey of 3,255 Hootsuite business customers, from a variety of sectors and ranging from large enterprises to small agencies. The survey was conducted during the third quarter of 2018. The results were supplemented with insights from primary interviews with dozens of industry specialists, besides reports and data from Edelman, Gartner, GlobalWebIndex, Forrester, Econsultancy, Kleiner Perkins, We Are Social, and others.