Which retailers are best on Facebook?

Facebook can feel like a bit of a popularity contest, and retailers aren’t immune – ChannelAdvisor’s monthly index now pits them against each other in the race for new fans.

Highlighting Tesco and Asos for their clever innovation in technology-related areas can start to feel repetitive but in terms of growth they’re the winners again on this one. In one month (from June to July) Tesco’s Facebook page gathered nearly 90,000 new fans and Asos got nearly 82,000, taking them to 287,000 and 977,000 respectively. Both of these figures have increased further since the index research was done.

Tesco now occupies the number 11 place in the top 25 retailers, measured on how many Facebook fans they have, despite coming to Facebook fairly late – they only joined this year. Early adopter Asos, meanwhile, is number 4. Number one is Topshop with 1.5m fans, followed by New Look and River Island which has just topped 1 million.

Use of competitions, editorial content and soaring sales figures for Asos are behind the continued growth, but ChannelAdvisor is particularly impressed with its use of Instagram, a photo sharing application. Asos is becoming a bit of a publishing powerhouse, based on the logic that inspiring customers helps you sell to them – its use of Instagram is the latest in a long line of clever social and editorial tools that draw customers in and make them want to be a part of the brand.

Kiddicare also saw significant growth in its follower numbers in July. The childcare retailer said earlier this year it wants to develop more of a sense of community around the brand, and this month it saw the largest increase in percentage terms – its fans increased 163% to 6,256 in July, and this figure has already rocketed to nearly 13,000.

With no sales figures from Asos’ Facebook shop available it’s difficult to know if all these fans are leading to sales – but whether or not Facebook ever becomes a serious sales channel, retailers are starting to improve their offer in the social media space and some are producing some admirable marketing.