The growth of eCommerce has been exponential, to say the least, in the last few years. While this growth is certainly beneficial for all the stakeholders involved, it also led to a raging war between eCommerce retailers. 

We all can agree that the eCommerce retailer space has become crowded or overcrowded, to put it fairly, making it significantly difficult for retailers to stand out from the competition.

As a result, these retailers are competing for consumer attention and allegiance more than ever before. Naturally, the more customer-centric an eCommerce retailer is, the more likely it is to flourish in this competitive landscape.

This is where social listening comes into play. Social listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing customer conversations on social media. It’s that simple. But how can social listening help an eCommerce retailer? Let’s find out.

If you do not know about customer experience management 

8 Ways Social Listening can help E-commerce Brands

The benefits of social listening for eCommerce retailers are many. We’ve listed out 8 of the top ways social listening can help an eCommerce retailer.

1. Discover New Business Insights Related to Their Niche

The first key benefit of social listening for eCommerce retailers is that it allows them to obtain a better understanding of their specialty. It not only tells you what customers are saying about us but also why they are saying it and in what context.

For instance, if an eCommerce retailer is selling cosmetics, they can use social listening to discover new trends related to their niche, such as the type of skincare tips that are popular with the target demographic, what kind of ingredients they favor, etc.

This way, they can leverage such insights to create products that are well-suited for their target customers and increase the likelihood of a successful sale.

Other use cases of using social insights to discover new business insights include:

• Identify negative sentiment so that the retailer can take appropriate actions to address customer grievances.
• Discover new product/service ideas.
• Identify customer behavior patterns, including purchases, preferences, and interactions with the brand.
• Monitoring competitor activities and keeping an eye on their strategies.
• Uncover the brand perception among customers.
• Identify opportunities for engagement and brand building.
• Tweak/ adjust marketing strategies to better align with customer needs.

By leveraging these insights, eCommerce retailers can gain a better understanding of the industry landscape, customer preferences, and market trends, thereby allowing them to create products and services that better meet the needs of their customers.

An example of using social listening to discover business insights is the popular streaming platform Netflix. The OTT behemoth found out that a large number of its viewers fell asleep while watching their favorite shows. In the meantime, the episodes would continue playing. The viewers woke up several episodes later, which hampered their viewing experience.

Using social insights, Netflix discovered this issue and used that insight to develop a “Sleep Socks” prototype that would sense when the viewers had fallen asleep and pause the episode. They also posted a video tutorial where viewers could make their own socks.

Taking a cue from Netflix, eCommerce players, too, can use social insights to discover trends and behaviors related to their products and services. This way, they can create a better customer experience and build a strong reputation for themselves.

2. Analyze Fellow Ecommerce Competitors

As Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder, rightly said, “The way you treat your users or customers, and how you personally present yourself through social media, is a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.”

Social listening can help eCommerce players better understand their competitors and ensure they stay one step ahead in the competition. They can:

• Monitor their competitors’ activities,
• Analyze customer reviews and ratings of their products/ services,
• Compare prices with their rivals,
• Keep an eye on their marketing strategies and tactics.
• Keep a tab on the positive and negative mentions of competitors, and
• Identify the customer sentiment about the competitors and use it to our advantage.

Read Allbirds’ case study to understand how they used social listening to not only understand their competitors like Goliath Nike but also differentiate their products from theirs and gain an edge in the market.

3. Track Brand Mentions for E-commerce Brands

Nowadays, hashtags and account mentions are an easy way to find out what people think of a brand. Whether it is positive or negative, social listening can help retailers identify these mentions and obtain valuable insights that can be used to make their products better.

Also, with the power of social listening, retailers are immediately aware when their brand name or product is mentioned in any form of conversation. With this, businesses can attend to their customers’ concerns, queries, and issues quickly and efficiently.

In addition, social listening allows retailers to identify customer comments even when they are not tagged. This way, they always stay informed and up-to-date without missing out on any mention.

Many top companies across different sectors are leveraging this powerful tool. Taco Bell, for example, uses social listening to monitor its brand mentions and track conversations across different platforms. 

They respond to customer complaints and feedback quickly, helping them build a strong customer base. Check out this hilarious yet effective way in which the restaurant chain engaged with its customers on Twitter.

4. Discover Negative Reviews of their E-commerce Brand

No matter how hard a business strives for excellence, negative reviews are inevitable. Such feedback is beneficial, as it helps retailers understand their customers’ needs and make improvements in the future.

Social listening can help eCommerce retailers discover negative reviews easily, across multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 This way, any customer dissatisfaction can be addressed quickly, and necessary measures can be taken to avoid similar issues in the future.

Retailers should not take negative comments personally or take them as a sign of failure. Rather, they should use them as an opportunity to grow and become better.

For example, the lingerie company ‘Victoria’s Secret’ launched the ‘The Perfect Body‘ campaign in 2014 for the launch of its ‘Body’ lingerie line. It was, however, met with backlash as it was considered to be promoting negative body image. Users responded with the #IAmPerfect hashtag and launched a petition against the campaign, which nearly 30,000 people signed.

The company used social listening to identify the conversations happening around their campaign and replaced the tagline with ‘A Body for Every Body.’ They listened to their customers and made a positive change. This helped them regain their customers’ trust.

eCommerce retailers, too, can use social listening to identify negative reviews, understand customers’ needs better, and take necessary steps to ensure customer satisfaction. No matter how wrong the situation may look, social listening can help them make it right.

5. Lead Generation for E-commerce

Every business needs to scale and grow. This is where lead generation comes in. Lead generation helps businesses identify potential customers and build relationships with them.

Social listening can help retailers identify new leads through conversations and discussions related to their industry. For example, if an eCommerce retailer is selling apparel, they can use social listening tools to track conversations about their brands or industry by people who are not their current customers. 

They can identify leads who are interested in their products and target them for further engagement.

Not only can retailers use social listening to identify potential customers, but they can also use it to analyze their competitors’ customers. This way, they can target potential leads who are already interested in products similar to theirs.

6. Identify Trends for their Products

Every day, a new trend arises and goes viral. Businesses can leverage social listening to identify trends and incorporate them into their products or marketing campaigns. This can help them stay on top of the trend and reach a larger audience.

Here’s what eCommerce retailers can do to identify trends for their products through social listening:

• Paying attention to the voices of customers, prospective buyers, and target audiences.
• Utilize the knowledge of the competition and their devoted clients to gain an edge in the market.
• Launch their trendspotting social listening campaigns as early as possible.
• Keep an eye on products in their field that aren’t selling to gauge if they begin gaining traction and start trending.
• Analyzing customers into groups to reveal unique patterns in each one.

The cosmetics giant L’Oreal effectively used social listening to identify trends and create new products. In 2011, L’Oreal wanted to develop a new hair color. But they weren’t sure what shade would be popular. 

After looking at conversations on social media, they found that people were talking about ‘Ombre hair’ and decided to create a product that would cater to that trend. They launched the  ‘L’Oreal Feria Wild Ombre’ hair color and it has since become a best-seller.

If you want to know about digital marketing trends in 2023 so read this blog

7. Provide Better Customer Service

Every business is only as good as the customer service it provides. Social listening helps eCommerce retailers provide better customer service by discovering customers’ needs and helping them resolve any issues.

Retailers can use social listening tools to identify customer complaints, queries, and feedback. This helps them understand what their customers want from them, allowing them to take the necessary steps to improve their services. 

They can also use social listening to respond to customer inquiries quickly and efficiently.

Southwest Airlines, the popular American carrier, used social listening to provide better customer service. They discovered that a passenger had tweeted about his negative experience with the airline. The airline promptly responded to the tweet and offered an update. By providing timely customer service, they were able to gain a loyal customer.

Social listening can also be used to identify customer reviews and feedback. Retailers can track conversations about their products, allowing them to identify what customers like and dislike about their products.

This helps them make necessary improvements and ensure customers are satisfied with their services.

8. Identify Influencers

Influencers have become an important part of the marketing landscape. eCommerce retailers can use social listening to identify influencers in their industry and collaborate with them. This helps them raise brand awareness and reach new audiences.

Retailers can use social listening to identify influencers who are already talking about their industry, products, or competitors. This helps them reach out to relevant influencers and create effective campaigns that will boost their sales.

Social listening also helps retailers track the success of their influencer campaigns. It provides valuable insights into how the campaign is performing. This allows them to make the necessary changes and optimize their campaigns for better results.

Learn more about social listening KPI’s

Wrapping Up

For eCommerce retailers, social listening is a valuable tool. It provides them with various advantages, including the ones mentioned above. It gives them important information on their clients as well as their competitors, allowing them to achieve a competitive advantage in the market.

By utilizing social listening tools and strategies, eCommerce retailers can improve customer service, gain valuable insights, identify influencers, and more. Social listening is an invaluable tool that can help retailers succeed and grow their businesses.

Konnect Insights offers a powerful social listening CRM tool that can help eCommerce retailers uncover valuable insights about their customers and competition. Our platform provides real-time analytics and data visualization to help you maximize the impact of your social media campaigns. With Konnect Insights, you can create powerful campaigns that will increase sales and boost customer loyalty.

Contact us today and take your eCommerce business to the next level!