Competition Analysis on Social Media

Objective of the Analysis

Review of competing online selling platforms:

• Flipkart

• Tradus

• Infibeam

Comparative Analysis of eBay and its competitors

Our Recommendations

Overview

Objective of the Analysis

eBay is one of the most trusted brands amongst online selling platforms

However there is considerable negative sentiment on the brand on social

media platforms, particularly Facebook

We have undertaken a thorough analysis of competing online selling

platforms with the objective of:

Understanding how do they fare in the social media space

Seeking any learnings that can be applied to eBay

About Flipkart

What is Flipkart?

Set up in 2007 by a bunch of ex - Amazonians as an online book

retailing venture

Their strength lies in their competitive prices backed by prompt

delivery and excellent customer service

Details of Social Media presence:

Strong presence on Facebook with over 2.5 lakh fans

Not active on Twitter and other social media platform

FANPAGE

What makes Flipkart the Leader?

Flipkart has 2,69,695 fans, easily making it the leader amongst online selling platforms on Facebook

Only updates by Flipkart are displayed

Active participation by fans on Facebook

• Flipkart fans are contributing content to the Page

• Fans are constantly giving suggestions on bettering Flipkart

• Fans are proactively interacting on topics related to current affairs

Limited experimentation with Facebook

Nil utilization of tabs on the Fan Page

TABS

Innovative Product Promotion Updates

Product promotions are done in a highly engaging and conversant tone

Leveraging Celeb Power

By innovatively using celebrities as talking points, they engage effectively with fans and encourage interaction

Keeping it current

CONTENT

Use current affairs as talking points to connect to fans, never taking it too far from their main business of books

Frequently seek opinions of fans and acknowledge and respect it

Complaints by Flipkart fans Well there are none!

In fact there is praise being heaped on aspects like service delivery

Integrating social media into official website

• Facebook Fan-box feature is integrated with each product page on the Flipkart site

• Extremely effective method for Facebook Fan acquisition by leveraging the existing huge inflow of traffic to the site

FANPAGE TABS CONTENT OTHERS

What makes Flipkart the Best?The brand has attracted the maximum number of followers because they

have effectively converted website visitors into social media followers

Quality interaction with fans has also led to higher interaction, retention and acquisition

• Talk on the page is not limited to product promotion alone; very effective

integration of current topics that hold fan interest

Constantly seeking customer feedback; also projects them as a brand that cares for its fans’ point of view

Lastly, flawless service delivery has helped them gain the loyalty and love of their consumers, which is freely expressed on Facebook

About TradusWhat is Tradus?

• One-stop online shopping store for established brands

• Offer best price guarantee for a wide range of products – books to

electronics

Details of social media presence:

• Tradus has 32000 fans on Facebook but otherwise very inactive on

other social media platforms

Tradus a distant second to Flipkart on Facebook

With nearly 33,000 fans, Tradus only displays updates from the brand

Fans contributing content to the page

Limited contribution by fans and primarily limited to complaints and queries

Tabs for product promotion

Facebook tabs being used for product promotion and for directing fans to website

Magic Vouchers doing the magic for Tradus!!

Most updates are about product promotion and DealsTradus provides a Daily Voucher only for Facebook and Twitter followers – a key tool for follower acquisition

So how is Tradus doing on Facebook?The number of fans have primarily come in because of the Daily Magic

Discount voucher strategy

Besides the vouchers, very little value being provided to fans

Limited engagement with fans

About Infibeam

What is Infibeam?

• Claims to be one of India’s largest online stores

Details of their social media presence:

• Over 5000 fans on Facebook

• Not active on Twitter or other social media platforms

Infibeam – a late entrant to Facebook

Infibeam is way behind others in terms of number of fans – 5840 only - but is taking aggressive steps on social media

Interaction by Fans on the Page

Fans are not contributing any content on the wall other than complaints and queries

Effective usage of tabs on Facebook

Use of Innovative tabs like Rakhi tab and Books tab

A books tab showcasing the Best books collection

Hot Deals on Tradus fan page akin to eBay

A mix of product promotion and contests

Product promotion updates lack creativityExtremely contest driven strategy being adopted by Infibeam

All contest winners win Discount coupons or vouchers

So how is Infibeam faring on Facebook?

A highly contest driven brand which has managed to garner 5840 fans

Brand is using a mix of Tabs, Contests and product promotion but clear lack

of quality engagement and interaction

Infibeam Tradus Flipkart eBay

Fans 5,695 32,965 2,65,102 21,772

Wall by admin Yes yes yes No

Product Promotion Yes Yes Yes Yes

Facebook Fan-box on site No No Yes No

Fans complaint Yes Yes Yes Yes

spam Yes Yes Yes Yes

Frequent Contest Yes Yes Yes Yes

Updates other than Product Promotion

No No Yes No

Discount Coupon for Fans No Yes No No

Twitter Followers 698 --- 1622 3837

Social Media Comparative AnalysiseBay is the only brand that listens to their fans. We give our fans the freedom to interact and express.Flipkart is leveraging the high number of

impressions they receive daily on their website. A Facebook fan-box along with each deal has helped them achieve the 2.5Lakh fans.

Flipkart is connecting and interacting with their fans. They talk about current affairs in a more conversational tone. Their interaction is not just about product promotion like others.

Tradus provides a daily Magic Discount voucher only for their Facebook and Twitter fans. This has been their major strategy.

Our Recommendations for eBay

• The interaction style needs to be revamped to reflect a far more engaging

stance being adopted by the brand

• Focus needs to shift from a product focused brand to a more consumer

focused brand

• A better process to be followed for customer service on handling spam,

which can be done through separate tabs for both sales & queries

• A closer monitoring required for negative influencers on the page without

suppressing the genuine complaints

Facebook crowd Vs Twitter crowdTwitter Facebook

Number of Users 3895 22000

Stage of followership Initial Stage Growth Stage

Span of control Low Medium

Tone eBay tonality on Twitter is more friendly

eBay tonality on Facebook is transactional.

Different audience types Twitter is a micro blogging site where the crowd is restricted to 140 characters or less.

Facebook crowd is more articulate and it is easy to write negative feedback without much effort.

The initial followers are always the loyal followers. Initial followers on Facebook were also positive and highly loyal

In the growing stage you have both loyal and influenced fans. These influenced fans are the most difficult to handle. These influenced fans don’t

It is always easy to handle when span of control is low.

The increased span of control results in higher spam and negative influencers.

Facebook is a channel used for fun and friendship and therefore the tonality should be more friendly.

It is difficult to articulate negative influence in 140 characters.

eBay a Customer Focused page• Making the page more general and friendly will make it more interactive.

• A proper mix of product and interaction is required, eBay Daily updates

will include:

1) Daily Deal2) GEB & Unique on eBay3) eBay Fun facts4) Celebrity at eBay: We will talk about celebrity in news5) Current Affairs : News of the Day :completely general in nature

Handling Customer queriesCustomer Service

eBay Customer id:

Complaint Category:

Customer email id:

Complaint Details:

SEND

All customer queries will be handled through the customer query tab.Customers enter eBay id and complaint details

Based on the complaint category the query will be mailed to respective departmentCreating a customer query tab will reduce the negative comments on the wall, as all complaints will be deflected to the tab.

This will be only effective if the eBay customer service team is efficient in resolving the customer queries

Sellers tab to handle spamDirect Deals

We will create a separate Direct Deals tab for the sellers.All the sellers will post their eBay products on this tabThis will reduce the spam by the sellers on the wall

eBay fanpage is majorly used as a customer service platform. There is a

major issue with the customer service which is directly getting reflected

on the page. There are highly unsatisfied customers who are being

negative influencers

Some of the common issues are:

•Bad customer service

•Bad courier Service

How to make eBay a loved brand

• Since eBay sells everything, they have maximum competitors of various capacity in each product line. These competitors also are

trying to promote themselves to eBay fans and trying to pitch their products in comparison to eBay

• There are maximum 5 negative influencers on the page but the complaints and negative comments are much larger than this which

and irrespective of these negative influencers. This indicates a need of complete transformation in customer service in order to

become a loved brand

• eBay fanpage is highly transactional and promotion driven. They lack an emotional connect with the customers

How to make eBay a loved brand