Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, acquired social media firm Kosmix just over a year ago, creating  @WalmartLabs , with the intention to use this specialist R&D unit to define the future of commerce by merging social, mobile and retail. An interesting aspect of this approach is that the app will offer links to other retailers if Walmart do not stock a suggested item in their own stores. Jon Stokes Social commerce Social media tools and technology Big Data BigData recommendations retail 2.0 Social media for retail Walmart WalmartLabsTweet. MORE >>

Burberry, a “digital darling” among luxury brands, recently launched its Autumn/Winter 2012 collection across 10 different social platforms, according to L2.  The brand is not only present and reaching a diverse audience on a variety of platforms; it is showcasing different parts of the collection on specific platforms: Facebook and Twitter have individual images featuring stylized runway looks. Social Media Campaigns Burberry luxury brand retail social media campaignYouTube has a series of short films about the collection. MORE >>

About a week or so back, I came across the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide (top 500 online retailers) and was looking at the areas where Vistaprint ranked. After thumbing through the traditional marketing, I came across the publication’s inaugural list of Retailers with the highest Social Media Impact (full list below). While I thought that Vistaprint has a shot at making the list, I was set aback and proud after seeing that we ranked 27 th on the list, ahead of some mega brands like Nike, Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Crate and Barrel. MORE >>

Now, I would like to follow up on that post as ComScore has recently released their third report: “The Power of Like Europe – How Social Marketing Works for Retail Brands”. As the title of the new report reveals, the focus of this third study is on social marketing for retail brands and how popular consumer brands are making use of Facebook to deliver media impressions at scale and not least drive desired behaviour among key customer segments. This is where the importance of brands creating engaging content comes back into the picture. Key findings. MORE >>

Successful brand managers think differently. The best brands act differently, how? They don't see a one dimensional product to sell, they sell a brand experience. . When Sao Paulo was thinking about how to get people to come to shopping malls.they didn't look at retail management, they thought about what places looked like when people wanted to spend time there. They didn't think about the mall as a retail space , they saw it as a space to create a place people wanted to spend time, a place people wanted to visit. The architect says. MORE >>