SOCIAL MEDIA

STRATEGY
REVIEWS OF
TOP 5
E-COMMERCE
BRANDS

ANALYTICS POWERED BY
AUTHOR PROFILE

APEKSHA HARIHAR
Apeksha Harihar is a digital media journalist with
a strong interest in analytics and strategy. She
analyzes brands and their social media strategies
and provides them with solutions that can help them
derive real business results.
E-commerce brands on Social Media are
largely seen to be product oriented. Their
strategy has been to drive sales through
various content buckets and activities on
Twitter and Facebook. This ebook throws light
on the analysis of the top five e-commerce
brands in India and their strategies in terms
of content, customer service, engagement
and campaign led interactions.

These e-commerce sites have been studied

for a period of 3 months between November
2013- January 2014. The following brands
have been studied:

1. Flipkart
2. Myntra
3. Jabong
4. Homeshop18
5. Snapdeal
STRATEGY REVIEW -

Flipkart, one of the biggest online retailer, is

extremely popular on Social Media. Along
with a series of creative TV commercials, the
e-commerce giant has successfully generated
leads and hugely promoted its products through
social platforms. I am analyzing the brands
performance between 1st August 2013 and
30th November 2013.
Audience Analysis
Flipkart has a young fan following between the age group of 21-40
yrs. 34.7% are below the age of 20, 22.4% are between 21-30 years
and 42.9% are between 31-41 years. 63.4% of these fans are males
while 36.6% are females.

Flipkart on Facebook
With total fans of 2.2 million and only 20K people talking about it,
Flipkart needs to look closely into its content strategy. Flipkart skips
posting on certain days but maintains an average of 2 posts a day. The
content strategy of the brand encompasses creative cover images,
fun festive greetings, interesting content buckets and an attempt to
understand their Facebook audience.

The Cover image space is more often than not used by brands to
showcase product offerings and sales. Flipkart however teaches us
that creatively using this space can be enticing for fans and compel
them to like the brand. It also increases interaction voluntarily by fans.
Another very interesting strategy of the brand is to wish their fans
seasons greetings. Most brands do this but it comes across as a
forced gesture than a proactive activity. Flipkart however takes the
initiative to creative an artistic visual which attracts more traction.
However, there are certain activities that Flipkart can improve upon.
They are currently not making use of any applications. They can
integrate their other profiles through apps.

Recently, Flipkart achieved 2 million fans on its page and ran a content
to gauge audience feedback about its content. This is rare since
brands usually try to gauge their brand image rather than Facebook
content strategy. I find it very interesting that Flipkart took an initiative
to delve deep into fan mindset.
Lastly, they also promote product offerings among various other
creative content. These updates are receiving a good engagement
too.
Flipkart on Twitter

94K+ fans on Twitter gives the e-commerce leader great exposure

among Tweeples to promote its products, increase sales and drive
interaction.

Though the brand does not tweet many updates, it is high on

communication on Twitter. They simply love interacting with their
followers and it shows. These interactions are open ended and try to
establish a personal connect with the brand.
What I find interesting is, this is also the case for customer service.

As mentioned in the Facebook section, Flipkart is proactive when

it comes to seasons and festive greetings. The brand has created
different visual greetings for its Twitter followers on the occasion of
Children’s day, instead of using the same image of Facebook.
They also have various interesting quizzes on Twitter which are
aligned to their brand objectives. These contests are mostly related
to product awareness. Recently, a contest #FergieTime was run and
the prize was a copy of Alex Ferguson’s signed copy.
They also roped in Miss Malini, a famous influencer to run a contest
for them called the Camouflage Quiz.
Flipkart on Pinterest
Flipkart’s presence on Pinterest is almost negligible. Known by @
FlipkartBoards, the brand has only 3 boards, 20 pins and 59 followers.
Even though they have not began their full fledged marketing on this
platform, I like the 3 boards and the brand is on the right track.

For instance the board, ‘Authors who said Hello’ is about an event
which saw the gathering of many authors. The board depicts in
pictures the different authors that attended the event.

Flipkart on YouTube
Creativity is at top with every marketing communication Flipkart
executes. The Youtube channel name, MrFlipkart is worth a mention
too. The channel has over 2000 subscribers and 1.7 million views.
Though most videos are ads, 1 video caught my interest.

<Video Embed> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brin8knbqsc

Flipkart does not take part in the discussion forum but does reply to
comments on videos. Unfortunately, it only copy pastes, 1 remark on
most comments.
Online Buzz
Flipkart has a total of 134095 mentions online through various portals.
A whopping 77.77% positive sentiment is doing the rounds online.
This does not come across as a surprise owing to the wonderful
conversations the brand is having online.

On Twitter, the brand receives the highest number of mentions. It has

an average of 1000 mentions in a day in form of tweets, retweets and
replies.
Followed by Twitter, Facebook and
Google+ contribute to the online
buzz. Facebook has average of
45+ mentions per day and a total
of 4139 mentions in 3 months.
Google+ has the least number of
mentions which is 1228 in the last
3 months.
Service Feedback
408 complaints are recorded according to the tool for the brand on
various networks. 684 reviews have been posted while 183 images
have been shared. 1227 videos have been shared related to the
brand. Most number of conversations have been on Twitter and
Facebook.

I would also like to segregate the kind of conversations Flipkart is

having on Social Media. In the last 3 months, the ecommerce brand
has having maximum conversations regarding shipping, return,
pricing, sales etc.

The maximum conversation for any ecommerce brand would be

regarding shipping and Flipkart has 10,680 mentions related to
shipping & packaging.
Next in line is sales with the second highest mentions of 8,272 topics
related to sales. 3,282 mentions of return and replacement is third
highest. Remaining conversations are besieged with images, pricing,
website and payment related talks.

Sentiment
Flipkart’s sentiment is clearly very positive online. This is definite
because the brand does not try to suppress negative comments or
ignore usual conversation. It strives to communicate with fans and
followers as much as possible, maintaining a very friendly tone.

77.8% mentions are positive as opposed to only 22.2% negative

comments.
Shipping and Packaging tops the list where 74% are positive
sentiments while 26% are negative. Next is Sales with 58.5% are
positive and 41.5% negative sentiments.
Trend Analysis

The overall mentions of Flipkart reached its peak in the month of

December 2013. As compared to November and January, it had
over 64K mentions in December 2013.

This is because the stakeholder and news mentions went up during

this month too. Since Flipkart ran its Christmas contest #KartofJoy,
end of the month, it spiked the mentions. January too has over 57K
mentions but unlike December it has not run a contest end of month,
hence the difference.
Since the brand spiked its mentions because of a campaign, it is also
necessary to track whether these mentions made a difference in the
sentiment of the brand. And it clearly shows that while the negative
sentiment remains almost same in the last 3 months, in the month of
December particularly, the positive sentiment has grown almost by
double in the previous month.
Conclusion

Overall, Flipkart’s Social Media Strategy is great but needs minor

alterations. Some suggestions:

-Should try and be more regular on Facebook in terms of posting

content.
-Can post more tweets on Twitter other than the usual sales tweets.
-Needs to work on Pinterest content strategy, probably by integrating
Instagram photos of their products, office, shipments etc.
-Needs to put up more innovative and exclusive content on Youtube.
STRATEGY REVIEW -

Myntra.com has been a popular e commerce

website on social media. Its social media strategy
has been to promote products, run various
interactive contests and use the micro blogging
platform for customer service. It has a sizable
community on 5 major platforms i.e. Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Google+.
Audience Analysis

Myntra has most number of posts updated between the age group
21-30. 166 posts have been posted by this age group while only 5%
of the posts are below the age of 20. 72.2% of these fans are males
while only 27.8% are females.

Myntra on Facebook

The Myntra Facebook Page is 1.7 million strong and among the few
eCommerce brands which has more than a million members in their
community.

Apart from the month of January, the brand has been inconsistent in its
approach to post daily updates. In the months of October, November
and December, the brand has skipped several days together too.
However, on an average Myntra posts upto 2-3 updates.
Myntra has been promoting its #ShoptheHangout on Facebook
which is a Hangout with Hrithik Roshan. Such innovative activities
have stood out for Myntra.
The usual updates revolve around sales and discounts, product
promotions and properties such as Brand of the Week and Style
Mint links.
Though there is a huge community size, the interaction received on
each post is not much. From time to time the site makes use of
applications for running contests. Currently there is an application
of a contest which is over but the brand has not updated the
applications. It portrays a negative attitude if subscription renewal
notices are visible.
Myntra on Twitter
Myntra has a total of over 20K+ followers on Twitter. The brand
posted 103 replies, got 103 retweets and posted 386 tweets in the
last 3 months. Myntra’s Twitter content strategy is
similar to Facebook but there is a lot
more on Twitter than mere product
updates. The handle accepts and
responds to a lot of customer
queries. Unlike many brands, the
customer support team of Myntra is
doing a fabulous job on Twitter.The
tone of these representatives remains
friendly and patient. Though the
brand does not tweet many updates,
it mainly uses the microblogging site
for conversations. They simply love
interacting with their followers and it
shows.
Like Flipkart, Myntra too is proactive when it comes to seasons and
festive greetings. They also have various interesting quizzes on Twitter
which are aligned to their brand objectives.
Online Buzz
Myntra has a total of 203146 mentions online across various portals.
81.8% sentiments out of these mentions are positive while only
18.9% are negative. Myntra has been successful in reserving a good
online reputation.

Out of most platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are most

dominant on conversations and brand mentions. While 77.3% of the
mentions are made on Twitter, only 20.4% of it is contributed by
Facebook and 2.3% by Google+. On Twitter, Myntra received 39K+
mentions in the last 3 months and 10K+ mentions on Facebook.
Though its received only 1K+ mentions on Google+, it is still counted
better than many.
Service Feedback
67 complaints are recorded according to the tool for the brand on
various networks. 40 reviews have been posted while 589 news
related content has been posted about the brand. Most number of
conversations have been on Twitter followed by Facebook.

I would also like to segregate the kind of conversations Myntra is

having on Social Media. In the last 3 months, the ecommerce brand
has having maximum conversations about shipping and packaging
followed by sales and the website in that order.

The maximum conversation for any ecommerce brand would be

regarding shipping and Myntra has 4,415 mentions related to shipping
& packaging. This is half of what Flipkart received.
Next in line is sales with the second highest mentions of 3,229
posts. 1,609 mentions of the website is third highest. Remaining
conversations are about image, pricing, customer service and return
and replacement.

Most of Myntra’s users who have posted on the page are from Mumbai
which accounts to a total of 32.3% while Delhi is second on the list
with 23.1% posts. Bangalore stands very close to Delhi with 18.8%
posts. Less than 10% posts are posted by users from Kolkata, Pune,
Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Gurgaon in that order.
Sentiment

Myntra’s sentiment is largely positive online. The brand has maximum

conversations on Twitter and this is the reason why negative sentiments
are fading overtime. Brands must converse on a regular basis to do
away with negativity gradually.

86.9% mentions are positive as opposed to only 13.09% negative

comments.
Users have largely expressed their sentiments on shipping and
packaging, sales, pricing, images, website, customer service, return
and replacement and payment. Shipping and Packaging is on top
of the list where 71.4% are positive sentiments while 28.6% are
negative. Sales has a more or less balanced sentiment where 56.3%
are positive and 43.7% are negative.

The website has a positive sentiment of 61.3% and only 38.7%

negative. A very negative sentiment is hovering on social sites
regarding pricing where 51.8% users are talking negatively. Myntra
should be concerned about this since these talks can be damaging
to the brand reputation.
Trend Analysis
The overall mentions of Myntra reached its peak in the month of
December 2013. As compared to November and January, it almost
had 24K mentions.
Myntra had a mega sale which it promoted on Twitter in the month
of December with the hash-tag #MyntraMegaSale. This is the reason
why its mentions went up since many users tweeted about it.

Myntra has a fantastic job on customer service support on social

media and it shows through its positive sentiment analysis. The brand
has managed to get a lot more positive mentions in the month of
December by running a campaign.
Conclusion

Overall, Myntra’s Social Media Strategy is great but needs minor

alterations. Some suggestions:

-Should try and move from product oriented content on Facebook.

-Can add up more content on Youtube channel and share it on social
profiles.
STRATEGY REVIEW -

Jabong.com, an online retail website and

is more oriented to fashion and lifestyle. It is
popular among youth and has a sizeable
community on both Facebook and Twitter. With
close to 2 million followers on Facebook and
30K followers on Twitter, the brand is strong on
content.
Audience Analysis

Jabong has most number of posts updated below the age group 20
and only 23% of the posts are posted by users between the age of
21-30. This is also because the brand does not allow user posting
on its wall on Facebook hence such less figures. There have been
no posts made by users above the age of 31. 62% of these fans are
males while only 38% are females.

Jabong On Facebook
The Jabong Facebook Page is 1.9 million strong and has more fan
following than Myntra.

Apart from the month of January, the brand has been inconsistent in
its approach to post daily updates. Between 1st and 17th November,
the brand did not post a single update. In the months of October
and December too the brand has skipped several days together.
However, on an average Jabong has been posting upto 2-3 updates
per day.
Jabong is purely a product oriented brand and its communication
clearly conveys so. Most of the updates are images of products and
a link to the same on the website.

Apart from the usual updates,

in the month of October,
the brand came up with a
campaign #PatakhaFamily
which was to promote its
Diwali offerings. It created
some fun designs and
characters and this received
a good engagement.
The interactions received on the above posts were far more than
what the brand usually receives. This could also be due to promoting
the post but the audience clearly liked it and that’s the reason why it
has been appreciated and shared. Once in a while, Jabong also gets
social and has shared an image of their customer order.
Jabong has a lot of applications too. Support, Polls and various
contests make part of the application tabs on their Facebook page.

Jabong On Twitter
Myntra has a total of over 27K+ followers on Twitter. The brand posted
70 replies, got 679 retweets and and posted 92 tweets in the last 3
months.

Jabong has similar content

on Twitter when compared
to Facebook. However other
than customer service there
is nothing new on their Twitter
handle. Though there are
occasional topical posts, most
of the tweets are product
oriented.

Apart from this, many users have posted positive comments about
Jabong’s customer support service. However, those posting negative
comments occasionally get a reply.
It hosts a lot of contests on its Twitter handle which are aimed at
increasing product awareness and followers. It recently launched a
contest #NameItWinIt.
Online Buzz
Out of most platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are most
dominant on conversations and brand mentions. While 56.9% of the
mentions are made on Twitter which is maximum only 37.3% of it is
contributed by Facebook and only 5.8% by Google+.

On Twitter, Jabong has received over 54K+ mentions in the last 3

months and 16K+ mentions on Facebook. Though it’s received only
2K+ mentions on Google+, it is still double the mentions Myntra has
received.
Service Feedback
117 complaints are recorded according to the tool for the brand on
various networks. 138 reviews have been posted while 346 news
related content has been posted about the brand. Most number of
conversations have been on Twitter closely followed by Facebook.
In the last 3 months Jabong is having maximum conversations about
shipping and packaging followed by sales and the website in that
order.

The maximum conversation for any ecommerce brand would be

regarding shipping and Myntra has 2,468 mentions related to shipping
& packaging. This is half of what Myntra received.

Next in line is sales with the second highest mentions of 1,671

posts. Only 547 mentions of the website were recorded. Remaining
conversations are about image, pricing, customer service and return
and replacement.
Most of Jabong’s users who have posted on the page are from Gurgaon
which accounts to a total of 38.3% while Mumbai is second on the
list with 19.1% posts. Delhi stands very close to Mumbai with 15.6%
posts and Bangalore with 11.4%. Less than 10% posts are posted
by users from Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and
Jaipur in that order.

Sentiment
Jabong’s sentiment is largely positive online. While 5633 posts have
positive sentiments only 853 posts have negative sentiment. The
brand must converse on a regular basis on Twitter and open their
Facebook wall for conversation to do away with negativity gradually.
Users have largely expressed their sentiments on sales, shipping
and packaging, image, payment, website, customer service, pricing
and return and replacement. Sales is on top of the list where 78.1%
are positive sentiments while 21.9% are negative. Shipping and
packaging too has more positive sentiment of 69.8% and negative
sentiment of 30.2%.

Images on the other hand have a largely negative sentiment of 91.9%

and positive sentiment of 8.1%. This is way too negative and the
brand must look into this closely. Pricing sentiment is balanced at
50% each.
Trend Analysis
The overall mentions of Jabong reached its peak in the month of
December 2013. As compared to November and January, it had
over 9K mentions in December 2013.
This is also because brand and stakeholder mentions went up during
this month too. Like Flipkart, Jabong too ran a year end contest
#TwitterResolutions and the hash-tag was even trending long enough
to give the brand a spike in mentions.

Jabong managed to change its positive sentiment numbers by

double as compared to previous month. Though there is a little rise in
negative sentiment too, but what matters is the positive buzz about
the site on the web.
Conclusion
Overall, Jabong need to improve its Social Media Strategy. Some
suggestions:

-Should try and move from product oriented content on Facebook

and become more conversational.
-Should open the page for user posting and take feedbacks.
-Should reply to customers on Twitter more frequently and effectively.
 STRATEGY REVIEW -

Homeshop18 is a popular e-commerce

website and has been giving tough competition
to Myntra, Flipkart and Jabong. The website
has been executing interesting social media
activities that fall in line with brand objectives.
These activities are definitely more creative and
innovative unline its retail counterparts.
Audience Analysis
Homeshop18 has most number of posts updated between by the
age group 21-30. 65.8% of the total fans are males while only 34.2%
are females.

Homeshop 18 on Facebook
The Homeshop18 Facebook Page is 1.1 million strong. However
only a little of 30K fans are talking about the brand.

The brand has been maintaining about 4-5 posts per day on an
average in the month of January. However, in October and November,
it has taken the leverage of skipping consecutive days. In the month
of October especially, the brand made very less effort with only 11
posts in the entire month.

Homeshop18 recently launched the Micromax canvas exclusively

on its website. To promote the launch it used both Facebook and
Twitter. On Facebook, it refrained from using the hash-tag that was
made on Twitter.
Most of its usual updates are
about products. There are
very few interactive posts
which are actually doing
pretty well but the brand
does not seem to realize its
importance. For instance
the post below has received
a huge interaction in form
of shares and comments.
However, in the last 3 months
I have only seen 1 such post.

Though there is a huge

community size, the
interaction received on each
post is not much because
most of the posts are product
oriented.
In terms of applications,
the brand connects
its users to other
platforms by linking
each within its tabs.
The branding and
the colors are also
consistent. Apart from
this, not many creative
applications are
present on the page
currently.
Homeshop 18 on Twitter
Homeshop18 has a total of over 22K+ followers on Twitter. The brand
posted 27 replies, received 139 retweets and made 114 tweets in
the last 3 months
Homeshop18 has a mix of
product oriented tweets,
contests and customer
service support on its
twitter handle. It ran a fun
activity on Republic Day
to promote its sale using
hash-tag #RightTo. It’s a
fun topical content that
the brand generated and
many users participated.

Also with its recent launch of Micromax Canvas which was exclusive
to the site, the brand had run a content with #OnlyonHS18 which
received a lot of online eyeballs too.

Apart from this the regular customer service of Homeshop18 is far

better than other ecommerce sites.
Online Buzz
Out of most platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are most
dominant on conversations and brand mentions. While 73.5% of the
mentions are made on Twitter, only 24.1% of it is contributed by
Facebook and 2.4% by Google+. On Twitter, Myntra received 61K+
mentions in the last 3 months and 20K+ mentions on Facebook. It
received only 2K+ mentions on Google+.
Service Feedback
306 complaints are recorded according to the tool for the brand on
various networks. Over 1K mentions are on classified websites while
1800 blog posts are about the brand. Also, 195 reviews, 299 news
articles and over 2K+ forum mentions are present. Most number of
conversations have been on Twitter followed by Facebook.
I would also like to segregate the kind of conversations Homeshop18
is having on Social Media. In the last 3 months, the ecommerce brand
is having maximum conversations about shipping and packaging
followed by website and sales in that order.

The maximum conversation for any ecommerce brand would be

regarding shipping and Homeshop18 has 2,849 mentions related to
shipping & packaging.

Next in line is website with the second highest mentions of 1,610 posts.
1,329 mentions of sales is third highest. Remaining conversations are
about image, pricing, customer service and return and replacement.

Most of Homeshop18 users who have posted on the page are from
Mumbai which accounts to a total of 43% while Delhi is second on
the list with 20.6% posts. Bangalore stands very close to Delhi with
10.8% posts. Chennai, Pune and Kolkata are similar with 7.3%, 5.9%
and 5.1% posts.
Sentiment
Homeshop18’s sentiment is largely positive online. 81.2% mentions
are positive as opposed to only 18.8% negative comments.
Users have largely expressed their sentiments on shipping and
packaging, sales, pricing, images, website, customer service, return
and replacement and payment. Shipping and Packaging is on top of
the list where 45.9% are positive sentiments while 54.1% are negative.
This is probably not very good for the brand since shipping and
packaging is a major metric while measuring success of ecommerce
sites. A equivalent negative sentiment might hurt brand reputation.

Sales has 35% negative sentiment and 65% positive sentiment. The
pricing conversations have a good 72.5% positive sentiments while
customer service on the other hand has 70% negative sentiments.
Return and Replacement too has 73.3% negative sentiment. This
could be alarming for the brand.

Trend Analysis

The overall mentions of Homeshop18 reached its peak in the month

of January 2014. As compared to November and December, the
brand mentions are rising month on month.
This is also because the stakeholder and news mentions are going
up in proportion. The brand has picked up activities and campaigns
within the last few months and hence the difference. When brands
begin conversing actively, their mentions are bound to go up.
Campaigns have a direct effect on positive and negative sentiments
too. As the mentions rise, whether or not they are positive is also an
important metric to track. Homeshop18 has a much higher positive
sentiment than previous months due to the spike in mentions and
the negative sentiment has also gone down.

Conclusion
Overall, Homeshop18’s Social Media Strategy is good but needs
corrective measures. Some suggestions:

-Should try and post more fun things that welcome interaction on
Facebook.
-Should be more regular with campaigns and try to launch integrated
campaigns.
-Should have a faster customer service on Twitter.
STRATEGY REVIEW -

Snapdeal which earlier started as a deals

oriented website and soon capitalized on its
popularity to launch a full-fledged online store,
is strong on social media. Lets have a look at
how the brand is doing on various websites and
its overall conversations on the web.
Audience analysis
Snapdeal has most number of posts updated between the age
group 21-30. 328 posts have been posted by this age group while
only 3.2% of the posts are posted by those below the age of 20 and
0.9% between age-group 31-41. 63% of these fans are males and
37% are females.

Snapdeal on Facebook
The Snapdeal Facebook Page is 1.8 million strong and abour 28K+
users talking about the page.

Snapdeal is very inconsistent with its post updates. A brand should

post atleast 2updates daily to let their fans know whats happening
and stay connected with them.

Snapdeal again like all others is excessively product oriented. Most

of the updates are linked back to the website in an urge for people to
buy the products. However, these posts receive far less interaction
than those which are interactive.
Mostly Snapdeal promotes its offers on the website through its
Facebook page.
Currently, its running a Facebook contest where users are being
offered 100% off on a weekly basis. A suggestion could be to tag
the winners since the Facebook id is known. This will also be shared
and spread since the user has won something.

One piece of content which

generated a good amount of
shares and likes was a different
attempt by the brand. Did you
Know is all about fun facts which
ofcourse users love to read and
share. Unfortunately, Snapdeal
has not posted similar content
before or after this.
 Even with applications,
the brand has Google+
and Youtube channel
integrated with
Facebook but nothing
innovative or inspiring
at the moment. During
Christmas the brand
had created a Santa
Wish application but
it does not open and
the brand has not
removed it either.

Snapdeal on Twitter
Myntra has a total of over 26K+ followers on Twitter. It also has city
specific Twitter handles. The brand posted 22 82 replies, got 233
retweets and posted 169 tweets in the last 3 months.

On Twitter, the same content bucket

is being used as Facebook along with
some additional tweets which mainly
are motivational quotes. This does not
fit anywhere in the marketing strategy
of an ecommerce brand but the brand
continues to post them. Seems like
Twitter is in the hands of an intern.
As if motivational quotes were not enough, the brand is also
enlightening its followers with diet facts.

Very Few
interactive tweets
are being made by
the brand. Among
these are asking
people what their
product choices
are. These kind of
tweets definitely
fall in line with
brand strategy
as it helps a retail
site understand
c u s t o m e r
preferences and
behavior.
Online Buzz
Out of most platforms, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are most
dominant on conversations and brand mentions. While 64.7% of the
mentions are made on Twitter, 32.1% of it is contributed by Facebook
and 3.3% by Google+. On Twitter, Snapdeal received 42K+ mentions
in the last 3 months and 20K+ mentions on Facebook and 2K+
mentions on Google+.
Service Feedback
A staggering 865 complaints were recorded according to the tool
for the brand on various networks. Over 1K news mentions, 529
reviews, over 3K classifieds and 5K+ blogs mentioned Snapdeal.
Though there were lots of mentions as opposed to other websites,
most number of conversations still remained on Twitter followed by
Facebook.
I would also like to segregate the kind of conversations Myntra is
having on Social Media. In the last 3 months, the ecommerce brand
has having maximum conversations about shipping and packaging
followed by sales,website and customer service in that order.

The maximum conversation for any ecommerce brand would be

regarding shipping and Snapdeal has over 12K mentions related
to shipping & packaging. Not many have as many mentions about
customer service as Snapdeal which is over 2K.

Next in line is sales with the second highest mentions of 5,445 posts.
2, 964 mentions of the website is third highest and close enough is
customer service with 2,145 mentions. Remaining conversations are
about image, pricing and return and replacement.
Most of Snapdeal’s users who have posted on the page are from
Mumbai which accounts to a total of 36.2% while Delhi is second
on the list with 24.2% posts. Bangalore stands very close to Delhi
with 13.5% posts. Less than 10% posts are posted by users from
Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Pune
and Chennai.

Sentiment
Snapdeal is bordering on crossing more negative sentiment online
unlike its counterparts who largely have a positive sentiment. 58.6%
mentions are positive as opposed to 41.4% negative comments.
People have poured in with all the disappointment on Facebook too.
The brands Facebook page is full of complaints.

Users have largely

expressed their
sentiments on shipping
and packaging, sales,
pricing, images, website,
customer service, return
and replacement and
payment. Shipping and
Packaging is on top of
the list where 44.4% are
positive sentiments while
55.6% are negative.
Pricing too has a largely
negative sentiment with
81.3%. Sales has a
more or less balanced
sentiment where 52.2%
are positive and 47.8%
are negative.
Trend Analysis
The overall mentions of Snapdeal reached its peak in the month of
November 2013. As compared to December and January, it had
over 40K mentions in November 2013.
Snapdeal executed a contest #WinATabOnSnapdeal, which
was also trending on the No. 1 spot, as well as the Snapdeal
#SnapdealNokiaSpeedChallenge in the month of November.
Needless to say, brand mentions always rise when the accounts are
buzzing with campaigns and activities.

Snapdeal has a volatile sentiment on Social Media. Even though

they have run some good campaigns, and the mentions have also
gone up, it could be a alarming situation for the brand. This is purely
because out of 20K+ mentions which is the highest among all brands,
Snapdeal’s negative mentions are almost equivalent to the positive
ones.
Conclusion
Snapdeal needs a social media makeover owing to its bad online
reputation.

-Should try and be more innovative on Facebook.

-Should have a different content strategy for Twitter
-Should try and build a team of customer care representatives on
both Facebook and Twitter.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TOP 5
E-COMMERCE BRANDS

After analyzing individual brands, I will now go

ahead with a few comparisons that you might
find useful to read. Among Flipkart, Snapdeal,
Jabong, Myntra and Homeshop18, there are
lots of variations in terms of the number of
posts, sentiment, features distribution and
mentions.
Number of Posts
In the month of November, Snapdeal had the highest number of
posts followed by Jabong. The reason is probably quite clear. The
trend analysis showed that Snapdeal ran 2 contests in November,
hence the lead. Snapdeal’s number of posts, 500 was the highest in
all 3 months among all brands.
Source of Posts

There are various sources such as blogs, complaints, microblogs,

news, reviews, social networks and video sharing. Microblogs are
the highest source of mentions for all brands followed by social
networks. Myntra received the highest number of mentions which
is 71.6% from microblogs. On the other hand, Jabong received the
highest mentions from Social Networks which is 40.4%.

A stark difference between Flipkart and other brands is the source

of Reviews. While Flipkart gets 8.4% mentions from reviews, other
brands receive below0.5%.
Features Distribution
As mentioned earlier, most brands receive maximum mentions about
shipping and packaging since they are e-commerce brands. Snapdeal
leads the mentions by 43.3%. This is followed by sales mentions and
Myntra receives 30.5% of it.
Sentiment
The sentiment among all brands is largely positive except Snapdeal.
Snapdeal has only 58.6% positive sentiment while Jabong has the
highest at 87.2, closely followed by Myntra at 86.2%. Most brands
have negative sentiment in the range of 12-18%. However, Snapdeal
has a staggering 41.4% negative sentiment.
CONCLUSION

Brands must realize the importance of

tracking their mentions, sources and
sentiment. They can change plan their
activities and drive more buzz online if
they know what is exactly going on in the
online space. Also, realizing the important
of customer service, responding swiftly
can affect all these areas.
EXPERT OPINION

Ecommerce giants are all over Social Media and their

experimentation with strategies has resulted in a pile of
fans and followers. Possibly most of these ecommerce
websites have been promoting their products directly on
social media and have been using paid methods to increase
their fan following. Though this is not wrong in anyway,
they should revise their strategies to build engagement.

Websites like Homeshop18 who are using Twitter for

Customer Support are doing it right. There are no two
ways about the fact that online businesses should build
an online strategy to tackle customer service. This will not
only elevate the brand reputation but also be helpful in
building an effective reach among online user community.

Flipkart has an upperhand over other websites when it

comes to executing innovative campaigns. The content
is also well thought out and planned coupled with
professional designs.

Much was expected from Myntra considering it being

a leading website. However, the site is plainly product
oriented and not interested in exploring the opportunities
that social media has to offer.

Jabong has been fairing well on Facebook and Twitter,

churning out original content. However if the brand
maintains consistency, it will augment the brand presence
on these platforms.
Homeshop18 has launched interesting campaigns in the
past couple of months as a part of their product launch.
Their customer support strategy as I mentioned above is
commendable. Having said that, the brand should also
focus on regular content updates and daily interactions
too.

Snapdeal could easily damage its image on social media

if it does not immediately take measures to revamp its
strategy or rather make one. Being excessively product
oriented has not helped any brand and relying on this is
Snapdeal’s biggest mistake. Looking at the high negative
sentiment of the brand among users, it is safe to say that
Snapdeal must consider rebranding on social media.

Ecommerce websites should begin looking beyond

promotions of products and try to engage their fans
with effective indirect marketing techniques. Building a
Customer support team should be priority for these brand
managers. Apart from campaigns and customer support
my third and last suggestion would be to try and capitalize
on Youtube and Pinterest too.

Expert View by Rajiv Dingra

Founder & CEO of WATConsult – An Award Winning Digital &
Social Media Agency.
ANALYTICS POWERED BY A

PUBLICATION