Naked Wines ‘most social media-savvy’ wine retailer

Naked Wines delivers the most engaging content to its customers across social media platforms, according to new research into wine retailers’ online activity.

Naked Wines was found by retail marketing company Leapfrogg to have the highest level of social media engagement of 10 wine retailers

The study, conducted retail marketing agency Leapfrogg, analysed 10 UK online wine sellers and clubs, looking at content across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. It also gauged how well audiences interacted with social activity.

Berry Bros & Rudd came second in terms of social media engagement, followed by Virgin Wines in third place. The other seven wine retailers in the study, in order of their levels of social media engagement, were Honest Grapes, Majestic, Yapp Brothers, Oddbins, Laithwaite’s, Lea & Sanderson and Swig.

Engagement levels across the key social media channels which influenced purchasing were scored using analytics tools and qualitative testing,” Leapfrogg said.

Retailers received a score of zero to five for each platform, with five being the highest.

Leapfrogg’s engagement rate scorecard covered user actions such as likes, comments and shares, which were then divided by the number of fans to ensure retailers with different sized audiences could be compared, with the aim of producing unbiased results.

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The report showed that Naked Wines, scored 19 out of a possible 25. The company was found to have an inclusive online presence with “energetic” social media channels.

“It harnesses relationships with members of its customer base, including them in social activity as if they were an extension of the brand’s team,” Leapfrogg reported, pointing out that Naked Wines’ behind-the-scenes content and direct communication with customers helped to “humanise” its social media offering.

Scoring 16 points out of a possible 25, Berry Bros & Rudd, was found to focus most of its attention on Instagram. The retailer was said to use “stylish photography, reflecting its brand image and appealing to followers of artisan crafts and high-end products”.

Leapfrogg added that the company’s in-depth blog posts also feature heavily across its social sites, making up a large proportion of its content. Leapfrogg noted that Berry Bros could improve on other platforms by sharing more user-generated content, helping it to increase posting frequency without the need to generate large volumes of content.

“Wine retailers have historically had an image problem – higher quality brands are often seen as stuffy and inaccessible, while mass-market names fight to be most affordable,” said Rosie Freshwater, MD of Leapfrogg.

“Social media content offers an opportunity to break out of these boxes, create a personality and demonstrate quality, value for money and convenience. Our study found that smaller wine sellers and clubs fared better with social engagement than traditional high street stores.”

Third-placed Virgin Wines was found to adopt a “playful” and “intimate” tone of voice which, coupled with regularly sharing user-generated content, allowed the company to treat followers more as friends than customers.  A big advantage for the brand, which scored 15 out of 25, was access to larger budgets and innovative content. However, its imagery could be perceived as corporate, Leapfrogg said.

Although the top three brands were observed to be very different from each other, Leapfrogg’s research found that the common thread was having a strong understanding of audiences, and highly tailored identities specifically created to appeal directly to those audiences.

Social media has become a vital resource for wine retailers to harness as consumers increasingly look to make their wine purchases online.

As reported in db, research published by Wine Intelligence in April this year revealed that online sales of wine in the UK topped £800 million in 2015, representing nearly 11% of the overall British wine market.

The survey showed that 25% (7.4 million) of the UK’s 29.6 million regular wine drinkers ordered wine on the internet last year, spending £7 per bottle on average.

Leapfrogg’s engagement rate scorecard covered user actions such as likes, comments and shares, which were then divided by the number of fans to ensure retailers with different sized audiences could be compared (Source: Leapfrogg)