Abercrombie, Gap Have the Lead on Facebook Engagement Among Teen Apparel Companies

If 2011 was all about the emergence of e-commerce and m-commerce (m for mobile) in the apparel industry, we could call 2012 the year of f-commerce for Facebook. Teen apparel companies like Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:ARO), Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO) and Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) are actively trying to engage and build brand loyalty with their target market on the site. As a proxy for these retailers online reach to customers, we take a look at some of the popular metrics below that Facebook provides such as total number of Likes and followers talking about the brand. On these metrics it looks like Abecrombie and Gap have the edge in online engagement via Facebook.

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Popularity on Facebook

We have arrived on our Facebook fan base figures, summing the total number of Likes for each brand of an apparel retailer. For instance, Abercrombie & Fitch fan base includes Facebook fans for Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie Kids, Hollister and Gilly Hicks.

As clear from the above graph, Abercrombie & Fitch is the leader when it comes to popularity on Facebook with over twice the fan base as compared to American Eagle, Aeropostale and Gap. Looking at brands, Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch are the two most popular teen apparel brands on Facebook followed by American Eagle and Aeropostale. The reason we believe this figure is important is that Facebook has started to emerge as a very serious platform for marketing. In the current cyber age, an apparel retailer’s Facebook fan base is a good indicator of its reach among teen shoppers.

Engagement Levels

Engagement levels refer to the number of people currently talking about the company. In different words, if the company is promoting its offerings then what is the level of interest among the Facebook users.

As evident from the graph above, Abercrombie leads the table in terms of engagement levels. Brand wise Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch are the two top most teen brands being talked about, followed by Old Navy and American Eagle. As this number is a dynamic one, we believe it signifies the current popularity of a particular teen retailer.  Say for instance, Number of users talking about currently signifies the popularity of a retailer in holiday season. This may also mean what is the enthusiasm in Facebook users for the current promotions and product offering for that retailer. Going by the chart, we believe Abercrombie is the most popular and Aeropostale is the least popular brand amongst teen shoppers for 2011 holidays.

Percentage of Engagement Levels

While it doesn’t necessary imply that a person talking about a company has to be a fan of that company, we believe the ratio of Number of users talking about by Facebook fan base can fairly estimate the percentage of fans a company is able to entice via its offerings.

As shown by the graph above, Gap is the market leader when it comes to engaging its fans via Facebook followed by Abercrombie and American Eagle. The importance of this figure can be judged by the fact that while Gap may be lacking when it comes to the scale of reach among Facebook users, it is able to engage higher percentage of its fans compared to other teen apparel retailers.

Additionally, the figure can also be a good indicator of what to expect when a company launches a new Facebook store or shipping operations banking on its Facebook strength. We believe in the current scenario Gap and Abercrombie will be able to outperform their peers if they were to launch shipping operations depending on their Facebook fan base.

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