Just in time for the crucial winter holidays, Wal-Mart Stores Inc aims to recreate the feel of a local store for its more than 9 million Facebook fans.
The world’s largest retailer yesterday announced a partnership with the social networking site that offers Facebook pages specifically tailored for each of its more than 3,500 locations. Those pages are designed to allow its customers to interact with its local stores, as well as get information on new products, events and discount offers.
The partnership marks the first of its kind for a merchant and underscores how companies are using Facebook to develop a deeper relationship with its shoppers by responding quickly to their demands with the goal of increasing sales.
“This allows us to make our stores relevant on a local level,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president of Wal-Mart’s US division, during a media conference call late on Monday. “This addresses our ‘next-generation’ customers who are using a lot of social media. A national message is often not as relevant.”
Quinn said the initiative was in response to its Facebook fans’ requests to see more localized messages, from the latest new TVs and local produce to events like cooking demonstrations.
Wal-Mart eventually wants to be able to personalize offers for its Facebook fans, based on the type of products they “like,” for example, he said.
Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions for Facebook.com, said the partnership with Wal-Mart goes beyond a “simple local tab.”
“This is embedding the social media phenomenon into the core of the offering,” she said.
Wal-Mart and others are increasingly trying to harness the power of Facebook to drive customer counts and revenue.
In April last year, Facebook allowed brands and retailers to use the now ubiquitous “like” button on their Web sites, making it easier to share and connect with friends. Everson said brands are starting to see a measurable sales impact on products that are “liked” on Facebook.
More than 50 percent of active adults on Facebook follow a brand, and there are 100 million “likes” on pages every single day, Everson said.
On average, Facebook users have an average of 130 to 150 friends, who are connected to 8,000 friends, she said.
Separately, Facebook on Monday released an updated version of its iPhone application, one that is also designed to fill out the iPad’s larger screen.
The lack of an iPad app for the world’s most popular social network has confounded users ever since Apple launched its tablet computer a year and a half ago. Third-party developers have made money selling their own apps that show Facebook pages.
“We’re releasing it now because it’s done,” Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor said in an interview on Monday.
Two weeks ago, Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoeyen announced on his personal blog that he was leaving to take a job with Google and that the iPad app he had worked on was nearly complete in May.
It was then “repeatedly delayed through the summer,” he said, without saying why.
Rumors have swirled that Apple and Facebook were in talks about deepening the integration of the social network into the system software of the iPhone and iPad. However, Apple’s updated system software, announced this summer, will feature integration with Twitter, another social networking service, rather than Facebook. That will make it easier to “tweet” from other applications besides Twitter’s.
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