Retailers eager to get personal

As shoppers recover from holiday spending, retailers have devious plans to entice us back into stores. They play on our love of social media, our cell phones and our suspicion that we're undiscovered fashion designers.

Case in point: A new pair of running shoes is nice. But some companies have built elaborate online systems that let shoppers design their own shoes - down to the color of the soles, laces and stitching.

Retailer Wet Seal encourages teens to mix and match fashions on their cell phones, then compare the looks with nearby teens based on GPS data.

And when sending out the best discounts, Toys R Us, Wet Seal, Ann Taylor, Stein Mart and dozens of other shops give preference to their "friends" on Facebook.

Though not abandoning traditional ads or promotions, scores of retailers are finding new value in using social media to engage customers and foster within them a deeper sense of involvement with a brand - right down to a post on their Facebook page about a sale just for them.

If this starts to sound like a personal relationship, that's not by accident.

"Retailers are building that relationship from just a transaction - walk in, buy a dress, walk out - into a personal experience," said Lorin Drake, a market researcher with Schwartz Consulting Partners in Tampa. "Retailers want to build that relationship over time."

The Flip Flop Shops chain uses social media as its primary method of promotion, said President Brian Curin, and often invites groups to special sales through Facebook.

Customers have uploaded more than 2,000 photos of their feet in action to the company's Flickr gallery online.

Before opening a location in Tampa, local managers posted construction photos on Flickr and sent updates through Facebook and Twitter.

"We had all these fans of the store who felt almost vested in that business before the doors even opened," Curin said.

Getting social

For shoppers, it's worth picking a few favorite stores and finding the company's social media forums - because that's where the best deals are showing up.

Women's retailer Ann Taylor has frequent dialogue with 7,600 Facebook fans. During the Black Friday rush, it was the store's Facebook page that told shoppers a 40 percent off deal would last through Sunday.

Recently, the store asked what single discontinued product customers wanted back. "We heard your feedback," the company posted back, "and are so excited to announce: LINED PANTS ARE BACK!!"

When a customer complained in a post that she couldn't find her favorite perfume, an Ann Taylor staff member replied and offered to ship some from her store. Another customer posted that her instant coupon didn't work; a company official called the store to sort it out.

Designing a degree of exclusivity, the online retailers Gilt.com and RueLaLa.com offer brief, members-only deals on luxury purses, clothes and other apparel.

As for coupons and sales, more retailers send the best deals early through social media. Stein Mart, for instance, posts coupon images through Twitter that customers can print and take to the store. Thanks to a big social media push before Black Friday, JCPenney has more than 600,000 Facebook friends.

"Retailers are fast finding that if they're not involved in discussion where the customers are online, they will shop elsewhere," said Maya Swedowsky, a retail researcher with Nielsen.

Some merchants go beyond selling products off the shelf and encourage customers to design products themselves.

Customize it

The NIKEid online system lets designers adjust and visualize every aspect of a shoe. A NIKEid application on the iPhone lets designers photograph a scene, then create a shoe to match that color palette.

A mass-produced pair of Nike Air Max+ shoes might cost $160; a customized version costs $185. Keds, Puma, Adidas and Reebok have similar systems to individualize shoes.

When Champion launched a Hoodie Remix contest to design sweatshirts, customers uploaded more than 180,000 designs. The winner was 24-year-old New Yorker Jillian Pecoraro; her version sells for $70.

Selling custom designs may not displace the revenue from mass production, but the real value comes from the marketing that follows. Would-be designers eagerly share their shoe designs through their own Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages, and can take credit for other shoppers who pick their model.

"In 2009, retailers were jumping into social media mostly as a learning opportunity, and if they could drive some tangible sales, that's great," said Scott Silverman, executive director of the National Retail Federation's Shop.org project. "Now they're learning how customers react to a relationship outside the store, and you're starting to see more clear strategy."

Make it mobile

Even for those who prefer products off the shelf, retailers want deeper engagement - right on a customer's cell phone.

Target recently launched an iPhone application that helps customers locate their friends' baby, wedding or gift registries while strolling the aisles, then presents a bar code on screen that cashiers scan to prevent multiple purchases of the identical item.

Walmart's app focuses on electronics, allowing customers to sort products by type, price or other specifications, or take a photo of their living room wall and then superimpose selected TVs to gauge their size.

Shoe seller Foot Locker will give $50 coupons to anyone joining their VIP club through a cell phone. Customers who send a camera phone photo of their favorite shoe to Finish Line could win a $100 gift card.

TV merchant HSN, based in St. Petersburg, pushed into mobile apps last year and now has a system that lets customers watch live video and buy on the go. Like many retailers, HSN is in an experimentation phase with social media, said Jeff Day, vice president of technology and product management at HSN.com.

"Social media could be critical to HSN as a potential marketing vehicle and as a way to make our channels more accessible," Day said.

Tapping into teenagers' love for shopping and mobile phones, retailer Wet Seal launched an iRunway app that lets teens create their own mixes of clothes. They then can tag their location and upload their outfits so other nearby teens can rate their fashions.

Sixty percent of shoppers used social media for 2009 holiday shopping - researching discounts, product reviews and wish lists - before heading to the store to shop, according to eMarketer. Mobile activity last year was slim.

"Some of these apps are just fun and games," said Nielsen's Swedowsky. "But we're seeing customers find value in the information there, and ultimately make the transaction back in the store."