Along with good design and layout, it is important for brand pages to have great content that drives conversations and social interactions. Unlike retailers, most brands do not offer any coupons or promotions making it even more important to have quality content. I have come across hundreds of Facebook pages, but these 5 brands stand out for excellent design, engaging content, and social features that draw millions of Likes.

When it comes to social media campaigns, the most obvious choice for most (yes, most and not all!) marketers is Facebook. Any marketer looking to build presence on Facebook has to work on its Facebook Page. It is simple to create a Facebook page, but not that simple to create one that has great design, usability and interactive elements. I have came across some nice Facebook pages and wanted to share them with you. I will start today a series of “Top 5 Facebook pages” and first in line is a list of retailer pages.

Google recently updated its search algorithm, which according to Google will affect about 11.8% of searches. The change is targeted towards pushing down sites with low-quality content. So, what do retail sites do in light of these changes? The answer is simple – create high-quality original content that attracts backlinks naturally. Here are 3 major areas for retailers to improve content quality.

Social Commerce is quickly becoming a norm in online shopping. And, who else but Facebook is better positioned to provide a shopping marketplace with social features similar to the real world. But, this would not happen in near future (if at all). It also somewhat contradicts with Facebook’s vision of providing a Platform that its developers, businesses and users can extend. In the near term, social product recommendations, mostly as referrals to outside eCommerce sites, are a more realistic prospect. In the simplest form, this could be a product advertisement based on user’s social data along with a Facebook-Only offer.

For a long time, retailers held back from adding video content on their eCommerce sites. This delay was due to high production and hosting costs, inept distribution and marketing channels, and few optimization opportunities. All in all, there was no clear ROI for the investment. Today, technology advancement has cleared most of these roadblocks. About 68% of top 50 US online retailers offered some kind of video content on their site in 2009 (eMarketer). This number is growing rapidly as adding video content has now become the second-highest priority of multichannel retailers. According to a recent Forrester Research study, videos are 53 times more likely to generate a first-page ranking than traditional SEO techniques.

It is amazing how Apple rules over its consumer’s mindsets. They pre-sell millions of products and even get away with shortcomings (think iPhone 4 signal issues) without hurting their fan base. Only Steve Jobs has the ability to instruct his consumers to stop holding the phone ‘the wrong way!’ But, Apple fanatics are a rare breed providing such leeway to a seller. In the times that we live in, it is difficult even to get shoppers’ attention. To think of commanding what, where, when and how they buy is like daydreaming. Shoppers today have complete control and they have tools at their disposal that facilitate this authority.

I always get into an argument with a friend who works at a first generation Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE). My opinion that CSEs need to do much more than just provide price comparisons does not fare well with him. His mantra – “Get shoppers in and out as quickly as possible and run with your cut”. Until recently, no one seemed interested in engaging shoppers, or providing better experiences. But, what my friend doesn’t realize is that the CSE world is changing. What was once considered taboo is soon going to become a hygiene factor. And, new breed of Comparison Shopping Engines are leading the charge to see about this change.

Comparison shopping or ability to compare prices was (and to a large extent continues to be) one of the greatest innovations since the advent of internet shopping. Why? Because it put shoppers in control of the single most important shopping insight – ability to find the best price. So, understandably, comparison shopping engines (CSEs) were once a rage. But, they are constantly losing their clout with advent of new technologies and pressure from players like Google and Amazon.

In my last post, I talked about why it is important for retailers to turn their attention to building brand loyalty. Here, I’ll talk about what retailers can do to build a loyal following. Of course, you cannot build a loyal following without knowing exact needs of your customer. So, start by identifying who your customers are and how you would provide a differentiated service. Success in almost everything you intend to do hinges around how well you understand your customers. Once you do, work on following essentials to build your eCommerce brand.

If there is one thing to be learned from Amazon’s dominance in eCommerce, it is the importance of building a brand. It is phenomenal that 33% of all shoppers visit Amazon for research, according to a recent study by e-tailing group and PowerReviews. Although, it is apparent that Amazon does not provide best product choices or shopping experience for many product segments. Nonetheless, their ability to attract direct traffic is unmatched. This is where most eCommerce sites need to become better in that they have to build loyal customer bases.