Maybe it's the gargantuan boxes or pallets stacked to the ceiling, but Instagrammers love taking photos at Costco. Over at Walmart, customers prefer Twitter, and Safeway shoppers check-in with Yelp.
But all of these behaviors go by the same name — social media moments, according to LocalResponse, a mobile advertising provider. The company today (Sept. 20) released its first study of retail check-ins from more than 136,500 social media moments, at 10 top U.S. retailers, using four social networks — Foursquare, Twitter, Yelp and Instagram — over the summer. While only Foursquare is designed for checking into a location, the company counted "posts with intent" on the other services. For instance, tweeting "buying shoes at #Walmart" counted as a check-in.
Facebook was not included in the study because its data were inaccessible to the company, a LocalResponse spokesperson told TechNewsDaily.
Foursquare was by far the most popular way for shoppers to check-in and accounted for 78.5 percent of the total, followed by Twitter at 17.7 percent, Yelp at 2.4 percent and Instagram at 1.4 percent.
Walmart had the biggest piece of the check-in pie with nearly 40 percent. Its rival Target came in second at 15 percent and Costco third with about 10 percent.
Men — yes, men — are more likely to check into a store than women by a margin of 8 percent. Two-thirds of the check-ins at Best Buy and Lowes were made by men. Target appealed to a slight majority of women (53 percent) and Walmart had an equal share of men and women.
If you're wondering when people are shopping , LocalResponse had specific answers. The most popular time to check-in was Saturday between 2 and 3 p.m., followed by Friday nights between 8 and 9. (Now you know when you can avoid the crowds.)