As we continue to approach Black Friday it has held true that positive and negative sentiment have the power to make or break a company. Through sentiment analysis we can see how consumers view certain brands within Fortune 100 Retail. Posts were categorized either positively or negatively based off of the words used within each tweet. Tweets worded with an extreme positive or negative sentiment were given their own classifications.

Best Buy led the conversation in terms of positive sentiment. About 35% of all of posts were positive. Many of these posts are related to great employee-customer experiences in stores and online. Best Buy also does well in interacting with consumers who want to engage in conversation on Twitter. Many people believe that Best Buy’s employees, as well as their products are both wonderful and praiseworthy.

Unfortunately, TJ Maxx has drawn the most amount of negative sentiment recently. Approximately 18% of their posts portrayed a negative tone. Many of these posts pertain to a wave of tweets calling for a boycott against TJ Maxx as well as several other retail department stores. In early February, TJ Maxx decided to stop selling merchandise from Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. Many consumers were in favor of this, however there were those who were upset by this change in sales strategy. Disgruntled customers demanded a boycott and took to Twitter to spread the news.

With the big day drawing ever closer the most apparent trend we see is a focus on positive public perception. Brands are working to diminish their negative online presence and overwhelm it with positivity. We will continue to monitor these changes in behavior amongst both brands and consumers throughout the beginning of the holiday season.  

Read the full report.