The Washington D.C.-based National Retail Federation, which is holding its annual loss prevention conference in New Orleans through Friday, highlighted companies that are taking a lead in effective online customer-engagement strategies. John Lazarchic, PETCO Animal Supplies Inc. vice president of e-commerce, and others weighed in on 2012 trends in e-commerce, which is focusing on building an online community of users through interactive content that has traditionally been the purvey of online media. Here are five retailers that are taking a lead in online community engagement.

Norwich, Vt.-based King Arthur Flour Company Inc. has created a vibrant online community of users who go to the company’s site to discuss and debate a wide range of baking-related topics, such as the best molasses for cooking or how to make buttermilk powder.

The Home Depot Inc.(NYSE:HD), based in Atlanta, has taken a cue from the popular how-to website instructables.com. Useful instructions on weekend tasks like weatherproofing your windows come with text, photos and video, as well as the list of items you need (and ostensibly will buy from the company) and the estimated time and cost for each project.

Once the giants of television retailing, St. Petersburg, Fla.-based HSN Inc. (NASDAQ: HSNI) in April has since also gone online and more recently partnered up with The Hearst Corporation’s House Beautiful magazine to offer “echoes” to the magazine’s home design articles. HSN takes photos from the magazine and links items in the photos to inventory items for online purchases.

Sephora, a privately held San Francisco-based cosmetics vendor with 280 stores and 300 locations inside J.C. Penney Company Inc. (NYSE: JCP) showrooms, has built a loyal online customer following by offering beauty tips to website users that register for the “Beauty Talk” section of the site. It also has a beauty-related “how to” multimedia TV channel.

Beaverton, Ore.,-based Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) had gone full Monty into "lookbooking" with high-class (and high-dollar, no doubt) magazine-quality photography adapted for tablet browsing, as well as with the “shop this look” technique used often by fashion magazines, when fashion photos are accompanied with purchasing links to apparel and accessory items depicted in the images.