Why Social Shopping Is Great For Retailers
Social media has had a huge, positive impact on the retail world: retailers have a brand new platform to advertise on and engage with customers, while shoppers have somewhere to look for inspiration and ask for advice. Shops can also use social media to keep their fans up-to-date with new products and releases, or to post the latest offers and deals.Retailers can employ a number of strategies, both online and off, to make the most of their social media profiles. Social media is aptly named: people use social networks to socialise with their friends and share their interests with others.
Communities:
Communities of users form based on their shared interests, where fans of particular activities, products or brands share their appreciation. Retailers can use social media communities to connect with their customers, discover more about their target market and find influencers to promote their products.
Users already access social media to find inspiration and ask their friends for advice when shopping. By ensuring that they promote their products on the right platforms, to the right audience, retailers can inspire users to buy their products, or better yet, to share these products with their friends.
Retailers can also look for bloggers and social media experts who influence the actions of other shoppers. Ask influential bloggers to review your product. A positive review on a popular blog can really boost sales. Your products might already have influential fans. Do some research online, found out whose opinion matters and ask them if they want to write about your products.
A happy, active community can help drive interest in your brand and the sales of your products.
Coordination:
Retailers should also coordinate their online and offline selling strategies. The social pinboard site Pinterest recently introduced ‘rich pins’ to the service. Thanks to rich pins, product, movie and recipe pins pinned from certain sites display more information about their subjects, saving users having to search off-site for it. Product pins display prices and link to the parent site where the product can be purchased.
Facebook has also recently released a new online shopping feature called SeeItShopIt. Using SeeItShopIt, retailers can create interactive posts, displaying catalogues of new products with prices and information clearly displayed. SeeItShopIt uses eye-catching images and clever widgets to catch the attention of the enormous Facebook audience.
By using Facebook and Pinterest as, essentially, virtual store fronts, retailers can show their wares off to a larger audience. Social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook also make it easy for retailers to measure how successful their products are online.
Social media platforms have numerous analytical features, allowing retailers to collect data on how many impressions, likes and click-throughs their products are getting. Using this data, retailers can find out which of their products are popular and to who.
Some companies are even starting to introduce social media into their shops. A lot of shops, for example, have signs inviting customers to like their Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter. Nordstrom has gone a step further, mounting in-store displays featuring their most popular products on Pinterest. Thanks to the displays, users can find popular products both in-store and online.
By keeping their social media profiles up-to-date, connecting with customers and influences in communities and adding social media furnishings to their stores, retailers can keep their customers interested, up-to-date and in a buying frame of mind.
How do you coordinate your social media presence with your in-store strategies?
Contact us on Facebook, on Twitter, or leave your comments below.
Will Sigsworth
Follow us @socialMediaF & '@WillAtSMF
Or go to our Facebook page.
Why Social Shopping Is Great For Retailers
![]()
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Friday, August 02, 2013
Rating:
Anonymous
Keeping you up to date on social media, digital marketing, apps, news & reviews. Social media, and digital marketing as a whole, are rapidly and constantly changing, adapting to new developments at an ever increasing rate. Just keeping up to date can be a nightmare. Our team of writers know their field, and keep an ear to the ground. We aim to keep you informed of all recent developments in the online world, and teach you a little something along the way. So whether you just want to stay connected, or gain some knowledge for yourself, the Social Songbird will keep on singing! More articles are posted every day so keep checking back! Join the discussion on Twitter - #SocialSongbird Or contact us directly - @SocialSongbird_
Entrepreneur, international speaker on Social Media Marketing. First one in the UK to write and speak in conferences about Twitter as a marketing tool. Consultant to Corporate Companies, Government Organizations, Marketing Managers and Business Owners.
Aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers. He hopes to one day drop that 'aspiring' prefix. He started as a writer and soon after he was made Executive Editor and Manager of the team at Social Songbird. A position he held for 5 years.
Adrienne is a passionate writer with experience in editing, content creation, and social media marketing. She’s a lover of animals, helping others improve their writing, and 2000s pop culture.
Musician, audio technician, professional tutor and a Cambridge university English student. Interested in writing, politics and obsessed with reading.
Recently graduated with a BA in English Literature from the University of Exeter, and he is about to study an MA in Journalism at the University of Sheffield. He is an aspiring journalist and novelist; in his free time he enjoys playing chess, listening to music and taking long walks through nature.
Lucy is an undergraduate BSc Politics and International Relations student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Anna Coopey is a 4th year UG student in Classics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is a keen writer and researcher on a number of topics, varying from Modern Greek literature to revolutionary theory.
Ellie is a recent BA English Literature graduate and aspiring publisher with a passion for writing. Her favourite pastimes include reading and shopping.