Social Media and the Retail Industry

Social media has been the big talk in the internet marketing world for some time and the majority of businesses have found powerful ways to put many of the major social networking sites to work for them. The use of social media in the retail industry is still a bit of challenge for large and small retail businesses alike. There are several ways in which to successfully use social media in your marketing plan regardless of your business’ size. Here are just a few examples.

Engaging Shoppers

While the retail industry’s revenue is generated when customers actually make a purchase, retailers must also always be concerned with establishing a strong brand identity in the competitive marketplace. One of the major methods for accomplishing this is through advertising and social media activities are often simply another way to advertise or get your brand identity out there and in front of shoppers.

Getting “Word-of-Mouth” Advertising

Not only are your social media activities important to your current customers, but you also gain word-of-mouth advertising advantages through many of your activities. As individuals become fans or followers of your business on a social media site, their activities are seen by their social networks, essentially promoting your business in the process.

Providing Customer Service through Social Media

Many retailers are finding new and inventive ways to build a positive customer experience through social media. One method of accomplishing this is to utilize Twitter as an immediate source for addressing customer service questions and concerns, though you would need to ensure you have a tweeting team on standby at all times in order to deliver timely service.

Another track many retailers are taking is to use free surveying tools available on sites like Facebook in order to gauge the customer experience. With a bit of thought and creativity, you’ll find your own ways of using your social media presence to drive better customer service. Just be sure whatever efforts you put forth are ones you can continue to support. Ensure you’re able to dedicate the right amount of time and other resources to those efforts to make them successful for the long haul. 

Incorporating Social Media into Your E-commerce Site

Thus far, we’ve focused on ways to put established social media sites to use in your retail marketing efforts, but it’s important to realize that social media can be incorporated into your own e-commerce site as well. Consider giving your online customers the ability to create a permanent account through which they can make their purchases, of course, but can also share content with other registered and unregistered members.

The biggest way in which online retailers typically use this kind of social media approach is to provide their website users the chance to leave feedback on different products on the site. Not only does this get each customer engaged in the business venture but it also helps attract and retain the attention of potential customers.

In fact, many internet shoppers will make a purchase from a site based on positive customer reviews long before they will based solely on the retailer’s own promotional information about a particular product. In other words, including social media opportunities on your e-commerce site may very well lead to higher conversion rates.

This post is written by John Lewis and he works at PriceCollate. You can checkout the blog of website here.