Using Social Media to Increase Retail Sales

Can social media help increase retail sales?

Can businesses use social media to help get more in-store traffic and sales?

Social media is not just effective for increasing sales for an online store, but offline too. In fact, 74% of shoppers make buying decisions based on social media. That’s a huge amount of people using social media to help guide their purchases.

So how can businesses take advantage of social media to increase the foot traffic to their location, and ultimately increase their sales? Here are a few ideas.

Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business

One way that people are using social media is by asking friends and family for recommendations. You will see this often on Facebook; someone is looking for an auto shop and asks for recommendations. This is an opportunity for any good auto shops to be recommended by friends, and if you have a Facebook page, this will be shared with them, as well as their friends.

If your customers are using a specific platform, make sure you have a presence there. That way, if someone is asking for help to find a business such as yours, people can recommend you and link to your page.

80% of consumers are likely to purchase an item based on friend’s suggestions. Social media is the new word of mouth! People want information now and they won’t wait to ask a friend in the morning, they will post on social media and want immediate feedback.

Not sure which social media platform is best for your business? I review this in my free course Social Media Framework or read this blog post ‘How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business‘.

Encourage Feedback and Reviews

The more that people are talking positively about your business on social media, the better. The more shares, comments, and reviews, the better.

If you’re having a hard time getting more reviews for your page, you can simply ask for feedback. One way to make it easy to collect more reviews, is to send people the direct link to your reviews section.

Where to Find Your Facebook Reviews URL:

Step 1: Click on Settings on your page

Step 2: Click on Edit Page

Step 3: Scroll down to your reviews tab and click Settings

Step 4: You will see a Share Reviews tab. Copy that URL to send people directly to leave you a review on your Facebook page.

You could send this link to anyone who made a recent purchase, people via messenger, or through email marketing.

Add a Face to Your Business

People buy from those they know, like and trust, and social media can help with all three of those.

Social media can help increase the amount of people who know you, and by sharing posts that allow people to get to know the people/ owner/ employees behind the business, this can increase how many people like and trust you.

Ways to add a ‘face’ to your business

Creating videos
Using the live video option
Sharing quick stories and behind-the-scenes using Instagram Stories, Snapchat and Facebook Stories
Highlight employees
Share photos of you/your staff at company functions such as barbecues, employee appreciation events, etc.

This is an example of a simple video created by the Manitoulin Meat Boss to share a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the future location of his butcher shop on Manitoulin Island. It was created for free and was seen by over 3,000 people, simply by sharing a few minutes of his time.

Want even more ideas for using social media to help your retail location? Colourfast created an awesome infographic sharing even more ways to use social media to increase retail sales and boost in-store sales.