Why Social Selling Is Useful in Retail Today

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3 min read

Retailers are noticing that social media platforms are more than the means to broadcast advertisements. They are a critical tool for understanding their ideal customer, connecting with them, and gaining their loyalty.

Enter social selling. Social selling is all about how brands leverage social media to make this unique connection along the buyer’s journey. Here are some reasons why social selling is an indispensable tool for retailers and how to utilize it.

Two people engaging in online communities on their mobile devices

1. Meet customers where they’re at

1.5 million active users visit Facebook on a daily basis, while Instagram has 500 million daily logins. If you’re looking to connect with your customers and expand your reach to new ones, make your presence known on these popular channels. If you give them content to engage with, start conversations with them, and provide value to them, you will see your engagement rise.

A fist pound between a customer and business owner

2. Build trust with a real human approach

Social selling is about drawing people to your brand naturally and organically through curated content, interaction, and conversation. At the end of the day, brands are built on human impressions, not advertisements.

Social selling allows your brand to have a two-way dialogue with your customers. Posting valuable content, asking for customers’ opinions, and entertaining your audience leads to highly engaged, highly personalized customer experiences.

Essentially, it provides a way to showcase your brand personality, your company culture, and the value you provide your customers. This is a unique edge over faceless digital storefronts or big box stores that can’t provide that coveted human element.

Customer laughing while interacting with a brand live video sale

3. Get an in-depth understanding of customer needs

Social selling helps your business know thy customer. It creates conversations with brands on customer terms. To be a successful retailer, you must clearly identify your target market, their needs and wants. Direct customer feedback ultimately helps hone that perfect customer experience that keeps them coming back for more.

Woman making a speedy purchase after having social interactions with a brand

4. Speed up conversion rates

It’s no longer necessary to send customers to websites outside their newsfeeds. Social sellers can provide interactive shopping where they already are.

Comment Selling™, in particular, provides this frictionless shopping experience. With just a few keystrokes, customers can comment “sold” on a post or Facebook Live Sale and complete their checkout straight from their newsfeed instead of jumping through multiple hoops to get the desired item.

Woman sharing a Facebook Live Sale with her friend on her mobile phone

5. Leverage social influence

Not only does Comment Selling™ provide a convenient shopping experience for your customers, but it also provides social proof that their peers like your product.

The more customers purchase from your social posts, the more this effect is catalyzed. It feeds into the notion of, “If my peers have it, I want it too.” When this engagement happens, it gets pushed into the algorithm. In turn, this attracts new and unsuspecting consumers to see and want your products as well.

It doesn’t have to be just about Comment Selling™ either. Essentially, every positive interaction serves as a testimony that builds trust piece by piece with onlookers.

The Takeaway

Social selling gives brands significant power to extend their reach across large social platforms, build strong relationships with customers, understand customer needs, and sell in a helpful and human way.

As technology continues to give customers power over buying decisions, social selling will continue to align with empowered buyers instead of working against them.

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