The impact of social media on the retail industry

One trend that I noticed is really taking off in the retail industry is the use of social media. Social media is playing such a big role in the way companies and brands market to consumers. With the introduction of social media came social media influencers. These influencers are usually people who have big followings on a social media site. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are just to name a few social media sites that have big influencers. What happens is that a company or brand will reach out to these influencers usually via email or private message and ask them to use their product and review it on their social media sites. A lot of times these companies will also give some type of discount code of the influencer to give out to their followers, if they want to try the products themselves they are able to use this discount code and the influencer will get money or more discounts towards more new products from that company.

This phenomenon of social media influencers is taking over marketing by storm. Instead of companies having to pay tv stations to have commercials or plastering ads all over towns to market their products, they can just send some free products to influencers and let them do the job for them, and at a fraction of the cost. Our world today is so caught up in social media that it only makes sense for companies to use this for a marketing tool.

The impact that social media has on professionals in the industry doesn’t seem to have any negatives yet, if anything it has seems to create more jobs and opportunities for people to make a lot of money and to work remotely. This could however, impact professionals in the industry going forward if the use of social media starts to fall/decrease. Right now this retail industry relies so heavily on social media to market and advertise, but if the use of social media starts to decrease this could cause some problems for the smaller companies who rely solely on social media. Social media has allowed smaller companies to thrive because of the low cost compared to if they had to advertise on tv or billboards. This could impact professionals who work for these smaller companies and they will have to start to think more traditional ways to market their company or come up with new ways.

The challenge of digitation for the retail industry

A marketing challenge that the fashion industry faces right now is the digitation of shopping. More and more stores are closing down their brick and mortar shops due to not generating enough sales to keep their doors open in shopping centers and malls. Charlotte Russe, JC Penney, and Dressbarn are just a few stores that have recently had to close their doors. These stores could not compete with online sales and are now trying to focus more on their online presence than physical stores.

I have come up with a few ways to address these challenges. One thing retailers can do to attract more customers into their stores is using AI or VR technology inside the stores. Introducing these types of experiences to physical stores, like a VR mirror where customers can take photos within the mirror and then share them on social media. Customers would have to pay before using this mirror which can bring in revenue as well as add a fun new experience for the customers. This can also help the sales associates give advice and engage with the customer who is using the mirror, giving a more personal experience.

Another way to draw in more customers to physical stores is to add to the buying experience. Give the customers something to talk about, for example, Topshop started a campaign where they put a water slide inside one of their stores and added a VR experience. This generated a lot of social media engagement and made customers want to go into the physical stores to experience for themselves. At first this may be an expensive venture for management to start up but it will hopefully add good experiences for the customers and they will tell their friends about it, also posting it on social media will gain them follows and more customers.

Lastly, retailers need to put a bigger focus on ordering online and picking up in-store. This solution can be great for customers who don’t want to pay the extra money for next day delivery, but it has the ease of ordering online and being able to pick it up the same day. Another way to enhance this experience is by allowing the ability to scan an item that a customer finds in-store but might not be in stock and order it online right there in the store. This allows sales associates to help the customers rather than a website, which may not give them other options.

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