Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015 - 18

social media

key retail social media trends
According to edelman toronto, there are a number of
trends taking place within the industry today that the
best retailers have already taken note of.
1. targeting/the newsfeed flyer. Flyers have historically been the bread and butter of retail, and for many,
still are. but many today are becoming very open
to experimenting with what the social newsfeed
has to offer in driving sales on those hero items,
week over week. "some are even subbing parts of
the flyer for in-Facebook only offers," says bianca
Freedman, director, digital team at edelman toronto.
"What this allows them to do is truly test the effectiveness of the channels in relation to marketing spend:
running paired regional tests to prove the value of
targeted Facebook ads. canadian retailers are seeing unbelievable results from this strategy. it's really
interesting when you consider Facebook's reach in
comparison to a flyer circulation: its mobile platform
alone now boasts 1.25 billion users. we strongly
encourage clients to be present in their customer's
feeds and consider how it could change the future
of the weekly newspaper bundle or PdF flyer."
2. Better integration. One of the hardest things for
retailers to get their arms around is integrating across
channels. "this will always be the ultimate marketing challenge," says Freedman. "When you're running
a seasonal campaign, a different team may lead the
digital aspects from the in-store experience, from site
merchandising online, etc. when we counsel our clients, it's all about getting the most out of a campaign
spend: integrate the planning so that a customer is
confronted with your campaign message no matter
what channel they're on in a personalized and relevant
way. A single customer may have dozens of chances to
interact with your brand on a given day-make it count."
3. shopping where you socialize/socializing where you
shop. "We're excited about the power that inspirational visual content has to convert sales and it's important to not lose sight of this," Freedman comments.
"People can register an image in just a few milliseconds, so it's no surprise that an image has the power
to drive sales faster than your best-written copy in a
newsfeed." instagram, pinterest, Facebook, twitter
(and others) are quickly rolling out "buy now" capabilities to help consumers click through on that item they
love, getting them through the purchase funnel faster.
"it's incredibly powerful," says Freedman. "Polyvore,
a high-end social commerce site out of the u.s. (recently acquired by yahoo!) is comprised of millions
of user-curated photo collage boards. the average
basket size on Polyvore is $383, showing us that
consumers truly want to shop on these channels."
4. reviews, reviews, reviews. According to Freedman,
on the flip side, displaying user-generated, social
content near point of purchase [on the e-commerce
site] is now a table stake in e-commerce. "ratings
and reviews or user loaded photos triple conversion
rates on retail items, and when the rating is at fourplus stars, the numbers only go up from there,"
she explains. "You'll notice retailers highlighting the
most popular or highest reviewed products-consumers very much want to know what other people
are buying and what the feedback is."

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canadian retailer | FALL 2015

tangible business goals of driving an increase of instore sales to prove that digital advertising could drive
customers into its brick-and-mortar stores. SportChek
plans to convert virtually all of its print circulars into
digital within the next year or two."
Facebook-as a tool to drive e-commerce-is becoming less relevant for Shopgirls because, according to Germain, the actual reach is very limited for her business.
"It's definitely something we continue to use," she
says, "but Instagram is becoming our biggest driver.
Recently Instagram introduced a way for users to
link back to their online shop, which wasn't an option
before. Now we can sell from Instagram. As we are
seeing those numbers of followers grow, that's really
where we have the most control about the exposure
we are getting."

"Instagram is becoming our biggest driver.
Recently Instagram introduced a way for users
to link back to their online shop, which wasn't an
option before. Now we can sell from Instagram.
As we are seeing those numbers of followers
grow, that's really where we have the most
control about the exposure we are getting."
- micheLLe GermAiN, Shopgirls
time and focus

For Germain, as a small business owner, the biggest
hurdle is finding the time to devote to these new sales
channels. "It's an ongoing challenge," she says. "I wish
I could source it out and have a team working on it,
but that's not possible. It's something I need to spend
more time focusing on. It's difficult to have someone
else say your brand voice for you, so I do most of the
social media myself."
Edelman is encouraging retail brands to focus less
on being their audience's friend and more on serving
up true value to their audiences-which often involves
driving to online or physical stores. "At the end of the
day, when you're a retailer, people are coming to you to
buy things," says Freedman. "Give 'em what they want,
in a relevant, contextual way."
One of the questions Germain often gets asked by
fellow small business owners is 'is it worth the cost to
have an online shop'?
"It's important to look at it from different viewpoints," she concludes. "I don't ever expect my online
shop to be making more money than my bricks-andmortar or even competing to that same degree. But at
the same time, it's more than a selling tool-it's creating that emotional connection. That's when you have
that relationship with customers. It transcends price,
location, and all of that-you create a community and
that's what I'm trying to build."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2015