5 Effective social media retail strategies for fashion stores

Today, retail and social media are inseparable. According to PayPal’s eCommerce Index Report, social media retail shopping in Australia has SHOT UP 700% since the beginning of the pandemic, with Gen Z and Millennials leading the way.

Clothing businesses of all sizes now depend on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to build loyal audiences and advertise their products. This is all thanks to the change in shopping habits, where customers now use social media as a one-stop shop to browse and buy clothing. In fact, 25% OF AUSSIES SAY they use social media for shopping every single week.

As a clothing boutique owner, you’ve probably tried to make social media work for your business – but maybe you’re not seeing the results you were expecting. Don’t give up!

In this article, you’ll learn about the top 5 organic social media strategies that can increase sales for your fashion store. We’ll talk about paid social media strategies in another post.

THE TOP 5 ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA RETAIL STRATEGIES TO DRIVE SALES IN 2022

1. INTERACT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

40% OF CONSUMERS expect brands to respond to their questions or complaints on social media within the first hour. 49% OF CONSUMERS claim they would unfollow a brand on social media if they have a poor customer experience. With these statistics alone, it’s clear that the quality of communication with your customers on these platforms can make or break your business. 

Social media’s greatest strength is two-way communication; just as brands can communicate with their followers, customers can reach out to brands, too. For this reason, not engaging with your customers on social media is neglecting the platform’s main advantage over other forms of marketing.

Trust and loyalty are built by listening and responding to real people, which converts into sales. Plus, the link between trust and sales in social media retail has never been more vital than now, since buyers have not been able to visit brick-and-mortar shops due to the pandemic.

You can start small and simple by liking top comments, responding to popular queries, or engaging with complaints. Even the angriest sounding complaint can be softened by a genuine attempt to help, and it’s a great way to demonstrate your dedication and attentiveness towards your customers. 

2. ENCOURAGE AND REPOST USER-GENERATED CONTENT

User-Generated Content (UGC) is content published by your customers featuring your products. Whether it’s a customer posting a picture wearing a dress from your latest styles or uploading a story wearing a pair of sunglasses from your store, it’s all UGC. 

This is arguably the most impactful form of social media retail marketing because people see this type of content as authentic and trustworthy – why wouldn’t they trust content from a fellow customer? As a result, it’s no surprise that USER-GENERATED PHOTOS ARE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO CONVERT CUSTOMERS than brand-generated photos. 

Be careful, though! Fashion influencer marketing and UGC are not the same. Influencers are hired by brands, while UGC is spontaneous and the creators are not paid – they post about your products because they genuinely love them. And customers know the difference!

A good way of leveraging UGC is to send your customers a small message encouraging them to share photos and videos wearing their purchased items on social media. You can do this via the order confirmation email, or even with a small, hand-written card in the packaging of the order. 

Provide a unique hashtag that they can use when posting in your clothing, or remind them to tag your social media handle in their posts. If you really want to get the ball rolling, why not create an incentive? Offer a gift card for the first 10 people who post a photo of your products. 

Once someone publishes UGC, you can repost this, which signals to your other followers that you have customers who are proud to wear your products. This can create a chain reaction of authentic positive feedback about your products, ultimately leading to more purchases and higher conversion rates.

3. MAKE IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO BUY YOUR PRODUCTS

Young people are the demographic responsible for driving the shift to shopping on social media – 46% OF GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS admit to making a social media purchase at least once a month. 

However, since this generation has high standards when it comes to shopping online and user experience, you need to ensure that your buying process is quick and easy.

Here are two ways you can make purchasing simple on Instagram: 

1. Include a LINKTREE in your account bio that takes followers to your website. Here’s A SIMPLE STEP-BY-STEP on how to set up and customise your own Linktree. 
2. Create an Instagram Shop. LEARN MORE ABOUT LAUNCHING AN INSTAGRAM SHOP.

4. USE TRENDS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR BRAND’S REACH 

Social media is a powerful tool that can transform small accounts into huge successes overnight. With new trends and features on these different platforms, your brand can become viral just by participating. 

Instagram Reels is a great example of this. According to Growthoid, REELS RECEIVE MORE ENGAGEMENT THAN REGULAR VIDEO CONTENT at a rate of about 22%. What’s more, 50% OF INSTAGRAM USERS USE REELS to find new content and brands.

Keeping an eye on new trends or getting involved early with new social media features is an easy way to get immediate gratification. No matter whether you have 10 followers or 10,000, using these aspects to your advantage can exponentially increase your brand’s reach, ultimately leading to more followers and customers. 

5. THINK BEYOND FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM

Thanks to their visual style, Instagram and Facebook seem the obvious choice for social media retail marketing. However, with popularity comes competition, and these platforms can leave retailers feeling swamped among similar brands with similar styles.

For this reason, small businesses should consider looking at other platforms in 2022, such as TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest. This last image-based platform is particularly popular with users who want to find a product in a very particular style or niche. For example, searching “black leather sandals” will return thousands of ‘Pins’ on images from online retailers, influencers, magazines, etc.

If you’d like to learn more about Pinterest marketing, SIGN UP FOR OUR MARKETING COURSE. You’ll find out how to set up your Pinterest for Business Profile, connect it to your Shopify store, create a beautiful Pinterest aesthetic and more!

SOCIAL MEDIA RETAIL: 5 CONTENT CREATION TOOLS YOU NEED

Creating amazing content that keeps followers engaged becomes a lot easier when you have amazing content creation tools to help you. Here are some top content creation tools recommended in our marketing guide: 

CANVA

• CANVA is a user-friendly phone and desktop app.
• Allows people with no graphic design experience to create visually impressive and professional-looking designs. 
• Offers a plethora of templates for social media channels, website layout, logo design and other aspects of branding.

INSHOT

• INSHOT is an editing app for mobile.
• You can edit videos, apply filters, add music and voiceovers, stickers and captions to videos.
• Has a great YOUTUBE TUTORIAL CHANNEL to help you improve your video editing skills.

MOJO

• MOJO allows you to create stunning animated stories for Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin.
• Offers hundreds of templates for design and animation.
• You can customise the story with text, stickers, effects and animated backgrounds.
• Allows you to share stories instantly from the app to your social media accounts. 

EVERBLOOM 

• EVERBLOOM allows you to edit stories (image or video).
• You can avail of one-tap story creation, handcrafted video layouts, aesthetic filters and unique effects.

Join our marketing course to learn more about using these excellent content creation tools to help you with your organic social media strategy. SIGN UP HERE. 

CONCLUSION

Social media has become an essential marketing tool to promote retail businesses by increasing web traffic, trust and, ultimately, sales. 

Even though paid social media campaigns can drive great results, the costs add up quickly. So before you spend your entire marketing budget on social media ads, try making the most of your organic reach. It can be more than enough to grow your business and, at the same time, help you stay on top of your CASH FLOW. 

So, when planning your social media retail strategy for 2022, make sure you’re getting the most out of your organic marketing. Remember; always aim to outthink your competitors before you outspend them.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA RETAIL

WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANT FOR FASHION RETAILERS?

Approximately 90% OF BUSINESS OWNERS who use social media as a marketing tool claim it has increased their overall business exposure. Social media is where your potential customers hang out the most (an average of 2 HOURS AND 16 MINUTES PER DAY), so it’s where you can learn about their tastes and pain points, build a loyal following and ultimately drive sales.

HOW DO I PROMOTE MY CLOTHING STORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

You can promote your clothing store on social media by making the customer experience easy and personal. Do this by interacting with your customers – respond to comments/complaints, encourage user-generated content, post regularly about topics that interest your customers and give helpful advice. However, be wary not to annoy your followers with too much self-promotion – it’s a one-way ticket to losing trust and followers.

WHAT ARE THE TOP SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS FOR 2022?

RECENT FINDINGS suggest that big brands are more receptive to advertising their products on smaller social media platforms, such as TikTok and Pinterest. It could be smart to follow their lead onto less popular platforms where there are probably more gaps for smaller fashion retail businesses.