Retail Partners: Friend or Foe on Social Media?

In-store, online, direct.

Consumers have nearly unlimited choices on where to shop leaving brands constantly navigating the complexities of selling their products through multiple channels.

As more consumers turn to social media for shopping inspiration and product discovery (***DataReportAI's "Digital 2023: Global Overview Report," states about 58% of global consumers use social media as a primary source to research products before purchasing and The Influencer Marketing Factory found that 3/4 of us are buying based on what we see on social***), brands face the challenge of maintaining a cohesive and effective presence across these platforms.

One key strategy for managing this complexity is keeping your social media feed retailer agnostic. By doing so, brands can avoid channel conflict, broaden their reach, and create a more flexible and adaptable marketing strategy. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of a retailer-agnostic social media feed and how it can help brands maintain strong relationships with their retail partners, prevent pricing issues, and enhance their overall brand presence.  

Avoiding channel conflict is the primary reason TLG recommends a brand keeps its social media feed retailer agnostic. We once saw a merchant throw a tantrum after seeing another retailer tagged on an account. Good news? He was looking. Bad news? He was looking 😊

Here’s how it plays a significant role:

1. Maintaining Fairness Among Retail Partners: When a brand promotes only one retailer on its social media feed, it might create tension or conflict with other retail partners. By remaining retailer agnostic, a brand can ensure it treats all retail partners equally, thereby maintaining positive relationships across multiple channels.
2. Preventing Price Competition: If a brand heavily promotes one retailer over others, it could lead to competitive pricing strategies that undermine the brand's pricing structure. A retailer-agnostic approach helps maintain consistent pricing and avoids the risk of one retailer offering deep discounts to compete, which can lead to a race to the bottom and devalue the brand.
3. Encouraging Broad Distribution: Retailer-specific promotion might discourage other retailers from carrying the brand's products due to perceived favoritism or unfair competitive advantages. Keeping the feed neutral encourages more retailers to stock and promote the brand, ensuring wider product availability and stronger market penetration.
4. Avoiding Internal Sales Channel Conflicts: By promoting a specific retailer, brands might inadvertently create competition between their direct sales channels (like their website or physical stores) and the retailer's sales channels. This could result in reduced margins for direct sales or even lost sales to competing channels. A retailer-agnostic approach mitigates this risk by promoting a variety of purchasing options, allowing consumers to choose their preferred method.
5. Aligning with Different Retail Strategies: Each retailer might have a different sales and marketing strategy. Promoting one over the others could disrupt these strategies and cause friction. By being agnostic, the brand allows each retailer to market and sell in their own way without perceived interference or bias.
6. Protecting Brand Image and Control: When brands avoid aligning too closely with any single retailer, they retain more control over how their products are marketed and sold. This autonomy helps protect the brand's image and ensures that their marketing strategies align with their broader brand goals without being influenced by the strategies of specific retailers.
7. Supporting Long-Term Relationships: Brands that avoid channel conflicts are better positioned to cultivate long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with multiple retailers. This strategic approach is especially important in maintaining goodwill and ensuring a stable presence across diverse retail environments.

Overall, keeping a social media feed retailer agnostic allows a brand to maintain broad appeal, flexibility, and resilience in a rapidly changing retail environment. So, the next time the e-commerce manager comes in and asks for a tag, here are some nuggets that might convince him to rethink. P.S. If you lose that battle, there are some workarounds. Check out this post on using the link in your bio to your best advantage.  

1. Broadening Audience Reach: By not limiting the social media feed to a specific retailer, a brand can appeal to a wider audience. Different consumers have preferences for different retailers, and keeping the feed retailer agnostic ensures that the brand's products are accessible to all, regardless of their preferred shopping platform.
2. Flexibility and Adaptability: Retailer agnosticism allows brands to adapt quickly to changes in the retail landscape. If a specific retailer faces issues (like a website outage, negative press, or logistical problems), the brand isn't tied to that retailer and can pivot to another more easily.
3. Strengthening Direct-to-Consumer Relationships: When a brand's social media feed is not tied to any specific retailer, it can promote its own direct-to-consumer channels, such as its website or app. This approach fosters a stronger relationship with consumers, as the brand can control the customer experience, gather valuable data, and build brand loyalty directly.
4. Avoiding Perceived Endorsement: Associating too closely with a particular retailer may give the impression of an exclusive endorsement, which could alienate consumers who prefer other retailers. Keeping the feed neutral ensures that the brand maintains a broad appeal and avoids any potential negative connotations associated with a specific retailer.
5. Diversifying Sales Channels: Retailer agnosticism encourages a diversified sales strategy, which can reduce dependency on any single retailer and mitigate risks associated with retailer-specific challenges. It also allows the brand to test different sales channels and optimize based on performance.
6. Leveraging Multiple Affiliate Relationships: By not committing to a single retailer, brands can work with multiple affiliates, influencers, and platforms to drive sales. This approach maximizes opportunities for collaborations and revenue generation across various channels.
7. Promoting Shoppable Content Flexibility: Retailer agnostic feeds are ideal for shoppable content strategies that aim to engage customers with various purchase options, including affiliate links, direct brand websites, and multiple retailer platforms. This flexibility enhances the customer experience by providing choices and convenience.

Overall, keeping a social media feed retailer agnostic allows a brand to maintain broad appeal, flexibility, and resilience in a rapidly changing retail environment.