How Retail Salespersons Are Becoming Social Media Influencers

New York, NY--Imaging selling $150K worth of jewelry through Instagram without meeting the buyer — that's what Cesar Callejas did in 2012 for a Tiffany store.

A Modern Retail blog post talks about how Callejas, who had worked full time at a Tiffany store in Texas since 2010, earning most of his salary through commissions, decided to market jewelry products online.

And when that piece sold, Callejas realized it was just a start.

Since then, he shared more jewelry pictures online. And when he finally quit his job to start his jewelry line, his social presence had reached a point where 30% of his sales came through Instagram.

Modern Retail writes that Tiffany realized the process was a success and circulated a memo to its employees to do the same.

A decade has passed promoting products online has become commonplace. Salespersons still realize the value of marketing products on social media. Dan Hull, a senior affiliate and influencer manager at the influencer agency Silverbean, told Modern Retail that even the staff at beauty counters of promising businesses come with a social media following.

Larger corporations, as per the article, are using a similar approach.

Walmart, for instance, is releasing a new app to around 1.5 million U.S. workers, which will enable them to earn bonuses by promoting products sold at Walmart.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of retailers are taking their in-store associates and assigning them to digital responsibilities,” said Ben Rodier, co-founder of Salesfloor. “They’re essentially assigning them to do the work of connecting digitally with customers.”

Read the full story at: https://tinyurl.com/MissionSalesInfluencers.

JAMES (JIMMY) DEGROOT, JEWELRYSTORETRAINING.COM