The internet is no longer a novel sphere for retail merchandising – in fact, companies are expected to have a presence on multiple social media outlets.

However, this can become difficult as not all websites are right for every retailer. One newer social media site is appealing specifically to image-dependent retailers. Pinterest allows members to share images and thoughts by "pinning" them to virtual community boards.

Like Twitter and the possibility of "re-tweets," images can be "re-pinned" on other boards, allowing retailers to gain more followers or users in a certain community, Retail Week explains. While the site is still relatively new, it was recently found to drive more interest to websites than Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace combined.

Retail Week suggests two ways that companies can leverage Pinterest: creating themed boards they can share with followers and encouraging consumers to share the content with their own communities.

"Using the social networking site is a good way to build brand presence online, introduce the retailer's product to a new audience and ultimately increase sales," Retail Week explains. "Images are linked to the retailer's website, so users can click through to the transactional site. Retailers can also monitor the kinds of images being shared and searched for by users in order to keep up with trends."

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 2:00 am .