The landscape of social media marketing seems to be evolving at breakneck speed. From new platforms and a rapidly expanding array of influencers, to new memes and trending sounds going in and out of style every day, it can be hard to keep up. This is particularly true for brands and retailers who not only want to attract eyes to their pages, but convert those views to sales.

To avoid the viral “All that work and what did it get me?” TikTok sound ringing a bit too true for your social media marketing efforts, Retail Brew spoke to some experts on strategies for success.

Shopping around

One of the biggest challenges of social media marketing is converting content to sales, as most people don’t use social media to buy products, but to be entertained. Finding a way to combine selling with entertainment is crucial, Kinshuk Jerath, professor of business in the marketing division at Columbia Business School, noted.

Keep reading here.—EC

The quickest way to level up your retail game? Enlist influencers and affiliates. Influencers promote your brand, showcase products, and make your biz the talk of the town. But creating a successful program requires some know-how.

That’s where impact.com comes in. Check out their uber-practical infographic: How influencers and affiliates can help you boost your business. You’ll get the scoop on building a top-notch framework for influencer and affiliate success.

What exactly is in this bad boy? You’ll learn how to:

• Discover the full-funnel advantage of combining affiliates and influencers.
• Unify affiliate and influencer marketing efforts with a centralized platform.
• Simplify operational complexities, boost ROAS, and scale effortlessly.

If you’re ready to experience the power of affiliate and influencer marketing, get a demo with impact.com.

On its latest earnings call, Ulta reported a rosy fourth quarter, thanks to a strong holiday performance and mass cosmetics success, and also shared news on its international expansion.

Net sales rose 10.2% to $3.6 billion in Q4, and comparable sales grew 2.5%. For the full year, net sales increased 9.8% to $11.2 billion, while comparable sales jumped 5.7%. Comparable sales in Q4 and the full year were impacted by lower dollar sales, however, as shoppers bought fewer products per transaction.

• CEO Dave Kimbell said the company secured mid-single-digit comparable growth during the holiday period.

The beauty retailer announced a joint venture with global brands operator Axo, and plans to expand Ulta to Mexico in 2025. Kimbell said the Mexican beauty market has “healthy awareness” of Ulta, and COO Kecia Steelman noted that its border stores have performed well. The retailer also plans to open 60 to 65 new US stores in 2024, including 10 small format stores.

Keep reading here.—EC

Happy Monday, and welcome back everyone. We hope those who participated in St. Patrick’s Day activities this weekend are recovering well, and we also hope you were able to catch your flight, because there’s a lot of IRL retail networking going down this week. Let’s jump into it.

Also, today and tomorrow, just down the Strip, Brand Innovators is hosting its Evolution of Retail Summit at the Wynn to discuss many of the same subjects.

In earnings: As we’ve previously covered, things are a little hairy in the athleticwear world, and Nike is no exception. The company will have its Q3 earnings call Thursday, which could provide a glimpse at how its comeback strategy is going so far.

Keep reading here.—KM