How to Drive Retail Sales Through Influencer Marketing

"I saw this on TikTok!"

For brands investing in retail presence, these five words represent the perfect bridge between social media discovery and in-store sales. With 33% of Gen Z now discovering products through social media, these moments are happening more frequently than ever.

As a brand, you need to capitalize on this by leveraging influencers. Because the real challenge is not just getting your product onto retail. It is to make sure that customers can find and purchase it once it's there.

Whether you're launching your first retail placement or looking to boost your existing store presence, this guide will show you how to create influencer campaigns that actually move products off shelves.

Why leveraging creators is crucial for retail success

There are 3 main reasons why influencers should be an essential part of your retail strategy.

1. The retail visibility challenge

As a DTC brand, here's a common hurdle you might face — your customers are used to buying directly from your website, not looking for them in store aisles. And when a product comes in retail, it's sitting there among thousands of other items.

Even with prime shelf placement, shoppers might walk right past it, especially if they're used to buying your competition.

So you need to repeatedly tell people where to buy your product offline.

And when you work with creators, they don't just advertise your product — they literally show people where to find it.

Imagine a creator doing their weekly Target run, walking straight to your product, showing which aisle it's in, maybe even mentioning "it's right next to the grocery section." It'll make your audience aware that the product exists in retail, and where to find it without getting distracted.

2. The social proof multiplier

When multiple creators feature your retail presence, their collective impact creates a powerful ripple effect.

Shoppers begin recognizing your product on shelves (“Wait, that’s the thing I saw on TikTok!”), validating your brand’s credibility (“If it’s in Target, it must be good”). This repetition breeds familiarity, while scarcity-driven messaging (“Everyone’s raiding Costco for this!”) fuels urgency and FOMO.

Moreover, a creator’s authentic endorsement carries more weight than traditional advertising, making your product feel like a crowd-approved “find” rather than a corporate pitch. Over time, this builds a narrative that your brand belongs on shelves alongside household names.

Notice how this post for Poppi (the soda brand) by @target_addictedma builds excitement by framing the product as a 'new Target find'—even without aisle details, the hashtags and enthusiasm prime shoppers to seek it out."

3. The discovery advantage

Traditional retail advertising—end caps, shelf talkers, in-store demos—only works after someone enters the store. But creators intercept shoppers earlier: during the planning phase.

Think of the parent scrolling TikTok while making a grocery list, or the college student plotting their Target run between classes. By showcasing your product in relatable, everyday contexts, creators embed it into pre-shopping mental checklists.

5 Tips to boost retail sales with influencer marketing

Let's look at some tried-and-tested tips to turn those 'I saw it on TikTok!' moments into actual purchases at Target, Walmart, or wherever your product is sold.

1— Create dedicated hashtags for each retail store launch

Get influencers to use a specific hashtag tied to your product’s launch at a retailer, like #MagicSpoonWalmart (for a brand called MagicSpoon).

When people search this hashtag, they’ll see a pile of posts showing others buying your product at Walmart. This makes your product look popular, trusted, and “worth grabbing” next time they’re in-store.

Here's an example if you search #poppiwalmart. It's an endless feed of posts about Poppi Soda:

Over time, more people use the hashtag, creating a snowball effect. Retailers like Walmart notice this buzz and may reward you with better shelf placement or promotions.

Here are 3 simple steps to use this approach:

• Create the hashtag: Combine your brand + retailer name (e.g., #MagicSpoonWalmart). For regional launches, add the location: #MagicSpoonTexas.
• Let influencers know about it: Make the hashtag mandatory in every paid post. Example brief: “Mention ‘Available at Walmart’ and tag #MagicSpoonWalmart in caption + first comment.”
• Repost & amplify: Reshare influencer and customer posts using the hashtag. Feature them on your socials, website, or even packaging (For example, “Tag #MagicSpoonWalmart for a chance to be featured!”).

2— Handle the "Where can I find it?" problem

“Available at Target” in a post means nothing if shoppers can’t locate your product in the maze of a 130,000-square-foot store. So you have to eliminate the friction between discovery and purchase.

Tell creators to eliminate this guesswork by physically guiding customers. Here are some ideas:

1— Share store locator links (via bio/swipe-up) so viewers instantly check local availability.

2— Film exact shelf placements – influencers should zoom in on aisle numbers, shelf tags, or landmarks (“third shelf up, next to Red Bull”).

For example, this post by an influencer mentions that Olipop is in the “Modern Soda” section

Mention adjacent familiar brands to anchor your product in shoppers’ mental maps of the store.

Focus on this intensely for the first 4-8 weeks. They’re a make-or-break window where retailers like Walmart or Target assess your product’s performance.

Stores track velocity metrics (how quickly items sell) to decide whether to keep your product on shelves, expand its placement, or relegate it to less visible areas. If shoppers can’t find your item easily during this trial phase, sales stall, and retailers lose confidence.

3— Track engagement and buzz (because you can't measure direct sales)

Retail purchases are messy, habitual, and influenced by countless variables: shelf placement, price promotions, even the weather.

It won't be correct to track only sales in the retail store to measure the success of your influencer campaigns.

Focus on proxies that signal whether your influencer marketing efforts worked or not.

You can ask yourself — Are creators driving conversation?

If posts tagged #YourBrandWalmart spark comments like “Where’d you find this?” or “Going to Target tomorrow!”, your influencers are doing their job—guiding shoppers to stores.

For example, check the comments here —

Check — Is the hashtag is spreading?

When your customers start using #YourBrandTarget organically, it means your campaign is going beyond paid partnerships into real-world behavior.

Influencers aren’t meant to be last-click conversion tools here. Their role is to prime demand and guide discovery. It works if it makes your product feel inevitable on shelves—not because a spreadsheet says so.

To easily track how your products are being mentioned across social media, you can use SARAL's social listening feature. It helps you monitor brand mentions, hashtags, and product conversations in real-time, giving you valuable insights into how your retail presence is being discussed online.

Not tracking sales doesn't mean influencer marketing should not prove it's worth. But keep the ROI tracking for your affiliate programs or sponsored posts. If you use SARAL to run your influencer marketing, you get detailed analytics that helps you make strategic decisions.

4— Give creators these specific call-to-actions that drive saves and comments

Influencers who create authentic UGC often avoid overly salesy CTAs. The posts might be great, and it might be obvious that they're nudging people to go to the store and buy your product. But customers still need a clear CTA. It removes the mental work of decision-making and transforms passive viewing into active intention by making an explicit ask to take action.

This is where you step in. Provide specific, actionable prompts that align with how people actually shop.

• Phrases like “Save this for your next Target run” acknowledge the reality of delayed purchases while subtly boosting algorithmic visibility (saves signal value to platforms).
• “Comment your local store” turns engagement into crowdsourced demand data, and “Tag someone who needs this” creates engagement that signals the algorithms that this post should reach more of the similar audience.

These CTAs work because they’re useful, not urgent—they help viewers solve a problem (“Where do I find this?”) or connect with others (“My friend would love this!”).

By guiding creators to blend promotion with practicality, you turn their influence into a bridge between digital discovery and real-world retail habits.

5— Partner with the right creators (and forget about size labels)

When driving in-store purchases, your influencer strategy needs to focus on finding the right creator, not just reaching certain follower thresholds.

Nycole Hampton, a marketing leader with two decades of experience in integrated marketing and brand strategy, emphasizes this point:

As an industry, we need to stop using sizing categories like micro, macro, nano. These categories are used far too broadly and don't work outside of Instagram. If you look at two influencers with the same follower count on Instagram versus TikTok, you'll see very different behaviors and engagement. On Instagram, 500k followers might represent years of community building, while on TikTok it could come from one viral video with low engagement since. A follow never means a committed community member. What we really need to focus on is BRAND FIT and engaged communities.

Following this principle, focus your partnerships on two key creator types:

1— Loyal creators who love your brand. These are creators who’ve already promoted your product online. They know your brand story, ingredients, and benefits inside out—no training needed.

By involving them in retail campaigns, you:

• Tap into trust: Their audience already believes in their genuine love for your product.
• Leverage authenticity: They can speak authentically about product evolution, sharing stories like "I used to order this online, but now I grab it every Target run!"
• Reward loyalty: Inviting them to showcase your retail launch makes them feel valued, deepening their connection to your brand.

2— Retail-specific creators. These are dedicated accounts like @walmartfinds, @targetfinds, or @costcofinds that exclusively post about new and noteworthy products at specific retailers.

They offer unique advantages:

• Built-in shopping audience: Their followers actively look to these accounts to discover what to buy during their next store visit.
• Algorithm advantage: Since they post exclusively about specific stores, their content gets prioritized in feeds for users who engage with that store's content.
• Instant credibility: These accounts are seen as curators of the best store finds, so their recommendations carry significant weight.
• Purchase-ready audience: Their audience consists of regular shoppers at these stores who are actively looking for new products to try.

Together, these two types of creators build a powerful feedback loop: brand loyalists generate excitement and credibility, while retail creators convert that interest into actual store visits and purchases. This dual approach ensures you're not just driving awareness, but actually moving products off shelves.

To find the right influencers for your brand, you can use SARAL — an all-in-one influencer marketing tool where you can find any type of influencers with just a few clicks.

And once you have a list of influencers you want to reach out, it's easy with the email functionality that's built in SARAL.

Ready to Crush Retail Sales?

If you're 3-4 months out from launch —

Start identifying and building relationships with influencers now. The best influencer partnerships take time to cultivate, especially with retail-specific creators who often book content months in advance.

Already in stores?

Reach out to creators who've promoted you before and update them about your retail presence. Brief them specifically on showing store locations, mentioning aisle numbers, and filming those crucial "shop with me" moments. Maybe it's time to refresh your creator briefs and add some specific directions about showing store placement.

And if you're still in the planning phase, use this time wisely.

Follow retail-focused creators in your category, save posts that effectively guide shoppers to products, and note which CTAs drive the most engagement. This research will be invaluable when you're ready to launch your own retail influencer campaign.

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