Can Instagram Save the Department Store?
Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are employing a new kind of sales associate—one who moonlights as a social media creator.
Tyler Bell was encouraging all her clients to “tag your bag.”
Every time Bell, a Saks Fifth Avenue stylist in Troy, Mich., closed a sale, she asked the buyer to show off their purchase on Instagram and tag her account, @tyler.saks. Bell posts Saks inventory multiple times a day on Instagram Stories. Her 27,000 followers will message her directly, asking her to buy a pair of shoes, a sweater or some makeup for them. Then she’ll charge their cards and ship them their purchases.
It’s a new way of doing business: the sales associate as an in-store influencer, albeit one who’s wired into the old-school department store machine.
During the peak of the pandemic, dozens of enterprising sales associates like Bell began using social media to earn commissions even when their home stores were closed. Now, despite a return to relative normalcy, salespeople at department stores like Saks, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom are using Instagram, and to a lesser extent TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn, to attract new, often younger audiences and expand their reach beyond local shoppers.