Small retailers show big-name stores how to use social media to sell

Brandi Temple, a 39-year-old mother of four, transformed a living-room hobby into a retailing business that ships 30,000 items of children's clothing a month, using online social tools that giant competitors have failed to master.

Lolly Wolly Doodle, the retailer founded by Temple in 2010, makes most of its sales through Facebook, using the social network to set prices, take orders, forecast production and even market and design clothes.

"I just snapped a picture and put it on Facebook," said Temple, chief executive of Lolly Wolly Doodle, which is based in North Carolina in the United States. "I said, 'I have these 25 dresses, here's how much I want for them.' Within 30 seconds, they sold out."

Clothes retailers, from Gap to Saks and Macy's, have been seeking ways to profit through sites such as Facebook and Pinterest , which offer access to more than a billion consumers. While many big companies have brand pages and let users "like" items, few sell directly through social networks. That threatens to keep the clothing industry from profiting from the annual US$30 billion of goods that the consulting firm Booz & Co predicts will be sold through social media by 2015.

Lolly Wolly Doodle is pioneering the use of social media, generating 80 per cent of sales through Facebook. To place an order, users "like" the retailer's page and comment on an item, expressing an intent to buy. The company then e-mails an invoice and ships the product. Two weeks of sales via Facebook brought in as much as two months on eBay, Temple said.

"On eBay, sometimes you'll get feedback and questions, but you don't have that immediate reaction that says, 'Maybe you can make this in zebra,'" Temple said. "You're able to see what sells, why it sells, hear directly from them and engage with them. We don't plan two seasons ahead."