SAN DIEGO — Pet Supplies Plus has partnered with SOCi Inc., a marketing platform, to support its social media strategy. SOCi will serve as the pet food and supplies retailer’s platform of record for localized social media marketing.

With more than 665 retail locations throughout 41 states in the United States, Pet Supplies Plus sought a platform that would help support its social media development, therefore expanding its reach in the neighborhood pet retail channel. Using SOCi, Pet Supplies Plus hopes to help enable its franchisees to grow their store’s online presence.

Pet Supplies Plus is utilizing SOCi’s platform for its local store pages across social media channels like Facebook and Instagram, to search engine tools like Google, and review platforms like Yelp. The platform allows franchisee owners to measure their social media performance, allowing them to focus on more successful content.

“Our transition to SOCi has allowed our Pet Supplies Plus stores and franchise owners to increase the overall social engagement at the local store level in an easy and simple to use platform,” said Chris Rowland, chief executive officer of Pet Supplies Plus. “By utilizing SOCi to manage all of our local store pages across digital channels, owners are able to create deeper connections with our neighbors around each store.”

According to SOCi, consumers seek locally relevant social content. Such content provides higher engagement compared to content that franchises cross-post from corporate social pages. In fact, local store pages on Facebook that post unique content can increase their engagement by 67%, compared to when these pages syndicate content from a parent corporate page.

As well as driving engagement, SOCi can also help brands increase their traffic and sales conversion potential.

“SOCi was built with the customer buying journey in mind, from awareness to purchase to advocacy,” said David Marler, chief customer officer of SOCi. “For example, knowing that 78% of consumers say their purchase decisions are influenced by social content, we want to arm our customers with a social solution that can be accessed at the corporate level and the local level in order to easily connect with their communities at the right time.”

In addition to the partnership, SOCi announced that it was named “Rookie of the Year” at Pet Supplies Plus’ 2022 Summit.

Read more about pet retail trends.