As we’re all gearing down from last-minute, overnight-shipping, how-do-I-wrap-a-basketball frenzy, it’s good to reflect on exactly how some of our favorite gifts came to us. No, not by sleigh, but e-commerce. Social media drove online sales up 300% for one dR client.

In the last few months surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas, we collaborated with our clients who sell products and merchandise online about how to utilize their preexisting social media presence and relationships to direct new and existing consumers to their online stores.

Discount Tire was one of these clients. After leaking promo codes and directing consumers to offers via Facebook and Twitter, Discount Tire experienced substantial results in terms of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, over-indexing from years prior.

But even if your brand isn’t in the business of exclusively selling retail products, perhaps e-commerce is a portion of your overall business. Take the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for example. The UFC and UFCStore.com needed initiatives that would inform consumers that they could still order gifts in time for Christmas, as well as direct them to their online property–free of off-tone, sales gimmicks. Enter Dana White. UFC President Dana White and UFC personnel selected a handful of their favorite apparel items, both male and female, from the UFC Store and shared them with their online network. Dana White posted his favorite hooded sweatshirt to nearly 1 million followers on Twitter, as well as his Facebook page. It was a personal touch that combined e-commerce and social media for astounding results.

The same year-to-year increase in sales were seen for the White Sox, who employed not an official White Sox account, but the social media channels of mascot Southpaw and Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, encouraging fans to consider buying White Sox merchandise for their friends and family.

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