Premier Thind Convenience Store Bedford

The free app-based platform, which launched earlier this year

More than 100 Premier stores are cashing in on Booker’s new social media tool SocioConnect.

The free app-based platform, which launched earlier this year, was helping retailers to reach new shoppers, highlight promotions, and engage with the local community, the wholesale giant said.

It works by allowing retailers to control their social media content across platforms including Facebook, Twitter and TikTok in one place, such as scheduling posts and answering customer queries.

It also tracks the performance of every post, helping retailers to monitor and achieve maximum engagement.

Booker-produced content can also be copied over to their social media pages via the app “in a matter of minutes”.

Anila Ali, owner of a Premier store in Tranent, East Lothian, said she was seeing around 1,000 more customers visiting the store every week thanks to the store’s “upweighted social media presence”.

“We only had about 200 followers on Facebook when we reopened the store and within 10 weeks we were up to more than 1,200 and it’s growing all the time,” she said.

Booker said the time it was saving retailers was also making SocioConnect an attractive propostion.

“Social media is really important for us but, as many retailers find, it can be difficult to make time to manage our pages, create new posts regularly and respond to comments and questions,” said Ali. “When we heard about SocioConnect we were really keen to try it out – and it works like a dream.”