Gurugram, May 21 : South Korean major Samsung on Thursday announced it has partnered with Facebook to train offline retailers in digital marketing and grow their businesses online across Facebook family of apps in the social distancing times. In the first phase, Samsung and Facebook have already trained more than 800 offline retailers, with more training sessions lined up in the coming weeks. The major focus of trainings is on enabling offline retailers build a digital presence across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. "Our partnership with Facebook is helping a large number of our retail partners go digital in a big way. By leveraging the Facebook training, our retail partners will be able to discover and target local consumers digitally," said Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India. "Consumer too will benefit as they can now access product information and shop for Galaxy smartphones through social media pages of their local retailers," Singh added. The training is helping Samsung's offline retailers set-up their business pages and accounts on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. With the changing environment around COVID-19, people are spending more time on digital platforms. This has led brands to alter go-to-market models by adapting to changes in the value chain, rapidly digitising key journeys. "With our industry-leading digital skilling resources, we partnered with Samsung to skill their leading offline retailers, enabling them to reach out to consumers in their natural habitat of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp seamlessly, and helping the business adapt to the new normal," explained Prasanjeet Dutta Baruah, Vertical Head - Technology, Telecom, Automotive and New Business at Facebook India. According to the company, retailers can engage with potential consumers to share information such as e-detailers and e-catalogues on available Samsung phones. Consumers can order their favourite Samsung smartphone via WhatsApp by contacting the local retailers on retailer's WhatsApp Business app, who can home deliver phones, ensuring consumers don't have to step out from the comfort of their homes. /IANS