Where is my target audience? A question that often pops up in the mind of new ecommerce sellers. The answer lies around us only, a place where today’s buyers are mostly spending their time. Social media is the answer! That is why many store owners are already harnessing the potential of social media & ecommerce. With the dual strength of social media and ecommerce, you get social commerce. The concept of social commerce transforms how buyers will discover, browse, and purchase your products. As a modern ecommerce store owner, you should tap the potential of social commerce before its too late. How? Here are some valuable insights to help you get started.
Social Commerce: What Does It Means?
If you actually want to make money, do not skip social commerce. The traditional ecommerce methods do work but you need to adapt to the evolving circumstances. Social commerce gives you the opportunity by taking your products and services online. Without any fuss, you can directly sell via your social media channels. And this is where your buyers are trying to find you! Think of yourself as a buyer scrolling through Instagram and finding that one item that you were longing for! Without a second thought, you will complete the checkout process in minutes. Social commerce is predicted to grow 3 times as fast as traditional commerce by 2025, so do not miss out on this opportunity to 10x your business sales.
Reasons Not to Skip Social Commerce
- A Large Pool of Buyers: Internet users spend almost an average of 2 hrs and 27 minutes per day on social media. This is your chance to rise and shine. As an ecommerce seller, you cannot and should not skip this golden opportunity. Social commerce brings in billions of people to see, notice, and buy your products. Your potential buyers might research your products or might see a friend’s post to ultimately discover your business. Also, there are chances of direct purchases through links or in-app social media purchases. Thus, leveraging social commerce puts you in front of a massive audience which can soon turn out to be your potential customers.
- Positive Reviews & Recommendations: People trust real and authentic reviews and recommendations. Social media is the perfect place to establish social proof for your products. When shopping online, people cannot physically touch and feel the products. That is why they rely heavily on reviews and recommendations. These reviews help execute a more informed buying decision. With social commerce, you attract new customers by giving them a chance to purchase and submit reviews all in one location. As you get more positive reviews, you send a positive signal to the social media algorithms. Hence, creating a more stronger social media presence for your ecommerce store.
- Quick Conversions: Another reason not to miss adopting social commerce is quick customer conversion. It becomes easy to search and convert buyers where they are actually scrolling and shopping. This is because they can execute direct purchases from the social media platform, eliminating the need to switch between a website or an app. As a consequence, extinguishing friction and barriers to provide a smooth buying journey.
- Customer’s Social Habits: Social commerce provides access to customer’s social profiles. This provides vital information about your potential buyers, enabling you to tailor your marketing strategies accordingly. With this information, you can design more creative conversion trials. Results can guide CTA adjustments, messaging A/B testing, and other initiatives to have a greater influence on your intended audience.
How to Build a Strong Social Commerce Strategy?
14% of all online purchases take place on social media. Because of this, purchasing directly from a big retailer, delivery app, or direct-to-consumer business is preferred less than social commerce. Here is how you can make the most out of your social commerce strategy:
- Select the Right Platform: As the phrase goes, sell where your customers shop. To create and sustain a strong global social commerce market strategy, choose a social media platform that works best for you. Focus on your target audience's preferred channels and engage them with the most. After that, you can select two to three channels to meet your objectives and enhance your online presence there. Don't forget to check your social media analytics and witness the most engagement of your business.
- Create a Visual Storefront: At first, you judge a book by its cover! Social media is all about visually appealing products. You need to make a eye catchy social storefront on Facebook or Instagram to optimize your social commerce strategy. Your visually appealing products will help you stand out from the rivals. This will strengthen your online presence on popular social channels like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.
- Be More Personalized: Personalization is the key. The more personalized approach you follow, the more chances of conversion you get. You need to target your intended audience with personalized ads based on their previous browsing and buying patterns. Some tips that you can adopt include retargeting previous users, speaking buyer's language, sending more personalized recommendations, etc.
- Relevance Matters: For any social media presence, relevance is crucial. Content that is popular one month might not be the next. That is social media's nature: The terrain is always shifting, and trends appear to be transient. Keeping up with it might actually take up your entire day. How can you generate authentic, shoppable, and pertinent content? Imagine yourself as your customer. Be aware that not all trends will align with the messaging of your business, but stay on top of them nonetheless. Look for and produce opportunities that combine popular subjects and formats with the mission of your brand.
Do Not Miss Out These Platforms for Social Commerce!
- Instagram: Instagram is without any doubt the most productive social media network for users, producers, and businesses. One great feature for ecommerce businesses that facilitates communication between brands and buyers on Instagram is shoppable Instagram. Shoppable Instagram is a platform feature that lets users experience Instagram social commerce without ever leaving the app. Examples of these capabilities include shopping the Instagram feed. Users can easily access the product's name and pricing by tapping on the post.
- TikTok Shop: US social commerce revenues are forecasted to exceed $100 billion by 2025, driven by growing engagement from Gen Z buyers. TikTok is taking center stage: This year, it has been the main topic in the social commerce discussion. TikTok has jumped at the chance to sell directly to consumers, while other platforms have backed off. It launched its e-commerce marketplace, TikTok Shop Social Commerce, in September and is making significant investments to develop its own logistics infrastructure to draw both customers and e-commerce vendors.
- Facebook: Another widely used social media sites, Facebook is also a fantastic venue for e-commerce entrepreneurs to use social commerce. Facebook has long provided a platform for businesses to sell goods. Businesses may quickly establish a virtual shopping store for their brand via Facebook social commerce. Facebook gives brands free access to store customization. They can pick a theme that complements the theme of their brand and decide which product images to display. By interacting with their intended audience at any time and from any location, small store owners may expand thanks to Facebook Shop's free services.
- Linktree: Linktree is another social commerce platform which majorly targets Gen Z shoppers, who prefer seamless, in-app shopping experiences. By enabling creators and brands to sell products directly via their Linktree profiles, the platform capitalizes on the trend of social commerce. This shift enables influencers and ecommerce businesses to offer shoppable links alongside their content, streamlining the buying process and catering to Gen Z's preference for instant, mobile-first purchasing.
- Wechat: In China, WeChat is regarded as the all-in-one super-app. It started out as an instant chat app, but it has since evolved and now contains social commerce capabilities. From social networking and e-commerce to mobile payments and video channels, its development has produced a whole ecosystem.
- Pinterest: Pinterest is like Instagram that emphasizes images. However, their shoppable post is presented differently. The goal is to establish a safe, convenient, and mobile-friendly shopping environment. 459 million of Pinterest's monthly active users already adore the platform. Ecommerce Brands have seen a spike in sales due to Pinterest's new shoppable pin feature, which removes the need for additional marketing tactics to get users to visit their e-commerce website. This has also improved the dwell time as users do not have to leave the app.
China: Leading the Way in Social Commerce
As reported by Statista, 84% of consumers in China have made purchases via social media platforms, which is among the highest rates in the world. Approximately 50% of China's yearly retail income is generated by its extensive online shopping demographic. As the world's largest e-commerce market, leading companies are constantly developing new strategies to cater to the nation’s 904 million eager online shoppers.
Contemporary Chinese consumers are also increasingly turning to local social media platforms for trustworthy reviews and opinions from other buyers. Due to this change, social commerce platforms have grown in popularity, seamlessly fusing social interactions with online purchases.
Simplify Operations with Smart Integrations
As you scale your social commerce efforts, integrations can play a major role in streamlining your processes. Applications like MapMyChannel can aid businesses with a strong social media presence manage inventory and orders more efficiently. With features such as centralized order management, multichannel integration, and automated inventory tracking, you get to minimize manual work, reduce errors, and ensure seamless operations. By consolidating orders from multiple platforms into a single dashboard, MapMyChannel enables you to focus more on serving your customers and expanding your business.
Embrace Social Commerce Today!
Online retail is being transformed by social commerce, which is more than just a fad. With billions of people spending ample amounts of time on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms, it is too valuable to pass up the chance to interact with your to-be buyers. Ecommerce businesses can multiply conversions, develop credibility through real reviews, and design individualized, smooth shopping experiences. It is high time to use this tactic to optimize your sales potential in the digital era and take advantage of social commerce's power right away to avoid missing the wave!
