How Social Commerce Can Drive Sales
According to Statista, 2.65 billion people used social media in 2018, and that number is expected to rise to nearly 3.1 billion by 2021. The world is on social, and e-commerce businesses are finally finding the functionality in this area that allows them to be fully involved.
Consumers demand an easy and fast e-commerce experience, and the major social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat, are giving this to them with social commerce. A recent focal point of online shopping is to cut as many steps from the conversion process as possible with the birth of shoppable posts, marketplaces, and other related options.
If you sell products online, selling through your social channels is a tactic to be strongly considered. 43 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product if they learn about it on social media. Not only that, but 74 percent of consumers rely on social media for help in making their purchase decisions. Social was already a huge driver of e-commerce sales, but the implementation of social commerce has launched a new era of e-commerce being more fully integrated into the daily experience of many consumers.
To better understand how social commerce works, let’s take a look at 5 major social platforms:
Facebook now allows companies to build shops on Facebook as a subset of their official page, which are basically e-commerce hubs within the social network. Products can be listed and bought directly from these stores, and Facebook ads can be generated from the listings. Business owners can also get insights about how their products are being seen and engaged with.
Facebook also introduced shopping within Facebook Messenger. Using artificially intelligent chatbots, businesses can connect with consumers directly via messages and provide easy browsing and purchasing within Messenger.
60 percent of Instagram users say they find new products on Instagram, so making those products buyable from the app was a no-brainer. Instagram now has shoppable posts. With this feature, business accounts can tag products shown within their posts so that users are able to view information about them, see related products, and make the purchase—all within the Instagram app. Users can also save shoppable posts to their Collections which will then be categorized into a specific album to go back and shop later.
Instagram also added shopping to Stories, letting verified accounts or accounts with over ten-thousand users add links you can swipe up to access.
On Twitter, consumers can make purchases right from tweets that feature a buy button. Companies can tweet out links to their products, and users will be able to tap the buy button on the tweet and make the purchase within the app.
Snapchat
A recent partnership with Amazon has improved Snapchat’s social commerce outlook, as users can now snap a pic of a physical product they are interested in and immediately be taken to Amazon to buy that product.
Snapchat also introduced Snap Product Catalogs which let businesses use their e-commerce site to create Snap Ads simply and at scale. Snap Ads are shoppable too, so users that see them can tap to buy in-app right away.
Pinterest has always been popular for buyer inspiration, since so many of its pins are product-focused. Pins on Pinterest are now shoppable too, letting users buy the products featured without leaving the app.
Social commerce is driving online sales and making the consumer experience easier than ever. If you’re looking to boost your e-commerce sales and want to get your products out to new customers too, social commerce is the way to go.
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