When social media first appeared, it was designed to help people connect with each other. However, as the platform evolved and its user base expanded, companies saw opportunities to reach customers in innovative ways. Nowadays, it seems unthinkable to start a new business without a social media presence.
One such new opportunity is social commerce, or the ability to promote and sell products on social media. With millions of people logging into social media apps every day, it has become an ideal means to grow your business.
This article details what social media ecommerce is, the benefits of using this ecommerce channel, and how brands can create their own social media ecommerce strategy.
let's start.
table of contents
What is social media e-commerce?
Social media e-commerce is the practice of using social media to market your e-commerce business by increasing brand awareness, increasing online visibility, expanding your customer base, and even increasing sales.
I talked about it. social commerce, this is an aspect of social e-commerce, or the act of selling products on social media.There is another aspect called mobile commercewhich is the act of selling products on a mobile device (think dedicated apps, mobile browser transactions, etc.).
With 99% of all social media users accessing apps from a mobile device, social media e-commerce comes into the picture a lot.
Benefits of social e-commerce
If you're a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brand with an online-only presence or a retailer moving to an online-first presence, you need all the tools you can to drive sales on your website. Since you can't rely on foot traffic, social media replaces this tactic.
Social media e-commerce provides a ready-made online platform to acquire new customers. But the benefits don't stop there.
Expand your reach and increase brand awareness
There are approximately 5 billion social media users worldwide. And while not all of those 5 billion people will be your target customers, social media presents a huge opportunity for people trying to find your business. When you post on your social profiles, you give people the opportunity to discover your brand, follow your account, and share your products with people they know.
Attract your target audience
Through both organic and paid social channels, you can create content directly for your target audience, reach and engage the people most interested in what you're selling. Create social media posts that elicit some kind of response from your audience, such as comments, messages, likes, and shares. Always manipulate your comments to encourage conversation among your target customers.
Bring more traffic and revenue to your business
And finally, drive traffic to your website and even better, drive sales. Promote your product. We'll show you how they're used and what problems they solve. Make your audience want to buy your product and make it easy for them to do so.
3 Social media e-commerce examples
Curious about what social media e-commerce actually looks like? Take a look at the top three B2C social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
1. Solo stove
Solo Stove sells portable smokeless fire pits and uses social media, primarily through videos, to help promote its products.
Here's an example of one of these videos:
What makes this video stand out is the fact that it promotes a huge sale. Both the text overlay on the video and the video caption share details about the promotion. Customers get a bonus his item when they spend at least $200 (about the same price as a new Solo Stove, anyway).
Videos like this can be very helpful in bringing in new business and directing interested people to your website. Solo Stove could have taken this a step further and opened her Facebook Shop, allowing her viewers to immediately buy directly from the social media platform.
2. Wally Glow
WallyGrow is a company that sells wall-mounted planters online and on social media. The company uses Instagram as a place to promote its products and has also set up his Instagram Shop for social commerce.
But one of the great strategies this brand uses on Instagram is a ton of giveaways. WallyGrow not only shares great photos of their products in action, but they also always give away planters, as seen below.
As an up-and-coming brand, holding regular giveaways is a great way to get potential customers to try out your products. If they like it, they are likely to not only buy more but also tell their friends and family about it.
3. Spike Ball
Spikeball is a company that provides outdoor games that are fun and easy to play. And it has a big presence on TikTok to promote the game. He also has his own TikTok shop, but the brand doesn't always tag its products in its video content.
One recent video promotes a fun idea for playing the game with glowing gear at night.
Since Spikeball is an active game, using video to promote your product is a smart strategy. Showing people having fun is the perfect way to make potential customers want to get in on the action.
How to create a social media ecommerce strategy
Interested in learning how to start promoting your business or products on social media? Learn about our six-step strategy.
1. Set up social e-commerce channels
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok make it easier than ever to shop within their networks. Use the capabilities of these platforms to make shopping and product discovery on social media a seamless experience for your customers.
Instagram and Facebook share the same backend operation for shopping, called MetaCommerce Manager. Once you load your product catalog or link to your website's ecommerce platform (like Shopify or WooCommerce), you can start tagging products in your posts.
When your products appear in your Instagram posts, you can tag them so customers can see purchase details with just a tap. Clicking on a tagged product will take you to her website page for that product where you can purchase it. Your browser will pop up within Instagram, so you can return to browsing as soon as you finish or close your purchase.
You can also create your own shop on TikTok, which is a great place to promote your products. And while Pinterest has removed its in-app shopping feature, it's still a place for users to research products, so e-commerce stores will have a presence there as well.
2. Find your authentic voice and be unique.
Five years ago, there were very few DTC brands in the furniture retail sector. Today, there are dozens of mid-century furniture manufacturers alone vying for public attention. The same story is repeated with his DTC brands, which specialize in dozens of different market segments. How do you differentiate yourself when the field is so crowded?
One way to do this is to find an authentic brand voice for your company. Combined with branded visuals, he becomes one of the first steps to attract attention. Next, identify what makes you unique and different from others in your field. It could be your company's story, your area of expertise, or your customer service.
Research shows that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. When all your products are similar to your competitors, offering great social customer service can help you stand out from the crowd.
3. Use organic and paid strategies
In social media, a combination of organic and paid strategies is usually the preferred method. Paid social media can help you reach a wider audience, but organic content is what keeps them coming back.
Here are some tactics you can use in your e-commerce business to combine these two powerful strategies.
Organic social media strategy for ecommerce
- Presence and use of product reviews on social media accounts
- Increase your brand discoverability by adding relevant hashtags
- Personalized interactions with your account and customers on that account
- Providing excellent social customer care
- Increase social proof with user-generated content
- Improve your products and discover new customers using social listening
Paid social media strategy for ecommerce
- Paid ads and post boosts
- Complement your ads with lookalike audiences and website visitors
- Implementing an influencer marketing campaign
- Creating a brand ambassador program
- Forming brand partnerships
- Create a referral or affiliate program
- Run ads and boosts for the organic strategies above
4. Use social proof
Word of mouth and reviews are a proven strategy to encourage purchases and are a great example of social proof. Social proof is a psychological concept that states that consumers are more likely to buy from a company they see other happy consumers using.
So things like customer reviews, user-generated content, and influencer marketing can help you collect social proof to share with your audience.
For networks that allow reviews as a feature, such as Facebook, it makes good business sense to allow customers to leave reviews. If you continually ask for more reviews from your customers, you will gain social proof. Reviews are moderated by the brand and become even better when you respond to them.
Another way to strengthen your social proof is to use influencer marketing strategies. Pear Eyewear does a great job with influencer marketing across TikTok, using those influencer videos for both paid and organic content (emphasizing that last point here).
5. Use social listening
Social listening benefits all departments of your company. But especially in sales, you can use social listening to identify gaps in your competitors' strategies and see what customers in your industry are saying. These discussions can lead to new products, strategies, and better customer service.
Social listening is essential for online-only businesses, as they often rely on interactions and online activity to guide strategy. This leads to distinguishing oneself from others in an increasingly crowded social space.
6. Use analytics to guide your e-commerce sales
We've talked about social listening before, but there are additional analytics you can leverage when working on social selling. Using social media data to continually inform your sales plans can lead to increased ROI.
You can find a lot of e-commerce related data from social media analytics.
- Website clicks
- Visit to profile
- Social sharing from website
- Customer mentions
- Advertising offers and click-throughs
- Mention of new products or campaigns
Some analytics, such as Instagram impressions from your Explore page, are part of your organic ecommerce social strategy. Other analytics, such as website clicks and social-only offers, are more specific analytics that help define your social ROI.
Create your social media ecommerce strategy today
There are many tactics that e-commerce or DTC companies can use on social media. But what most people agree on is that you need a social media presence to improve your marketing. Social media helps customers discover brands, read reviews, receive referrals from trusted sources, and shop.
Test Sprout Social to see if you have all the right tools. Access tools that help you monitor your online presence, market to the right audience, and monitor social media analytics.
