What Is Social Commerce And How Can You Use It?
In a nutshell, social commerce is online shopping on social media. This has become a massive revenue stream for many businesses around the world. It’s an exciting new blend of sales and marketing, bringing the power of social media to the forefront.
Why Has Social Commerce Come About?
eCommerce has been around for a long time and people are very used to online shopping now. However, there has been a large shift over the last few years from desktop ecommerce to mobile ecommerce. More and more people are using their smartphones to browse the internet and make purchases. The problem is, the stats show that mobile commerce has a much higher rate for abandoning shopping carts.
The snag has always been the number of potential drop-off points for online shopping. You need to search for the items and add them to your cart. Then you need to make an account or log into your account. Then there’s the payment gateway to navigate. What’s more, all of this can only happen once a person has gone from your advert to your website.
Social commerce cuts out that step. Purchases are made right on the social media platform, right from your post about that particular item. This has made the entire online shopping process far more streamlined and easier for the customer. It’s also resulted in some great sales numbers for those who are getting social commerce right.
What Are The Best Platforms To Be On For Selling?
There are several platforms that offer social commerce options, but these three are the top for most users around the world:
It should come as no surprise that Facebook is the top of this list. This platform is still the number one social media platform in the world in terms of active users. It’s also constantly innovating and adapting to changing moods and trends around the world.
We’re not just talking about Facebook Marketplace where users can put up items for sale like they do on Craigslist. There is the option for businesses to make Facebook Shops that integrate with most of the large ecommerce platforms out there. You can literally sync your inventory with Facebook and have an online shop as part of your Business Page.
Your Shop will be available on your Page, meaning users will be able to navigate to your Page and make purchases from there. There is also a Feed for Shops that allow users to find your profile organically based on what they’re searching for. This opens up a whole new stream of marketing on the platform.
What Facebook does is usually repeated on Instagram since they’re both owned by the same company. Instagram links up with your Facebook Shop in much the same way your business Instagram profile will link with your Facebook Business Page. The catalog is then pulled through from Facebook or you can upload a new one.
Once completed, you can make what the platform calls Shoppable Posts. This is when you link to your products from the images or videos you post to your Feed or your Stories.
Pinterest hasn’t quite gone full social commerce, but the power of Product Pins is not to be underestimated. The platform allows you to have links to landing pages that are specific to the product you’ve pinned, where people can purchase the item easily. A Product Pin has space for extra information on it too, including price and availability. It takes a bit of work to set things up on Pinterest but it’s well worth it.
Social commerce has changed the ecommerce’s landscape – many would say for the better – and it’s made it even easier to market and sell products and services online. If you’re not already taking advantage of social commerce, you should!