Most brands are aware of how social media can be instrumental in helping to develop an image, reputation, credibility, and connection with their target audience. As billions of users access platforms like Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert), LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok daily, social media has become an essential marketing medium, prompting businesses to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into social marketing campaigns. However, social media has evolved in recent years, becoming an invaluable resource for boosting sales.
What Is Social Commerce?
Social commerce, or social eCommerce, as it is commonly known, is the concept of selling goods and services through social media platforms. It’s the act of using your social media presence and the familiarity of the social sites to encourage users to make a purchase. You can market and sell your products directly to the consumer through the social media network, preventing the need to disrupt their social experience.
How Does Social Commerce Work?
With the right social commerce solutions, you can make selling on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media networks more manageable. Like your company's eCommerce website, you’d offer your products and services for research and purchase; however, it’s done on a social media website. You can upload images, product descriptions, pricing information, availability, features, videos, and more to provide consumers with a social shopping experience. Upon accessing your products, they can click on the content and watch videos, check out consumer reviews, and even watch live streams to discover more about your offerings.
Importance of Social Commerce
If you already have an eStore, you may be wondering why social commerce platforms are essential to your business. Below are some of the top reasons to consider integrating this concept into your marketing and sales strategies.
Increased Visibility
Having a solid internet presence is essential to your brand’s success. It is the first place that consumers check before making a purchasing decision. While having a company website can increase your visibility, social selling platforms will take it to the next level. How? The more consumer interaction your brand gets, the higher your website climbs the ranks of popular search engines.
Better Customer Engagement
Consumers are more likely to engage with a brand on a platform they know and trust. Most customers like to do research on a company, product, or service before they decide to make a purchase. That’s a lot easier to accomplish when the information is readily available on social media networks they use every day. It’s easier and more comfortable for them to view content, read product descriptions, analyze customer reviews, and even buy something on these social platforms instead of on independent and unfamiliar websites.
Higher Order Value
The more a person buys from your business, the better it is for your bottom line. When you use social media platforms to market and sell your products and services, you increase the total value of how much a consumer may spend per transaction. They’re comfortable because it’s on a familiar platform, and the products and services are likely backed by people they know and trust. Add a simplified in-app shopping experience, and you increase your chances of people buying more.
Better Consumer Data
Another advantage of using social commerce solutions is that it provides invaluable customer insight that you can use to finetune your products and services to accommodate your target audience. Since social media networks have built-in metrics, like reach, impressions, and engagement, you can regularly measure this data to make improvements that will improve your bottom line.
Social media platforms started as digital spaces to communicate with friends and family, then expanded to marketing mediums for business, and now they’re instrumental sales tools. When implemented effectively, social selling can improve your brand’s image, build stronger consumer relationships, enhance consumer engagement, boost visibility, and provide access to data that helps you generate more sales. If you’re not presently using social commerce as a part of your marketing and sales strategies, perhaps learning the advantages will convince you to invest in this invaluable resource.
