What’s in this article:
- Social commerce is not about shifting your social media goals completely toward sales – But figuring out how to inject sales into your overall social media marketing practices in a way that works for your audience
- Social commerce allows you to use your social media content (and overall presence) for a varietyof purposes — all while making the path to purchase as easy as possible for your customers
- Implementing social commerce allows you to continue optimizing your checkout experience — something the modern customer is always looking for
Social commerce has been one of the most talked-about topics within the B2C realm over the last few years.
On paper, social commerce offers the modern consumer much of what they typically ask for from their favorite eCommerce brands:
- High-quality, product-focused content
- A streamlined, sometimes native path to purchase
- A more personal and personable (and less “mechanical”) buying experience
But, as Aaron Orendorff pointed out on PostFunnel, social commerce isn’t actually catching on as the B2C world had expected.
While Instagram continues to make strides in this area, others seem to have put social commerce on the back burner — keeping their main focus on helping brands advertise and generate brand awareness over spurring sales.
(And, in Twitter’s case, they’ve already pulled the plug on their initial foray into the world of social commerce.)
For B2C companies, the typical knee-jerk reaction to all this has been to write off social commerce as a flop, and to remain focused on the tried-and-true sales methods you’ve always relied on.
While this is certainly the more prudent course of action, completely shutting the door on social commerce can lead to missed opportunities for your business.
So, though you may not want to go all-in on social commerce just yet, you do want to want to start seeing it as a viable option for your company in the near future.
That said, let’s take a look at four key reasons to hop on the social commerce bandwagon today.
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Interest and Demand for Social Commerce is Growing
Over the past few years, the growing hype behind social commerce has led many brands to begin using their social media presence for sales purposes.
In fact, from 2017 to 2018, adoption of social commerce with the US had nearly doubled.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much correlation between the number of brands adopting social commerce and the number of consumers using social media to make purchases. As eMarketer found when conducting a survey, many consumers won’t even consider buying anything directly via social media.
At first glance, this doesn’t really look all that promising. Overall, only 6% of respondents use social media shopping regularly, while a full 50% have either never heard of it or aren’t interested in using it.
But take a closer look at the above chart.
Specifically, look at how different the responses from those in the 18-34 age range than from the others. For one thing, these younger consumers are almost two times more likely to have used social commerce in the past. What’s more, this age range is the only one in which a majority of respondents are at least “somewhat interested” in buying products through social media.
So, while the older generations aren’t too keen on social commerce, the younger consumers — typically the driving force behind commerce-related trends — are certainly more open to it.
It’s also important to note how social commerce is catching on in other areas of the world. In China, for example, sales via social commerce amount to nearly ten times that of social commerce sales in the US. Moreover, social commerce sales made up 10.3% of all Chinese eCommerce sales in 2019 — a figure which is expected to grow in the years to come.
The point is social commerce hasn’t “flopped”; it simply hasn’t caught on in full force just yet.
The numbers are clear:
A substantial amount of today’s consumers would at least consider using social commerce when making purchases online. As they become more acclimated with the process, this interest will likely become more of an expectation in the eyes of your customers.
Again, if you can’t meet these newly formed expectations, you’re going to miss out on a ton of opportunities in the near future.
Social Commerce Allows for Experimentation and Innovation
The fact that social commerce hasn’t caught on for consumers just yet is, in a way, a blessing in disguise for your brand.
For one thing, since many consumers aren’t yet familiar or comfortable with buying via social media, their expectations are likely rather broad. Because it’s still a novel concept for some, you might not have to be perfect in your approach right away in order to satisfy your customers.
Similarly, the newness of social commerce means that most of your competitors probably don’t know all that much about what works and what doesn’t for your target audience. For the most part, you’ll all be navigating uncharted territory.
Lastly, the social media platforms that have stuck with social commerce continue to improve these channels as time goes on. Instagram, for example, now allows brands to create shoppable content via image or video posts, as well as through their Instagram Stories.
Though only available to select brands for now, Instagram has also added a shoppable section to its Explore function.
Put all this together and you have the perfect scenario for some experimentation and innovation.
In fact, experimentation is necessary to experience continued success with your social commerce efforts.
As the novelty wears off for your customers, you’ll need to keep finding new ways to use social media to engage with and sell to them. And, as your competitors continue to adopt and implement social selling strategies, you’ll need to get increasingly creative in order to stand out.
Now, the question you want to be asking here isn’t “How can I get my customers to buy more via social media?”; it’s “How can I use social media to get my customers to buy more?”
It’s a fine line, really:
Yes, you do want to transform your social media channels into viable sales channels. But, you don’t want to become so focused on selling through these channels that they lose the social part of the equation.
Again, this is where experimentation comes in:
Figuring out how to inject sales into your overall social media marketing practices in a way that works for your audience.
Maybe it’s combining influencer marketing with social selling:
Maybe it’s running UGC-related events, and using the best of the best to sell your products:
Or you might use your social media chatbot or direct messaging to point your audience toward specific product pages on your website or social media channel:
There’s no “right” way to do social commerce; it’s all about what your customers respond to best.
You have two ways to figure out how to approach social commerce:
Either experiment and learn from your audience’s response or wait for your competitors to make your industry’s social commerce trends crystal clear.
We don’t need to tell you which is the right way to go, do we?
Social Commerce Enhances the Omnichannel Experience
We said this earlier, but it bears repeating:
Social commerce is not about shifting your social media goals completely toward sales.
It’s about determining how to integrate sales into your customer’s social media experience. More than that, it’s about adding another channel to your brand’s omnichannel customer experience.
On a transactional level, adding social commerce initiatives creates an even more streamlined path to purchase for customers who utilize them. Whether they’re on your site or your social media channels, they’ll be able to quickly find and purchase the products they need.
To that end, implementing social commerce allows you to continue optimizing your checkout experience — which is something the modern customer is always looking for.
On a deeper, more experiential level, it creates more opportunities for engagement and exchange of value between your brand and your audience.
Take H&M’s Instagram page, for example:
Here, we’re seeing a bunch of different content, from influencer-tagged photos to community-focused videos, and more.
Within H&M’s Instagram Stories, we’re seeing similar product-focused content being unfurled in sequential slides:
In both cases, the option to make a purchase is certainly on the table…but it’s not the focus of the content.
And that’s the point:
Social commerce allows you to use your social media content (and overall presence) for a variety of purposes — all while making the path to purchase about as easy as can be for your customers.
Adding social commerce to your customer experience can also lead more of your customers to your social media channels in general. If they’re just as able to purchase your products on these channels as on your website, they might decide to become more active on these channels. In turn, they can experience everything else you have to offer on these channels.
So, it’s not just that social commerce provides more opportunities to sell to your customers. It also means more opportunities to engage with and provide value to your audience via social media — whether they end up making a purchase or not.
Building a Foundation for Future Sales Opportunities
As more brands adopt social selling, it will become more commonplace throughout the eCommerce realm.
In turn, consumers will become increasingly receptive to your sales efforts on your social media channels.
(That is, as long as you always have their best interest in mind, as we’ve discussed.)
And, as the demand grows for more social purchasing opportunities, we’re bound to see more social media platforms create more ways for businesses to sell on these channels.
We’re already seeing this happen in real-time:
- Instagram continues to roll out various shoppable features and functions
- Pinterest added a visual search feature for shoppable pins
- Tiktok added a shoppable feature using influencers
So, as we’ve made clear, if you’re not at least considering these various avenues, you’re liable to miss out on a ton of social sales opportunities soon enough.
But you’ll also be missing out on a ton of sales through other means, as well.
See, adopting social commerce isn’t just about adopting social commerce; it’s about being open to any new sales methods that your audience will be receptive to.
The goal is to enable your customers to quickly make a purchase whenever and wherever they’re ready to do so. Whether it be via your site, social media channels, chatbot — or any new option coming down the pike — you want to be ready to make it happen for your customers.
Social commerce isn’t the “final form” of eCommerce; it’s simply the next natural step in eCommerce’s evolution toward true omnichannel sales.
That said, to hop on the social commerce bandwagon is to adopt a growth mindset for your organization. This enables your sales team to stay focused not on “what’s always worked” when selling to your customers, but on what’s going to continue working as time goes on.
Again, this doesn’t mean using your various channels to sell, sell, sell — especially in lieu of providing other value to your customers. Rather, the idea is to enable sales to be made on top of delivering the other valuable experiences you provide on these channels.
While not every trend in the eCommerce world is worth following, the writing is on the wall:
Social commerce is due to become a viable sales channel for brands in many industries soon enough.
It’s not a bandwagon; it’s a gravy train.
If it leaves the station without your company on it, there’s no telling what opportunities you’ll end up missing out on in the future.