8 Methods to Increase Your Social Commerce Sales
By Bruce Klaic Monday, October 31, 2022
As online shopping becomes increasingly popular, businesses are looking for new ways to capitalize on the trend. One such way is social commerce: using social media to sell products and services directly to customers. There's a problem: when people are redirected from social media to an eCommerce site, they often lose interest. This friction can be enough to turn potential customers away. There are ways to increase social commerce sales without causing this extra friction. In this blog post, we'll explore eight of them.
Defining Social Commerce
If you're looking to increase your social commerce sales, it's important to understand what social commerce is.
Social commerce is the function of selling your products directly on social media, taking advantage of the captive audience without the need for them to visit your site. This is a growing market, worth an estimated $604.5 billion by the year 2027.
Social commerce is a buying experience that takes place entirely on social media. You see an item you like, tap it to get more information, and then use the in-app checkout. Your payment information will already be saved so you can just click "buy now."
By incorporating shopping capabilities into your posts, you can make it easier for customers to buy from you without having to leave the safety and comfort of their favourite social media platform. This makes it easier for customers to buy products they see without having to go through a lengthy checkout process.
Increase your social commerce sales, here's how:
An increasing number of businesses are offering customers the ability to transact and shop within social apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. This provides a simpler shopping experience for customers and helps brands to stand out amongst their competitors.
With social commerce on the rise, how can you make sure your store stands out? Here are some tested methods to help increase sales:
1. What are your most popular social channels?
Business owners looking to increase social commerce sales should focus on their most popular social media channels. By identifying which social networks bring in the most cash flow and have the most engagement, business owners can tailor their social commerce efforts to those channels. Additionally, surveying customers can give business owners an idea of where their followers like to see posts about their products.
2. Are your posts Shoppable?
If you want to increase your social commerce sales, make your posts shoppable. This means that customers can tap on a featured item and buy it in the app. Social commerce allows audiences to purchase items directly from brands through their favourite social media apps. This makes it more convenient for customers and helps brands build trust with their audience. A whopping 81% of shoppers use Instagram and Facebook to research potential purchases, according to Facebook Insights. So by making your posts shoppable, you're taking advantage of a captive audience and making it easier for potential customers to buy from you.
3. Social Proof has Power
Business owners looking to increase social commerce sales should focus on creating a strong social media presence and gathering positive reviews from customers. Having a large number of positive reviews will help convince potential buyers that your products are worth purchasing. Additionally, make sure to share content that is authentic and relevant to your target audience. This will help you build trust with potential buyers and increase the chances of converting them into paying customers.
Additionally, consider incorporating user-generated content into your social media strategy. This can serve as another form of social proof and allows customers to feel like they are part of your brand community.
4. In-Platform Customer Service
As more and more shoppers transition to social media to make purchases, businesses must adapt their customer service approach to cater to this growing trend. By providing social customer service through messaging platforms like Facebook and Twitter, brands can answer questions and solve problems for customers in a seamless and uninterrupted way. This helps keep the buying journey moving forward and prevents any potential friction from arising.
5. Work with Influencers
Business owners looking to increase social commerce sales can improve their reach by teaming up with influencers. Relevant social accounts can be identified and tapped into to create a niche audience. Influencers that are most relevant to the target demographic can be approached to do a review of the product in exchange for a free sample. Additionally, customers can be asked to become brand influencers by sharing content with products using a specific hashtag, through a rewards program, or by asking for video testimonials that may be featured in one of the business owner's posts.
6. Personalisation
Personalisation is key for businesses looking to increase social commerce sales. Customers are more likely to shop with brands that give them personalised experiences, as per a survey from Accenture. 91% of those surveyed said this was the case.
For example, suggest products to customers based on past purchases from your website. Recommendations are an excellent way to gain your audience’s attention with pertinent social media content. A page-level targeting tool can automatically generate personalized product suggestions at checkout, based on past customer purchases. Page-level targeting is also great for enlarging cart sizes through cross-selling recommendations.
7. Audience Engagement is Key
If you're looking to increase social commerce sales, it's important to engage with your customers. This means being social and interactive, as well as asking for feedback and providing valuable content. Ensure that customers can post comments on your shoppable posts so you can answer any questions they may have about the product. By doing this, other potential customers will be able to see these answers as well. By doing this, you're also creating a user-generated FAQ to improve the customer experience with your brand.
8. Landing Pages Still Matter
When it comes to social commerce, it's important to provide your audience with a strictly social shopping experience. However, that doesn't mean you can't also direct them to Landing Pages on your website. In fact, including links to your landing pages in your bio can be a great way to increase traffic and sales. Just make sure you test and optimize your pages before launch!
We hope you have enjoyed these tips on how to improve social commerce sales. If you are looking for an agency to help you create and implement a strategy to do this for you reach out today!