Growth Architects.
Social commerce is the practice of using social media sites as a vehicle to sell your products or services (Social Media Today).
People are increasingly using social media as a platform to research products and engage with brands more interactively, so it’s a no brainer for brands to use social media to sell.
Social commerce is the practice of using social media sites as a vehicle to sell your products or services (Social Media Today). This works well because users can purchase the items they see more quickly and without being redirected, which satisfies the ‘I want it now’ consumer mentality.
Personally, I think Instagram is the perfect social commerce platform due to its aesthetics-led concept.
And, plenty of brands are taking advantage and seeing results, as research shows engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook and 84 times higher than Twitter (Brand Watch).
Online fashion brand, Pretty Little Thing, has a great social media presence and weaves social commerce into its strategy seamlessly. It enables users to tap the shopping icon on selected images to shop featured products and see more items from the brand.
However, the key to the brand’s social success is it doesn’t just push products but bolsters social commerce with varied content such as competitions, IGTV and highlights, and directly engages with customer queries and feedback.
Whilst not solely focused on aesthetics, Facebook is the next best platform for social commerce because of its usage, as the platform has 2.38 billion monthly active users, compared to Instagram’s one billion.
And, Facebook remains popular because it has different features and is largely informational. Users can find out things about a company through its Facebook Page whether it’s business hours, an address or upcoming events.
Makeup brand Benefit has a good Facebook strategy because, like Pretty Little Thing, it mixes attractive imagery, video tutorials and live streaming with social commerce posts. Facebook’s functionality means it also has store locations, opening times and a ‘Book an Appointment’ feature.
No matter the social media site, the statistics demonstrate the huge potential for all brands to guide users from their feed to checkout.
To leverage a successful social commerce strategy, you only need two things.
Everything that follows, such as creating and monitoring a separate support account, will establish customer trust and increase transactions through social media sites.
Remember that although the aim of social commerce is to sell your products or offering, social media platforms aren’t designed for hard selling and your followers will switch off if that’s all you post.
Like the above examples, you should create a strategy where the majority of your posts are fun and engaging with the odd commerce post worked in.
To find out more about social commerce and using social media effectively, email [email protected] or call 01926422002 to chat with a member of our social media and content team.
Sud Kumar
Marketing Director
Technology and marketing tools are constantly evolving, and to remain current and gain a competitive edge, it’s essential to keep up-to-date with the latest developments.
Read more
The beginning of May 2019 saw James and Sud take a trip to San Francisco to visit our clients at the US Loqate office. This was to get the ball rolling for our next big Account Based Marketing Campaign with Loqate, a GBG Solution.
Read more
Phoebe, a foundation degree Graphic Design, Multimedia and Illustration student, joined Origin as an intern in February 2019 to gain agency experience and learn transferrable marketing skills.
Read more
