A Complete Guide to Social Shopping
Social shopping is the new ecommerce revolution that allows brands to convert their content on social media. Explore how you can boost sales using social media.
People usually talk about their experiences with a brand in conversations.
And with social media on the rise, consumers have started to use it as a medium to research products they want to purchase and review them post-purchase.
Reports found that consumer reviews have a 74% increase in product conversion.
With people spending more and more time on social media, it is no surprise that people prefer to shop from social media.
Businesses, today, have been using social media as an integral part of their revenue generation strategy.
Social shopping is the new ecommerce revolution that allows brands to convert their content on social media. A Gartner report found that almost 66% of brands had tried out the social shopping feature in the past year.
What is Social Shopping?
Social shopping can be defined as the combination of social media and ecommerce. Brands tag products to their social content that allow customers to shop directly from the post.
Content published on social media can have a significant impact on an individual’s buying behavior. A person’s buying decisions may also be influenced by their friend’s recommendations and reviews.
For instance, an influencer with 100k followers reviews a moisturizer on social media. This can have a sizeable impact on the brand’s conversion rates. Followers may take the influencer’s insights and reviews to purchase products from the same brand because they trust the review of the influencer.
Reports found that the social shopping market in the US will grow from $29.3 billion in 2020 to $84.2 billion in 2024, an annual growth rate of 24%.
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Difference between Social Shopping and Ecommerce
How to Use Social Shopping in your Ecommerce Brand?
Having your products tagged with your content on social media opens up a range of opportunities.
Shoppers discover new brands as and when they go using hashtags, posts, shop tabs, and more.
Hence, using social shopping as a part of your content marketing strategy can help you generate revenue from the content you post.
A report found that AOV for customers referred from Instagram is $65, followed by Facebook at $55, Twitter at $46, and YouTube at $38.
Advertising to Capture Leads
Social media is an excellent way to capture leads. It offers advanced tools to advertise your products to your targeted audience.
However, it is crucial to ascertain your advertising objectives.
Do you want to drive traffic to your website?
Do you want to promote a specific product range?
Do you want to capture potential leads?
Or is there any other objective that requires your attention?
A great way to use advertising is to use Click to WhatsApp ads on Facebook. You can use these ads to capture potential customers.
Once your customer sends the pre-typed message, you can immediately capture their phone number. You can engage and incentivize the customer to complete their purchase through discount coupons, personalized offers directly via WhatsApp.
Read more Click-to-WhatsApp Ads
Optimize for Conversion
All your social channels must be well equipped to complete a transaction. This means that buyers should be able to purchase directly via the app of their choice.
Ensuring a seamless purchasing experience by adding product discovery, recommendations, and payment integrations can help you maximize your sales through social shopping.
Vizury’s conversational commerce solution allows your business to use messaging apps for revenue generation. You can build conversational flows, store your data and create actionable segments of users based on demographics, behavior, and intent.
Read more How Vizury's WhatsApp Commerce can Empower DTC and Omnichannel Retail
Personalize your Shopper’s Experience
Research indicates that shoppers tend to spend more if their shopping experience is more exclusive and personalized.
One of the best ways to personalize your shopper’s experience is to use conversational AI in your social channels. The AI analyzes the user’s intent and behavior and delivers a response that is catered to the shopper’s needs.
You can also use it to send promotional messages, offers, and discounts to incentivize them to purchase.
Examples of Brands using Social Shopping to Boost their Revenue
Here are some brands that are using social media to create content as well as sell from their catalogs.
Sephora
Popular beauty brand Sephora rolled out the "Fragrance IQ" quiz to personalize their shopper's experience. The quiz has a series of questions that helps determine the ideal perfume for the buyer.
After the buyer finishes the quiz, products are recommended based on their preferences. This is an excellent way to keep the buyer engaged as well as personalize their experience.
They also use social media to offer expert help to their buyers using Instagram DMs, Messenger as well as their website.
The brand creates digital experiences that makes it easier for buyers to make a purchase decision. This ultimately helps them drive sales while personalizing a buyer's experience.
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Target
Instead of listing all its products, Target has developed a shop that aligns with its Instagram content strategy. All posts are connected to their Instagram shop where visitors can seamlessly click and purchase products directly via the app.
This has created an excellent browsing experience for shoppers. In case they like a product, they can purchase it by tapping into the shop button on the post.
H&M
Popular fashion retail brand, H&M has over 37.9M on Instagram. H&M uses Instagram shops to showcase its products and sell via the app.
Their content is mostly based on giving fashion recommendations and suggesting outfits. These outfits are then connected to their product catalog to offer viewers an option to purchase if they like the outfit.
The Social Media Revolution
There is no doubt that social media has completely revolutionized how customers interact with brands. Hence, it is essential to be where your customers are and give them the opportunity to purchase products however they want to.
Social shopping provides a wide range of opportunities to explore. The question is are you creating content that converts?