Why Brands Need Social Commerce To Drive Consumer Engagement
Social media plays a significant role in many people’s lives, as consumers typically check their Facebook feed, Instagram Explore tab, TikTok For You page, and so on at least once a day. Recently, a number of major social platforms have started rolling out commerce features to make online shopping more accessible than ever. Brands should take advantage of these new integrations so they can boost awareness, foster engagement, and drive sales, all in one place. What is social commerce, and how does it work?
What is social commerce?
Social commerce, also known as social shopping, is when brands sell their products and services on social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. Consumers often move from discovery to engagement to purchase without having to navigate to another website or a different app. This can be done through dedicated in-app stores, shoppable posts, conversational commerce (i.e. chatbots and messaging apps), and livestream shopping.
Social commerce is currently available on almost all major social platforms:
Facebook allows brands, small businesses, and individual creators to set up Facebook Shops, run personalized shop ads, and leverage augmented reality try-on features to increase the chance of sales and conversions.
Instagram offers similar capabilities as it’s owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. It also has a dedicated Instagram Shop tab and product tags, where users can turn photos and videos into shoppable posts.
Twitter launched Twitter Shops earlier this year, though unlike Facebook and Instagram, consumers need to visit the brand’s website to complete their purchase. Twitter is also in the process of rolling out livestream shopping, starting with companies like Walmart and Samsung.
TikTok offers a full-service commerce solution, where brands can connect their product catalogs through third-party providers like Shopify, Square, and Wix. They also offer shoppable posts, livestream shopping, and shoppable ads.
YouTube and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. (i.e. Google), recently partnered with online retail solutions like Shopify and Square “to connect with merchants and delivery systems”, and have started adding video and livestream shopping functionality.
Snapchat turned its best-known feature, filters, into augmented reality lenses. Companies like MAC Cosmetics and Ulta Beauty experienced significant increases in awareness, engagement, and sales after allowing Snapchat users to “try” their products.
Lastly, Pinterest recently highlighted new and upcoming social commerce features, including Your Shop, in-app purchases, paid partnership capabilities, and personalized trend recommendations based on users’ first-party data. Pinterest already offers features like Buyable Pins, Promoted Pins, Shopify integration, and augmented reality try-ons.
Social commerce vs. e-commerce
Traditional e-commerce is where consumers visit a brand’s website or app to buy products and services online. They can also visit online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy to purchase from multiple brands at once. Social commerce takes place on social platforms, where consumers browse through their newsfeeds and in-app product catalogs before making a purchase. E-commerce is primarily used for business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and consumer-to-business (C2B) purchases, while the majority of social commerce is for B2C and C2C purchases only.
Currently, social commerce is expected to become a $1.2 trillion industry by 2025 and “grow three times faster than traditional e-commerce”. Much of its fast-paced growth is attributed to the increasing presence of social media in people’s everyday lives; 44% of the world’s population uses social media, spending an average of 2.5 hours per day on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Consumers are also becoming more interested in supporting small businesses and shopping locally. As a result, many look for brand and product recommendations from friends, family, and influencers on social media instead of purchasing from established retailers online.
Benefits and challenges of social commerce
Benefits of social commerce
The main advantage of social commerce is its ability to create fast, frictionless brand experiences, increasing the chances of sales and conversions. Social media is especially effective in fulfilling consumers’ need for instant gratification, with social commerce acting as an extension of the experience. Instead of seeking out reviews and recommendations or moving between multiple apps and websites, shoppers start and finish their entire buyer’s journey in one place. This also helps brands maintain consistent messaging and visuals throughout, rather than needing to coordinate across different marketing channels.
Social commerce also gives brands, especially small businesses and individual creators, more one-to-one opportunities and increased control. Rather than competing for search engine rankings, physical and digital shelf space, and so on, brands can leverage organic social growth and word-of-mouth advertising to directly reach and sell to their audience. For example, they can send direct messages to potential customers and offer personalized deals. They can share user-generated content to establish social proof and build brand communities, plus include product links to boost sales and ROI. Lastly, they can run social media polls and surveys, then combine the results with engagement and purchase data to map out consumer journeys and identify potential pain points.
Lastly, social commerce helps brands and marketers capture zero-party and first-party data. Companies need data to better understand and serve their customers’ needs, such as what kinds of content they want to see and what types of products they want to buy. Through social commerce, brands can get a clearer sense of their consumers’ path to purchase with their data centralized in one place. For example, they can identify how many comments or purchases they received during a livestream shopping event or see which shoppable posts generated the most likes and sales. This not only informs their sales strategy, but also their content strategy as well.
Challenges of social commerce
The main disadvantage of social commerce is the limitations of each individual social platform, both from a content perspective and a commerce perspective. This can be especially difficult for brands whose target markets are only on specific social networks. For example, a brand whose products are best demonstrated through livestreams may only have an audience on Facebook, where livestream shopping currently isn’t available. Some platforms may also limit social commerce features to specific geographic regions like the United States, making it harder for global brands to create consistent experiences for all of their customers.
The other main disadvantage of social commerce is the potential disconnect from a brand’s other marketing channels. For example, if a customer visits a brand’s social account, browses their in-app catalog, and makes a purchase without ever leaving the platform, they may not see the full scope of the company’s mission, values, and offers through their website content and email campaigns. To navigate these barriers and build long-term relationships, brands should consider asking for newsletter registrations or creating and promoting a customer loyalty program on social media to gradually direct consumers towards their other marketing channels.
Social commerce best practices
Develop buyer personas and personalized experiences
While brands may feel tempted to jump right into trying social commerce on every possible platform, they should start by looking at where their potential and existing audiences can be found and what kinds of content they’re interested in. For example, if they receive lots of Instagram comments asking about the products featured in their posts, they should set up an Instagram Shop and add product tags so users can purchase directly from the platform. If they have a significant following on YouTube, they should consider running a shopping livestream.
They should also segment their social media followers by demographics, such as age or location, and psychographics, such as purchase habits or product preferences, to build effective consumer profiles. Then, they can create personalized marketing strategies for each segment. For example, they can run targeted social ads to generate awareness. They can curate product collections on their in-app stores based on shared similarities, such as products for stay-at-home parents or products for health-conscious consumers. Lastly, though many shoppers may prefer the convenience of social commerce, brands should still include links to their website so consumers can ultimately decide how to complete their purchase.
Leverage experiential tools and interactive technologies
Marketing technology is constantly changing and evolving, allowing consumers to purchase products via text message, shop without needing to go through the checkout, and even explore virtual brand worlds in the metaverse. Social commerce is the perfect opportunity for companies to use these technologies to create more immersive and interactive experiences for their audience. For example, brands can incorporate game mechanics into their social strategies to encourage more purchases, such as running limited-time contests, creating special badges, and offering exclusive rewards. They can also leverage augmented reality try-on features on platforms like Pinterest and Snapchat so consumers feel more confident when making a purchase. These experience-driven strategies help companies stand out from their competitors and foster deeper connections with their customers.
Build consumer relationships and brand communities
Social media connects people with their friends, family, and other consumers with shared interests and motivations. Brands should invest in building meaningful relationships with their audience through social media to boost awareness and engagement, drive sales, and foster customer loyalty. For example, they can respond to comments by offering recommendations with a direct link to their in-app product catalog. They can create a brand hashtag to prompt user-generated content, then reshare consumers’ UGC with relevant product tags. They can partner with influencers to develop product collections or design special augmented reality filters. Lastly, they can host a shopping livestream and encourage consumers to participate and engage with each other, building a sense of brand community over time.
Capture user first-party data for actionable insights
As mentioned previously, zero-party and first-party data helps brands better understand their audience and fulfill their needs on a personalized basis. Consumers curate their own social media experience by following specific accounts and engaging with specific content, so marketers should do the same by creating unique experiences and avoiding a one-size-fits-all social commerce strategy where possible.
For example, a clothing brand should send different product recommendations to consumers who engage with posts about shoes versus posts about jackets. An online bookstore can create unique product categories for consumers who like specific genres, tropes, or authors. By analyzing their users’ first-party data and turning them into actionable insights, brands can drive sales, boost engagement, and create better experiences for customers that ultimately lead to long-term loyalty and advocacy.
Boost consumer engagement with data-driven marketing strategies
When executed correctly, social commerce can be a great way for businesses of all sizes to reach their target audience and offer frictionless brand experiences. They also help brands boost awareness and drive sales without needing to compete for physical or digital shelf space at brick-and-mortar stores or online marketplaces like Amazon. However, to make the most of their social commerce strategies, marketers need user data to fully understand their needs and meet their expectations.
With PLATFORM³, brands can run effective marketing campaigns like loyalty programs, contests and giveaways, and gift with purchase promotions to drive sales and capture first-party data, then turn their data into action plans. Modules like Social Sharing, Dynamic Messaging, and Data Capture & Analytics provide marketers with the tools and knowledge they need to build deeper relationships with their consumers and nurture ongoing brand engagement. To learn more, chat with an expert today.
