Social Commerce

If you’re struggling to produce more sales for your business or your e-commerce strategy isn’t working out, it may be time to give social commerce a shot. With over 57% of the world’s population on social media, it’s a no-brainer to try selling your products through popular social channels. Additionally, it’s expected that social commerce will reach $80 billion in revenue by the year 2025. With so much opportunity for growth there’s no time like the present to start selling your products on social media.

What Is Social Commerce?

Recently, popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have all updated their platforms to offer an online store for businesses to sell products. This update now gives anyone the opportunity to sell their products directly from these social media platforms rather than directing people to their website to finish the purchasing process. 

What’s really started to grow the popularity of social commerce is that it’s much simpler to move users through the funnel. Instead of having to sell users on checking out your product, it’s much easier to show them the product on their timeline and have them be able to checkout or browse more with just a tap. They don’t need to leave the platform anymore, users can make it through the whole purchase process and go right back to scrolling. 

Best Platforms for Social Commerce

Facebook

Facebook Shops is the social commerce platform for Facebook. It’s a very easy to navigate system that has almost no barrier to entry. Just set up a business account and list your products in the shop. The Facebook Shop page on the mobile app features products based on user preferences to help encourage organic discovery of certain sellers. Once consumers find your products, they can complete a purchase within the app or follow a link to your website.

Instagram

Similar to Facebook, Instagram Shopping is directly linked to Facebook Shops. So if you’re currently selling on Facebook Shops, you can also use the same catalog for Instagram. Since Instagram is a more visual app, they offer product tags to make selling your products easier. These tags will also help you to show up organically for related products. Due to the visual nature of the platform sellers can post pictures and videos using the product tags so users can tap on them and be directed to your in-app store.

Pinterest

Though Pinterest is used for social commerce, product pins are not direct social commerce tools. Buyers will still be redirected to a product-specific landing page to complete their purchase. These posts look like regular pins but contain additional fields for pricing and availability information. What’s good about Pinterest compared to other platforms is that for Shopify users, they can use the Pinterest for Shopify app which allows them to upload their catalog as pins to their account. This makes Pinterest an easy option to try your hand at social commerce.

What’s The Benefit of Social Commerce?

The main benefit that comes from social commerce is the ability to streamline the purchasing process. By keeping users on one medium, they are more inclined to check out the product you’re selling and purchase that product since they don’t need to leave the app they’re using. If you can provide consumers with a seamless shopping experience they’ll be more inclined to come back and repeat that easy transaction.

Additionally, if you provide a customer with a seamless experience, they are more likely to leave a review or even create their own social media post about your product. Which is a great way to help you leverage user generated content to help support your social strategy.

The Takeaway

If you’ve been struggling with e-commerce, or you just need to sell more products, social commerce may be a great strategy for you. It’s an easy set up and a great way to increase your reach to some of the biggest social networks in the world. You’ll also be able to simplify the buying process for your target market and generate more sales and increase engagement on these social platforms.