How to Integrate Social Shopping Into Your eCommerce Strategy
Social media has become an integral part of modern society, with billions of people using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on a daily basis. As such, it's no surprise that social media has also become a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach new customers and grow their ecommerce sales.
According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products.
However, simply having a social media account for your business isn't enough. To truly take advantage of the opportunities that social media provides, you need to have a solid strategy in place. In this blog post, we'll go over some key ways to integrate social media into your ecommerce strategy and start seeing real results.
1. Create a social media presence for your brand
The first step in integrating social media into your ecommerce strategy is to create a presence for your brand on the major social media platforms. This will give you a platform to promote your products and connect with your audience. As you build your social media following, you'll be able to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your ecommerce website.
When creating a social media presence for your brand, it's important to choose the platforms that are most relevant to your business and target audience. For example, if you sell fashion and beauty products, Instagram and Pinterest would be great platforms to focus on. If you sell home goods, Facebook and Houzz would be more appropriate.
- Promote your products on social media
Once you have established a social media presence for your brand, the next step is to start promoting your products. This can be done by creating engaging content that showcases your products in a relatable and aspirational way. You can also run paid social media advertising campaigns to target specific groups of people and drive more sales.
To make the most of your social media promotions, it's important to use high-quality images and videos that showcase your products in the best possible light. You should also consider using social media influencers to reach a wider audience and create a sense of trust and credibility around your products.
You should also take advantage of the new commerce features being launched by the larger platforms as their search volumes rise. Instagram recently rolled out a dedicated “shop” section on its Explore page as “an in-app shopping destination where people can discover products and brands they love from across Instagram,". Meanwhile, Pinterest announced new features to help retailers get discovered where users are most likely to shop.
Social networks are the biggest source of inspiration for purchases, with 37% of consumers finding purchase inspiration through social channels. What’s more, 50% of consumers say that seeing user-generated content would increase their chances of buying products through a brand's social media.
- Incorporate social media elements into your eCommerce website
Another way to integrate social media into your ecommerce strategy is to incorporate social media elements into your website. This can be done by adding social media sharing buttons to your product pages, so that customers can easily share your products on their own social media accounts.
You can also add a product review section to your website, where customers can share their thoughts and experiences with your products. This can help build trust and credibility with potential customers, as they can see what others have said about your products.
Another powerful way to increase sales is to have a gallery of social media images on your website. Seeing your products on real people instead of just models can inspire confidence as it makes your items more relatable.
Streamoid’s Social shopper is a tool that automates the process of finding user-generated content and matches it to a product in your catalog.
How it works
To get started, you need to imply add the accounts and/or hashtags that you want to monitor and make shoppable. We’ll then pull images from Instagram straight to your dashboard and through visual search, we’ll match each item in the photo with an existing product from your catalogue. You only need to review the suggestions and then publish on your site.
Another feature that makes Streamoid’s social shopper stand out is that unlike other social galleries is that it eliminates the scenario where a customer comes to your site, gets inspired by UGC but can’t complete the purchase due to the item being unavailable.
Our clients have seen an increase of 45% in revenue per visit for those shoppers who interacted with the widget and an increase of 31% in the conversion rate.
- Utilize influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach a wider audience and showcase your products in a relatable way. By partnering with social media influencers in your niche, you can tap into their existing audience and reach new customers who are interested in your products.
When working with influencers, it's important to choose those who align with your brand values and have an audience that is a good fit for your products. You should also consider offering them exclusive discounts or promotions to share with their followers, as this can help drive more sales for your business.
The posts of the influencers you have partnered with can also be brought into your website and made into shoppable galleries using Social Shopper. This offering creates a seamless omnichannel experience.
- Create a user-generated content campaign
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful way to build trust and credibility with your audience. By encouraging your customers to share their own experiences and photos with your products, you can create social proof that your products are high-quality and worth buying.
You can create a UGC campaign by offering incentives for customers who share their experiences with your products on social media. For example, you could offer a discount or a special promotion to customers who share their own photos with your products on Instagram. You can run contests and bring the brand to life for your target audience.
- Utilizing live streaming and virtual events to connect with customers and showcase products in real-time
Alibaba’s Toabao Live started a new revolution in 2016 with live streaming and simultaneous shopping. This channel picked up steam, especially during Covid. The categories that do best for live streaming have been apparel and fashion followed by beauty and food. Tommy Hilfiger had one show that attracted an audience of 14 million and sold 1300 hoodies in two minutes. Walmart had an event with TikTok that was successful as well.
Although exciting this is still a little hard for the smaller brands to pull off. But do keep an eye for collaborations in this area.
With social shopping increasing steadily each month, now is the time to make the most of your and your customers’ feeds!
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