Did you know that more than 80% Americans use social media? Something that is even more interesting is that, out of that 80% around 60% of the people use social media to purchase products. So if you think that social media isn’t that important to grow your ecommerce business, you’re missing out on a lot. Ecommerce and social media go hand in hand. Want to know how? Read on.
Why Use Social Media For Ecommerce?
Social media platforms may have started as platforms to connect with more people but it didn’t remain limited to that. With the rapid increase in the social media user base, people found these platforms to be excellent selling points. Starting from individuals to brands, people found a space to showcase their product, make it reach a wider audience and increase their customer base.
Ecommerce and social media is gaining ground as the age-old retail model is on the wane. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine any startup without a social media presence.
The DTC (direct to consumer) model is enhancing the growth of ecommerce businesses which engage in direct contact with the customer. Since contact with the customer is the key for such DTC model businesses to flourish without any retail middleman, investing in social media marketing becomes crucial.
Survey reports show that ecommerce purchases in 2010 stood at 4.2% of the entire retail sales in the US. However, the figure stands at 11.8% only a decade later. Moreover, with the global pandemic, retail sales has taken a major hit. Hence, ecommerce and social media purchases are growing more than ever.
Another important thing is that social selling doesn’t mean only selling your products online. It’s much more than that.
Social Selling And Ecommerce
If you have an ecommerce business, you don’t need to base it on your social media platforms. You can use social media as a part of your marketing strategy.
Social selling includes customer interactions that happen before sales, individual or direct interactions with potential customers to turn them into long-term clients. It also includes knowing your customer/ researching your market, promoting your brand, getting feedback after sales, maintaining communication post sales and so on. All these combines, gives a customer the complete shopping experience.
Moreover, with new features popping up on social media platforms every day, you can use these to enhance your ecommerce sales. Listed below, are some of those strategies.
Ecommerce And Social Media: Organic And Paid Strategies
If you’re involved in an ecommerce business, then we recommend you to go for a combination of paid and organic strategies to enhance your growth.
But what are these paid and organic strategies?
Studies show that among online customers, about 40% find new products/ brands from recommendations from their family or friends, 35% from influencers and the accounts they follow, and 32% from word of mouth.
Among the three strategies mentioned above, two are organic strategies and one is a paid strategy. Now let’s get to know the difference.
· Organic Ecommerce Social Media Strategies
These include using relevant hashtags to increase visibility, adding product reviews that pop up on your customer’s social media feed, and increasing personalized and direct communication with customers. Focusing on customer care and feedback, promoting user-generated content regarding your brand on social media platforms, and using social listening to know your market better are some organic strategies as well.
· Paid Ecommerce Social Media Strategies
For paid strategies, you can invest in advertisements that boost your brand. If you have a target audience in mind, then you can use lookalike audiences to make your advertisement relatable. You can go for influencer marketing campaigns, form partnerships, opt for affiliate programs, or even create a brand ambassador program.
Ecommerce And Social Media: Setting Up Shop
Setting up a shop on a social media platform is easier than ever. Note that Facebook and Instagram operate on the same backend programs and both are as easy as it gets. If you have a separate ecommerce website, don’t worry, you can use social media to make a product catalog. Also, the good thing is that you can tag your website’s products on your social media posts. This enhances interconnectivity and takes your product’s visibility to a whole new level.
Use Social Proof
To set up your ecommerce and social media for success, take the help of social proof. Advertisements and promotion content works fine, but social proof brings in a sense of trust in your product and encourages purchasing.
Online reviews are an essential part of marketing. Studies show that about 82% customers read online reviews of ecommerce brands. A whopping 91% of customers say that they are likely to buy a product based on positive reviews. Around 76% people trust online reviews.
So pushing to get more reviews is always a good idea to promote your ecommerce business. Another way to get this done is by posting user-generated content. For example, you can post photos of your customers wearing your brand’s clothes and so on.
Be Authentic And Unique
If you’re combining ecommerce and social media, first, you need to separate yourself from the crowd. There are thousands of brands out there as your competition. So, to set yourself apart you need to establish your brand voice. This is all about finding your niche and working on it to promote your brand.
Survey reports show that 86% customers will willingly pay more for a unique product or a better customer experience.
Use Social Listening
If you’re going for a marketing strategy without using this point, you’re not doing it right. Social listening is imperative to know where you’re lacking and which areas you need to focus on. Whether you need to boost your visibility or enhance your customer communications will only be clear once you invest your time and effort in social listening.
To improve social listening, you can go through user reviews or check out discussions on different social media platforms regarding your product.
Use Analytics To Guide Ecommerce Sales
Besides social listening, you can regularly check out the analytics of your social media profiles to get an in-depth idea of your ecommerce marketing strategy. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and so on, have data telling you all you need to know about your ROI (return on investment). You can check out website clicks, profile shares and visits, click throughs and also learn specifics about your customer base on those platforms.
These are some of key points to remember if you want to set up your ecommerce and social media for success. Be sure to use them and be successful online.
