Social media is that powerful tool which can transform strangers into friends. If used properly and positively then it can convert people into customers. It becomes quite possible to do the marketing of a product on social media.
What Is Social Commerce?
Social commerce refers to the process of buying and selling artifacts from various social networking sites. It is purchasing things from any company over social media.
There are three highly popular companies that are best known for social commerce. They are Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Have a look at how they work.
1. Facebook:
Companies communicate with their customers via Facebook messenger. They give updates to them. They talk to their customers before sales. They take feedback after selling goods to them. It gives many opportunities to the seller. Some of them are:
- The seller can mention various details about the product
- He can share the product images
- He can post the catalog of the product
- He can take orders from customers and he can go for online sales
- He can organize a Facebook campaign
2. Twitter:
Twitter allows its customers to promote their products via tweets. The only requirement is of a buy button. The person should get a chance to directly order the product from the tweet.
Twitter has associated himself with many eCommerce platforms. All of them keep on posting various details about their products. They can easily target their customers. It gives an amazing shopping experience.
3. Pinterest:
This online platform was founded in June 2015. Since then, it is a successful e-commerce platform. It promotes the product with the help of images. Its visual impact impresses people. It has so many varieties of a product. So many brands sell their products via it.
History of Social Commerce:
Well, the credit goes to Yahoo. It started this trend and allowed users to buy and sell goods online. It, then, asked shoppers to seek advice from experts. This is how the concept of social commerce started. It was in 2005 when this concept took place. This concept focused more and more on providing social experience to the users.
With time, technology grew rapidly. There are so many social networking sites being launched even today. This has given so many opportunities to various businessmen. With the increased popularity of social networking sites, people have started loving the concept of social commerce.
Benefits of Social Commerce:
It can be said that social commerce is a universal concept. It is a platform that brings social media and e-commerce together. It is advantageous for customers, retailers and also producers. The marketers can easily promote their product via it. Moreover, it is not expensive and is very fruitful.
There are many advantages to social commerce. Some of them are discussed below:
1. It helps in engaging the audience:
Social commerce offers opportunities to various marketers to freely communicate with their audience. They can invite people to interact with them. It involves preparing email list, taking feedback and running campaigns on Twitter. People find it interesting to join their community. Social commerce provides a platform to its users.
2. It helps in promoting the product:
It allows users to give product reviews. Customers can give a rating to the product. The websites can get to know about the preferences of the customers. It helps them to improve their website. It suggests websites to improve their marketing tactics. It enhances the shopping experience of the customers.
3. It can develop trust and loyalty:
It is a human tendency to get attracted to other people’s choices. So, when they see other people buying different products they also start buying things. Social commerce is a good platform to convert visitors into customers. It develops trust among customers.
4. It increases the reach of the website:
It has a mass reach. It allows the producers to capture a large number of people. Today, the internet has reached remote areas as well. So, people from such remote areas can be invited to make online purchases. Websites can experience increased followers and Facebook friends.
5. It ends up impressing people:
Social commerce uses images and pictures to promote the product. People love to see varied images. The website can click pictures of the product from various angles. They can then ask users to share it. When the images look appealing, the sales are bound to increase.
Social commerce is highly beneficial. It is a next-generation concept of buying and selling goods.
How To Use Social Commerce?
Well, this is an apt question. Unless you know how to use social commerce, how will you use it optimally?
You should definitely know how to impress your online customers. You have to give a good shopping experience for your customers. When they get a good experience, they continue purchasing goods. Given below are some suggestions. Have a look:
1. You should reply as soon as possible:
Customers always get curious to know various details about the product. They expect some response from the website. You should answer their questions and queries soon. When you don’t reply on time, you may irritate them. Take good care of your customers for better results.
2. Consumers want add-on benefits:
Each and every customer wants something extra when he purchases something. You should give something to them to make them feel better. It will not only satisfy them but will also make them like you. It is sure that they will purchase more products from you in the future. You need not do anything big or great. You can give them discounts, reward points, offers, etc.
3. Get in touch with their people:
You should make contacts with their friends and followers. Make sure that your customers know about it. Your customers will feel excited when they will do shopping along with their friends. They will exchange their views on your product. You have to only use their friendships and relationships to encourage them to purchase more and more. It is an apt way to make new customers.
4. Make a network:
Consumers love to share their experiences with other people. You have to take its advantage. What you can do is simply make a community. Ask your customers to join it. There they will find people who have the same mentality. In this way, they won’t go anywhere else to share their views. And you will succeed in maintaining them.
For every brand maintaining customers is a very crucial task. It is the most important yet most difficult task. You have to master this art. Follow the above-mentioned steps and you will be astonished. You can develop your own way to use social commerce. Considering everything, customers are the asset of the brand.
Social Commerce Examples:
1. CLUSE:
It is best known to convert social feed into a shopping site. It takes users to another world. It keeps on surprising the users. It does not follow the concept of giving only offers and deals. It uses images to impress the user. It believes in giving a personal touch to the users. It uses user-generated content, to impress their users. They always focus on giving personalized experiences to them.
2. Funko:
It is known to organize Instagram giveaways to attract people. They are highly experienced in engaging the customer. Their followers enjoy sharing the product. They retweet on various tweets. They tag their friends regularly. They succeed in doing so because they offer something for free. So, their followers interact with them. They participate in various competitions organized by it. Their product gets marketed automatically.
3. Burberry:
They are best known to do video promotion. Yes, they believe in the concept of ‘believe what you see’. So, they always make videos and share it on different social networking sites. People watch their videos and get impressed. They visit their website and make purchases. They are very creative and imaginative. They invite people to make bulk purchases from their platform. Their videos are informative, educational, impressive, unique and appealing.
4. J. Crew:
Many people think that social commerce relates to social media, but it’s not true. Shopping is more related to having conversations and interactions. This platform takes feedbacks from followers to improve. It asks them to give suggestions and recommendations to other people. This is how they generate customers. They always end up satisfying their old customers.
5. Dollar Shave Club:
They have mastered the art of using social proof to generate customers. This platform feels free to spend a good amount to develop trust among the customers. It uses social proof in the best possible way. This tool is one of the best marketing tools. It helps various brands in fighting competition. It generates good results.
6. Sephora:
Users love it because they experience goodness here. This platform is popular because it not only develops highly qualitative content but also generates good experience. They give personalized services to their users. They ask their users to recommend them. They too give recommendations to their users.
These were some of the best platforms who are using social commerce brilliantly. You should also use social commerce to generate good results.
How Social Shopping can Drive Sales:
It is very important for you to know how to use social commerce. It is because it is obvious that social commerce will generate a good amount of sales. The only condition is that it needs to be used properly. For social commerce, to be effective, it is necessary to have some modern tips and strategies.
Have a look at how social shopping can drive sales. It is also mentioned that what you can do in this regard.
- One should use good quality content. The content should be engaging and imagery. It should be so impressive that the customer becomes impressed.
- You should give offers and opportunities to your consumers and followers. When they get a good shopping experience, they return back and become permanent consumers.
- You should give a chance to your users to give feedback and reviews. In this way, you will get to know what they think about your product.
- You should be highly interactive with your clients, customers, followers, and users. When you communicate with them constantly, you win them. And it is very important for you to get in touch with them.
What else you can do:
1. You can go for location-based marketing:
Social media can reach every place. Now it is quite easy for the companies to track the activities of the customer. They can get to know which area gives more customers to them. They can develop their marketing strategy accordingly.
2. You can make your customers buy your product:
Yes, if you can make them buy your product, nothing can stop having good sales. You have to create the need for your product in their mind. They just need a simple reason and they will make their mind. You have to give them reasons. Tell them why they should purchase your product.
3. You can try to have a visual impact:
The visual impact never goes wasted. You should impress your customers via using images. You can develop videos as well. People love advertisements. And they get attached to the advertisement easily. Be very careful while choosing the images. Your background color should be in contrast with the image.
Epilogue:
Social commerce has so much to offer to people. It is neither costly nor time-consuming. The producers find it easy to promote their product on Social Media and the customers love to purchase goods online. Social commerce, if used properly then generates good results.