Thanks to the rapidly increasing popularity of smartphones and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, social commerce has quickly become part of our everyday lives.
Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce that integrates social media and online social interactions into buying and selling. Unlike traditional e-commerce, which typically occurs in dedicated online stores and focuses on product listings and checkout, social commerce leverages social platforms, user-generated content (UGC), and peer recommendations to create a more interactive shopping experience.
Social commerce unlocks a limitless shopping experience. As customers swap brick-and-mortar stores for social crossling and in-app purchases, brands must adapt to improve their e-commerce conversion rates.
In 2023, social commerce sales accounted for around 18.5% of total online sales, and this figure is expected to continue rising.
With this in mind, let’s explore five ways to adapt your social commerce strategy and start selling more of your products or services to highly engaged social media audiences.
5 Ways To Adapt Your Social Commerce Strategy
Social commerce is a leading payment trend that allows today’s consumers to buy products or services from their favorite brands without leaving their chosen social media platform.
As a business owner, you should consistently adapt your platform-specific social commerce strategies to boost eCommerce sales.
Here are five ways to adapt and enhance your social commerce strategy in 2024 and beyond:
1. Focus on the Channels Where Your Customers Are
With the ever-growing number of social media platforms, you must choose which platforms are best for your business by identifying where your target audience spends the most time. This will increase your chances of reaching them.
You can research your competitors’ activities and where they are most active, or you can look at data to see which demographics are drawn to which platforms.
For example, if your target audience is men between 25 and 34, Facebook is your best platform. However, to reach young women between 18 and 24, you want to focus on your Instagram strategy.
In addition, if your products or services appeal to multiple target audiences, you can tailor your social commerce strategy to each social media platform’s specific audience.
2. Encourage User-Generated Content
As part of your social commerce strategy, you should encourage your customers to give feedback about your products or services through user-generated content (UGC).
UGC are the images, videos, audio, testimonials, and captions posted by users—in this case, your customers—on social media.
Allowing real-life customers to promote your products or services is a great way to establish your brand’s trustworthiness and persuade customers to purchase.
3. Collaborate with Influencers
Collaborating with influencers with a loyal following can help you reach new audiences. You can leverage their credibility to drive sales and brand awareness.
Either ask them to use your products or services and post their experience on social media with credit to your brand, or work alongside them to create content that both parties can post.
It is crucial to ensure that you only partner with influencers relevant to your brand’s niche and your products or services.
4. Introduce Livestream Shopping
By 2026, livestream shopping will account for over 5% of total eCommerce sales in the US.
Livestream shopping involves brands promoting and selling products through live streams on social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok. This encourages shoppers to purchase on the spot, helping businesses succeed in a competitive marketplace.
In addition, livestream shopping addresses the common eCommerce issue of abandoned carts—the average rate is now over 70% – by creating a simplified and instant checkout process.
Source: Shopify
5. Make Your Content Shoppable
Encourage your followers to buy now by creating shoppable social media content. This includes adding product tags to your posts on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Customers can learn more about your product and its price with just one click, improving their shopping experience.
Instagram Shop allows business owners to create a product catalog with pricing, images, descriptions, and other details. Considering that 44% of Instagram users use the app to shop on a weekly basis, tags are a great way to attract buyers.
Following The Trend
Social media has become one of the most important marketing and communication mediums worldwide, so social commerce is a payment trend that brands can’t overlook in 2024 and beyond.
In a competitive eCommerce landscape, social commerce allows online store owners to attract highly engaged shoppers as they browse Instagram stories or scroll through TikTok videos. This enhances the shopping experience, which, in turn, increases sales and reduces cart abandonment.
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Originally Published on Martech Zone: Is Social Commerce a Leading Payment Trend? 5 Ways To Adapt Your Strategy