This is a guest post by Josh Wardini of uk.16Best.net
Social commerce is the latest term we’ve started using as a daily addition to our vocabulary.
This is another subset of electronic commerce, and it also involves various social media platforms that have also become a great part of our everyday lives. Over the years, as new social media platforms emerged, and as the eCommerce platforms have become bigger and better, we’ve seen them trying to integrate with each other. It’s obvious that the eCommerce marketers have recognized the power that social media offer when communicating with appropriate audience, and they’ve decided to take advantage of this ability.
For example, Twitter started showing their users various discount codes and promoting different ongoing sales. Since their users are very engaged with the platform and each other, they can quickly and easily make a purchase.
Facebook also began promoting content that is sponsored by Amazon or eBay. We’ve seen different ads appearing in our feeds, followed by Zuckerberg’s decision to introduce a new feature that is going to mimic these eCommerce giants, called Marketplace. As we see more and more content from our favorite eCommerce platforms appearing in our social feeds, Pinterest started giving us option of shopping through their platform by using shoppable pins, while Instagram gave their own spin of the same idea with shoppable Instagram feeds. Aside from this, Tumblr also decided to follow suit, but made a smaller change. They simply decided to introduce the ‘Buy Now’ button, so their users can easily shop for anything that appears on their dashboard that they really like.
However, the biggest innovation in terms of how eCommerce and social media have changed the online marketplace and introduced new features for their users was developed by Amazon. The electronic commerce giant decided it’s a good idea to create their own social media platform, aside from using various benefits and features from the already existing platforms, which led them to create Spark. The idea behind Spark is that they wanted to improve new product discovery on their platform. Design is seemingly inspired by Instagram’s feed, but their users can also post stories and ideas about products they love. They also plan on introducing a feature that allows to shop with just a click of a single button, which means that Spark may even become a competitor of Pinterest. It’s a great way to promote different products by using all sorts of advertisements that can benefit all sellers.
If you’re a seller looking to take advantage of the mentioned features and points, there are plenty of other added perks you can use. But aside from the features and benefits, there are some important points that you, as a seller, should remember when using social media to promote your products, whether they are physical or digital.
A great way to connect with your audience in the same way most big brands do, is to communicate with them via social media.
You can give answers to any questions your visitors and consumers may have, or you can reply to their reviews of your services. In order to gain a positive feedback on all fronts, it’s important to maintain a great communication and an excellent customer service. So, when buyer decides to leave a review, whether on your eCommerce page or your social media profile, they are only going to shower you with compliments, in which way you can attract a bigger audience and even more shoppers!
Even if you’re someone who doesn’t have the simplest idea of what to sell, there is always something you can put on eBay. People have sold all sorts of weird things such as unwanted Brussel sprouts, snow in their yard, the town’s biggest bridge. And if you think that people selling these sorts of things are silly, just think how much profit they made, because they actually sold all these items! Other odd items include a ghost in a jar – sold at the high price of around $55,000; someone’s imaginary friend that was purchased at just 99 pence and was delivered using imagination.
Other odd listings include someone’s liver, but the listing had to be removed because selling organs on the platform is illegal; and one man actually managed to sell his entire life, including his job, his home, his motorbike and all his belongings. He decided to start a brand new life in the Caribbean and didn’t need his old one anymore.
Nowadays, eCommerce platforms even have the added benefit of having your purchases either delivered at low price or even for free. Furthermore, thanks to specialized shopping days like Cyber Monday or Black Friday, the latter also being transferred over to the world wide web, users have been more eager than ever to follow all their favorite brands and eCommerce websites through the various social media platforms.
Whether you are someone with your own brand or just a simple seller, one of your top priorities should be earning plenty of positive reviews on your products. In order to increase your conversion rate, receiving positive reviews can increase this rate by 133% for mobile shoppers. And if you’d really like to show that you care both about your brand and your buyers, leaving a response to the received reviews and comments is also going to improve your brand’s perception to the public by a whopping 71%. If you choose to use Facebook, it is also going to translate into a higher conversion rate. This platform is shortly followed by YouTube and Instagram. And if you are unsure about how to exactly approach a strategy for your social media accounts, try and get some inspiration by looking around and researching the most popular brands and their profiles as well as what they are doing.
You can take a look at Nike’s Instagram account. They can be a great source of inspiration. This is because they manage, time and time again, to show all their products by posting pictures of notable athletes and promoting different sporting events. They also made their slogan as a hashtag that anyone can use. As you can see, they have found a successful way to both promote their content and campaigns and highlight them, while simultaneously connecting with their audience.
Coca-Cola is another popular brand that has been using all the social media outlets to the fullest extent. They have the biggest followers base out of any brand on Facebook, which isn’t that surprising considering they are the most recognizable brand all over the world. However, as you can see, the primary focus on their Facebook account is just brand promotion. But they do it in an unique manner, using pictures of their ever-so-popular and heartwarming ads.
Another example is MADE.COM, they have been using Pinterest as a way to promote their furniture. They add beautiful pins of their furniture and furnishings and make amazing boards that can be shared all across the platform, and even on other platforms! After seeing the success that this option had, they created something similar on their own social network where their current and potential customers can communicate about their products.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to take advantage of both eCommerce and social media platforms. You just need the right strategy and mindset.
The infographic below shares a great timeline view of Social Commerce and thanks to 16Best.net for sharing this information.
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