How Social Commerce is Transforming Marketing

‘Social commerce’ is so much more than just a buzzword; it’s one of the best ways to enhance the customer journey with your brand via your social channels. By incorporating the features of social commerce into your social profiles, you can make it easier for prospective customers to convert on one of your products or goals.

But what is social commerce and how can your business make use of all its features? How does it tie in with ecommerce? Let’s run through how social commerce is transforming the world of digital marketing, and how a dedicated social commerce agency can help you reach your business goals. 

What is Social Commerce?

Put simply, social commerce is the process of selling products and services directly through social media. In marketing terms, it’s the perfect blend of social media and ecommerce, and represents an excellent way to enhance customer experience on social media.

The beauty of it is that the entire process happens all in one place, allowing your social media profile to effectively become a shop front in its own right. From product discovery to consumer research of the product to the checkout process – all this happens on the chosen social media platform. 

Currently, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are the only social media platforms to offer the ‘Shop Now’ feature. This is not surprising when you consider how visual these platforms are, and more social media platforms will likely follow suit in the near future.

How to Optimise Your Brand’s Use of Social Commerce

For many businesses with a social media presence, their strategy has been solely focused on building up brand awareness through consumer engagement. This is done through the use of interesting content with the intention of driving consumers to a branded website. 

These organic social media content strategies will have to shift focus if they want to utilise the social commerce opportunity, given that it’s more aligned with driving sales. Gone are the days of using social media to divert traffic from your profile to your website; the main aim is now to convert there and then on the social platform. Read our top tips on putting the creativity back in paid social creatives.

The Power of Shoppable Images

Using ‘shoppable images’ is an approach you’ll likely see more brands tailoring their strategies around. Of course, this isn’t a new concept, having been introduced by Google in late 2018. It’s more applicable now than ever, though, as tailoring your social media content to be more ‘shoppable’ will only benefit your social commerce efforts. Think of every post as an ad of sorts, even if it’s an organic post!

For example, on Instagram you have the opportunity to tag the products that are shown in the pictures. These tags then lead to your shop on the platform.

What’s Next for Ecommerce Through Social Media?

In the future, we could see more brands start to use augmented reality to speed up the conversion process for their customers. Augmented reality used in social commerce could allow users to see what a product looks like in person, even without having the physical product to hand. Watch this space!

For more on where digital marketing is due to go this year, read our blog on the Digital Marketing trends and features you should be looking out for in 2022.

Take Your Social Commerce Marketing to New Peaks

Is your business looking for a social commerce agency to maximise your use of social media and all its features?

Our social media team has its finger firmly on the pulse of all things social commerce. Whether it’s via Pinterest Marketing or Paid Social Media Advertising on another platform, we can implement standout social commerce campaigns to convert users directly from your chosen platforms.

How Social Commerce is Transforming Marketing

Wondering what else we can do for you? Explore all our digital marketing services or get in touch with a member of our team to find out more.