How to Become a Social Commerce Company?

Social media is primarily used for sharing information and networking, but having social media channels nowadays is also beneficial to build your success online.

Not only can you build a career as a content creator using social media, but some platforms also offer an online shopping feature. With the growing number of social media users, integrating an online business into social media sites can help increase revenue.

If you are looking for a new way to expand your business, applying a social commerce strategy is worth considering. This article will walk you through the definition of social commerce and the benefits of implementing it for your business.

What Is Social Commerce?

Social commerce refers to the sale and purchase of goods or services on a social media platform. It allows you to design a complete customer journey on social platforms – from raising awareness to maintaining good customer relationships.

Social commerce is different from an eCommerce store, even though the terms fall under a similar category. An eCommerce site is an online platform dedicated to selling and shopping – think of it as a physical store in the form of a website or an app.

However, social commerce doesn’t equal social media marketing, even though both are closely related. In terms of commerce, standard social media platforms help to promote and invite customers to shop on eCommerce sites.

Not all social media apps offer social commerce features. Here are some examples of the top social commerce platforms:

• Facebook Shops – as the most popular social media platform, Facebook provides a dedicated space for consumers to browse and make transactions.
• Instagram Shop – the most notable feature is the shoppable post format, where users can tap on a picture to see product names. Brands can also direct users to an in-app catalog page and redirect transactions to separate eCommerce websites.
• TikTok Shop – merchants can create video content with a call-to-action to promote products and encourage customers to buy instantly. This platform has a catalog section and allows customers to make a transaction directly within the app.
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Why Social Commerce Is Important

With 4.65 billion users worldwide, social media can be a huge potential market for social commerce. With that in mind, this section will explain why launching a social commerce business is worth considering.

Increases Brand Awareness

Using social media is an excellent way to interact with audiences, humanize your brand, and target potential customers.

The algorithm on social media channels lets users see content that matches their interests. Therefore, using social platforms to position a brand gives it a higher chance of spreading awareness to the target audience.

There are also numerous features and tools on social media platforms that help to enhance your marketing strategy.

Aside from creating quality content and socializing with customers, social media ads are a great way to market your products. With it, it’s possible to adjust the starting fee according to your budget while having access to trackable metrics to understand audiences better.

Another way to increase brand awareness and drive sales is through influencer marketing. This popular social media-specific marketing strategy can help brands attract customers in their niche to purchase products directly from the social commerce platform.

Optimizes Purchasing Process

Launching a social commerce store is an excellent way to integrate and streamline the customer journey – from initial interest to payment completion.

Providing an easy checkout process for online shoppers is one of the key benefits of having a social commerce business.

Features such as in-app checkout and instant sharing buttons help boost social commerce sales. They make a shortcut in the buying process that reduces cart abandonment and prevents customers from canceling purchases.

A social media commerce store is also a friendly option for mobile users. Although having a mobile-friendly dedicated online store is great, letting customers purchase directly from a social platform eases the transaction process.

Builds Social Proof

Around 75% of online shoppers in 2020 bought products from brands they follow on social media. This implies that a brand’s social media presence affects customers’ purchasing decisions.

Therefore, using social media to sell products and build social proof helps improve customer trust. Although you can display social proof on an eCommerce site, testimonials from user-generated content on social platforms make your brand seem more trustworthy.

One of the most effective ways to collect social proof is by creating valuable content that invites the audience to comment, like, or share their feedback on your product. If you have the budget, creating a giveaway event offering coupon codes can also be beneficial for collecting social proof.

3 Tips to Become a Social Commerce Company

After understanding the benefits of having a social commerce company, this section will walk you through three tips to become one.

1. Choose the Right Social Commerce Platform

Every social commerce platforms’ user demographics are different. For instance, one platform might target Gen Z while another focuses on Millennial consumers.

Before choosing a social commerce platform, it’s important to know the target audience. Create a buyer persona to envision your ideal customers. After that, focus on being active on social channels where your potential customers are the majority to help drive higher conversions.

2. Engage With Your Followers

As the name suggests, the social part of social commerce makes it different from other types of eCommerce. Being active on social platforms and engaging with your customers is therefore crucial to achieving social commerce success.

Create lively interactions with followers and don’t let your social media page function simply as a catalog. Answer questions and comments in a professional yet friendly tone. From here, it’s possible to convert customer service conversations into sales.

Another excellent strategy is to listen to social commerce trends for ideas about topics to discuss through social media. Also, learn how competitors interact with their followers to gain insights into what a successful social media persona looks like.

3. Merge With Your eCommerce Platform

Selling products on social commerce platforms is an excellent way to reach a broad audience. However, if you plan to grow the business into a large online store with thousands of products, sticking with just social media as a selling platform can be limiting.

If your business already has its own eCommerce platform, we recommend syncing it with social media to give customers multiple shopping options. On the other hand, consider launching your own online store website alongside its social commerce profile to enhance customers’ shopping experience.

Many website-building platforms have useful tools, including performance analytics, broader payment gateway options, and integrations with social commerce platforms. For example, Shopify users can integrate their sites with TikTok Shop.

Conclusion

Social commerce is an excellent way to sell and purchase products or services on social media platforms. Alongside a solid digital marketing strategy, launching your business on a social commerce platform can help to boost conversion rates.

In this article, we’ve discussed three main benefits of using social media commerce:

• Increases brand awareness.
• Optimizes purchasing process.
• Builds social proof.

Furthermore, we’ve also covered three tips for launching a social commerce business:

• Choose the right platform.
• Engage with your audience.
• Merge with your eCommerce platform.

To conclude, social commerce improves and streamlines your online business’ customer journey. It is also a great medium to communicate better with customers, enhance your branding strategy, and collect feedback for future product development.

Tags: Social commerce