Social media platforms are one of the most powerful tools to engage with online shoppers, with Instagram in particular presenting serious benefits for businesses looking to convert content to sales. Boasting more than one billion active users, 70% of people on the platform say they discover new products using the channel, so when it comes to utilising the tools available on Instagram and other social platforms, in-app shopping should be high on the list.
Whether you already have an established e-commerce website, or you’re a small brand with just the basics in place, social commerce is something you can benefit from. For the bigger companies, it shortens the customer journey and gives users the ability to buy products from social posts in real-time, right at the point of inspiration. Smaller brands get these same benefits, but it also means that their online presence can be expanded without having to invest in building a new user-friendly website.
So how does it work? When a consumer sees a tagged product in an image or video on Instagram, they can immediately click the item, see the price and add it to their cart, before checking out with Facebook Pay.
Visually led social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest are designed to inspire us in all aspects of our life, from what we eat and drink, to what we wear and the places we go, so capturing consumers at the point of inspiration mutually benefits both parties thanks to its convenience.
While you may have the aesthetics of your social media feed down to a tee and your ads are generating click throughs to your website, adding a social commerce aspect to your profile can really up the game in terms of driving sales. Furthermore, it can be combined with other social media tactics to really amplify results.
Aside from being able to integrate social commerce with always-on content, it can also be combined with user generated posts or influencer collaborations, to see greater impact and results. Whilst influencer marketing was once focused on driving brand awareness and engagement, with social commerce comes a whole new opportunity to integrate the two – a major trend to watch out for in 2022.
Content creators you partner with are able to tag links to shop your products without having to leave the app, giving you all the benefits of reaching a new audience via influencer marketing but also reaping the rewards of having a social commerce presence. Additionally, when it comes to tracking the success of influencer campaigns, if shoppable links are used, it’s easy to see where sales were generated which will help inform future campaigns.
Leveraging the power of social media now goes beyond increasing brand awareness and engagement, with the ability to turn mindless scrolling into sales. To find out how to get started and manage your in-app shop, drop us a line at hello@stormcom.co.uk.
