Learn what social shopping is and why you should make it a cornerstone of your ecommerce strategy in 2023 and beyond.
Social shopping has been growing steadily since 2019. People want easy, accessible, and convenient shopping experiences on their mobile devices. They want to shop within the moment of discovery. Basically, they want to shop on social media.
But, have you ever asked yourself, what is social shopping? Why do I need it, and how do I do it?
In this article, you’ll learn what social shopping is and why you should make it a cornerstone of your ecommerce strategy. We’ll walk you through how your social shop works on different platforms and some tips to get you raking in sales.
Bonus: Learn how to sell more products on social media with our free Social Commerce 101 guide. Delight your customers and improve conversion rates.
Social shopping refers to the selling and buying of products directly on social media. With social shopping, complete transactions take place without leaving the social network app.
There’s no doubt that the demand for easy and instant online shopping is growing. And, with that demand comes potential.
Statista reports that worldwide social commerce generated roughly 724 billion USD in revenue in 2022. They go on to say the expected annual growth is 30.8% from 2022 to 2030, so “revenues in this segment are forecast to reach approximately 6.2 trillion dollars in the latter year.”
Most companies have grabbed a piece of this pie. They’ve taken advantage of consumers’ willingness to buy online by growing their ecommerce offerings.
A 2021 survey saw 29% of global respondents who purchased something they saw on a social media platform from the platform itself. That’s a lot of potential sales you’re missing out on if you’re not engaging customers and using social media in your ecommerce strategy.
Now, your social shops show up a little differently depending on the platform you’re using. Here’s what you need to know about the big four: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Instagram Shopping is an ecommerce feature on Instagram’s platform that lets people social shop. It allows people to discover and purchase products through photo and video posts.
How it works:
Setting up your Instagram shop is pretty easy. Once your storefront is live, and your product catalog is uploaded, you can add product tags to photos and videos.
Source: Article
You can also engage with influencers and utilize user-generated content to promote your products for you. By allowing other people to tag your products, you can increase your reach and influence purchasing decisions.
True social shopping is only available to eligible US business and creator accounts. Right now, Instagram only allows certain accounts in the US to add in-app checkout features to their Instagram shops. Instagram Shops, however, is available across the globe, specifically for businesses in these markets.
Shopping features:
Instagram Shop has a ton of great ecommerce features for your digital store, like:
For businesses that are eligible to use Checkout, you also have access to:
Facebook Shopping is an ecommerce feature on Facebook’s platform. It allows creators and businesses to engage in social shopping. It’s a lot like Instagram Shopping, which is no surprise since Meta owns both platforms.
How it works:
So long as you have a Facebook Page you want to sell from and a business account, you’re golden. Setting up your Facebook shop is simple. From there, you can update your product catalog and customize your Facebook shop.
Source: Wairco
To use Facebook Shops, you need to comply with Facebook’s commerce eligibility requirements and be in a supported market. Luckily, these can be all over the globe; here’s a full list of Facebook-supported markets.
To make the most of your Facebook Shopping experience, you’ll want to look into how your Facebook Commerce Manager account can work for you.
Shopping features:
Pinterest is the OG powerhouse of online shopping. It’s a visually-dominated, product-first platform. And, Pinterest’s organizational style and strong algorithm keep serving its fans. They report 80% more in sales per month compared to other social platforms.
Truly, Pinterest has some impressive stats. As an online seller, you don’t want to sleep on this app.
How it works:
You’ll want to set up your Pinterest shopping account by joining the verified Merchant Program. From there, it’s a matter of uploading your products, setting up your Product Pins, and customizing your shop.
Pinterest shopping is available in many countries; see the full list here.
One thing to note, Pinterest’s social shopping is not available to most merchants and buyers. There are certain eligible US-based merchants that can check out in the Pinterest app. US buyers can find the Buy Button below a Pin (it’s blue!) if they’re eligible. For the most part, however, Pinterest will send you to the merchant’s ecommerce site to complete the purchase.
Source: Pinterest
Shopping features:
A TikTok Shop is an ecommerce feature integrated into TikTok’s platform. This feature makes selling products on TikTok possible. And, with 24 billion views and counting, the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt alone makes for a pretty good argument to get sellin’ on the app.
How it works:
You can set up your own TikTok shop if you meet the app’s requirements. Once that’s done, it’s as easy as optimizing your product catalog and promoting your products.
TikTok shopping features:
Now that you’re a social shopping pro, it’s time to create or refresh and refine your social shopping strategy. Here are eight quick tips for selling your products!
Use high-quality images. People are visually oriented, so make sure your product photos are clear and attractive. Be sure to use bright, well-lit images that showcase your products in the best possible light.
Use engaging descriptions. In addition to listing the facts about your product, use language that will capture people’s attention and make them want to learn more. Clear and concise product descriptions with benefits over features should do the trick.
Don’t try to pack too much information into each description. Instead, focus on making it easy for potential customers to know what your product is and why they need it.
Offer discounts and deals. Deals and discounts were a top motivation for online shoppers in 2021. 37% of people said discounts and deals were their deciding factors. Be sure to promote your deal on your page!
Social shopping has a huge advantage with ease of use because users don’t have to leave the app to convert. Include links to your product pages on your posts and make sure buying is as streamlined as possible. You’ll want to test out your user journey yourself to see if there are any pain points your users may have.
Make sure your pricing is in-line with the industry standards. Take a look at prices on similar social shopping sellers’ pages. Then, price your products accordingly.
Stay active on social media. The more you post about your products, the more likely people are to see them and make a purchase. Keep your social media pages updated regularly for the best results.
If a customer posts a great review of your product or store, don’t miss reposting that social proof. You can schedule posts in advance with Hootsuite, making this step a breeze.
Get a free 30-day Hootsuite trial
Take advantage of social media marketing tools to reach a wider audience. Utilize hashtags, post updates regularly, and run promotional campaigns on social channels like Instagram and Facebook. Your analytics tools (try Hootsuite’s!) will help you to understand what’s working and what’s not.
Provide excellent customer service. Respond quickly to questions and concerns, and do everything you can to ensure that your customers are happy during the buying process. One life-saving hack for impeccable customer service? Get a social media chatbot like Heyday.
Heyday is a conversational ai chatbot, that can automatically answer all your customer’s FAQs and queries, saving your team time and money.
Source: Heyday
Engage with shoppers on social media and turn customer conversations into sales with Heyday, our dedicated conversational AI chatbot for social commerce retailers. Deliver 5-star customer experiences — at scale.
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