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Every day we see social media platform developing and lately, they're looking to integrate on-platform selling tools which definitely make selling much easier for businesses. Looks like social commerce is the next big thing in the retail business but we still have a long way to go before this becomes a major shopping trend.

In this blog post, I will talk about how can you prepare your business for this major upcoming trend, and how to align with customer's expectations when it comes to easy and immediate connection and purchasing.

So, what is social commerce? There's no specific definition but it would be the way of using social media network sites as a mechanism to sell your products and services.

WHY SOCIAL COMMERCE MATTERS?

Social referrals to retail eCommerce sites have grown 110% in two years.

U.S retailers adopting social commerce nearly doubled from 2017 to 2018.

58% of people say that social media is influencing their purchasing decisions.

HOW TO LEVERAGE SOCIAL COMMERCE?

USE OF CHATBOTS

Provide audience-focused information

72% of people who have used chatbots find them useful and informative

Offer product recommendations

74% of shoppers are open to making a purchase through a chatbot

Sell directly through the bot

You can use a chatbot to get the customer directly to the checkout, for example, Marvel does that with their tickets. They bring the customer directly from a social media post to the checkout through the chatbot.

FOCUS ON MOBILE USERS

Keep a strong Social presence

45% of in-store consumers turn to mobile social platforms to influence their purchasing decisions

Optimize for mobile devices

Abandonment rates are 3x higher on mobile devices, likely due to lack of optimization

Offer deals exclusive to a mobile platform

Jordans sold out in 23 minutes when Nike leveraged Snapchat codes at an NBA all-star afterparty

MONITOR REVIEWS AND OFFER SUPPORT

Build a collection of positive reviews

Customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than marketing descriptions

Reach out to commenters

After seeing a brand response to a review, 71% of consumers change their perception of the brand

Create a support account

Nike created a separate Twitter account called @NikeSupport just for responding to customer issues

CONNECT DIRECTLY WITH CUSTOMERS

Keep up your response rate

90% of consumers expect an immediate response to customer service questions

Leverage Facebook messenger

Facebook Messenger is the most downloaded app, yet only 31% of businesses use it

Upsell with recommendations

LEGO replies to their Facebook Messenger using their gift bot to offer gift recommendations

UTILIZE INFLUENCER CAMPAIGNS

Find the right influencers

23% of shoppers are influenced by what they see on social media

Hire micro-influencers

Influencers with less than 35,000 followers get the highest engagement rate at 5.3%



<---- 10 eCommerce SEO Tips to Generate more traffic

How to approach Instagram influencers? ---->

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Just bumping in case someone needs this information.

The new post is coming soon!