According to a recent survey, social media is the fave marketing channel for Ecwid merchants. Some use their social media pages for customer care, some build private groups for loyal customers — some just wanna share a juicy meme from
But some merchants have gone the extra mile. Rather than just being on social media, they’re embracing the latest tools and selling on social media, turning their followers into paying customers right on their favorite platforms.
The zealous call it “social commerce”: you can just call it your new favorite way to sell. In this post, we’ll illustrate social media’s sales potential and offer an effective strategy to get the most out of your channels over the coming months.
In this post:
- The Numbers Don’t Lie: People Love Social Media
- Social Shopping: Why It’s So Great
- Social Commerce: How to Sell on Social Media
The Numbers Don’t Lie: People Love Social Media
First, a confession. To better understand social media’s popularity, I looked into how many hours per day I was spending on my favorite channels (you’ll see these stats below). Using iPhone’s screen time calculator, I was able to see how much time I spent scrolling the internet and what percentage of that was dedicated to social media. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised.
Eleven hours a week on social media! At least I was having a good time?
Now, in all honesty, 11 hours isn’t all that much when compared to the average for an adult age
Based on the graph above, it’s clear that social media isn’t just for kids anymore. Internet journeymen of all ages are now liking, commenting, and sharing on their favorite channels.
With over 3 billion users worldwide, social media reaches about 40% of the world’s population. Yep, you read that right. Literally billions of people are glued to social media.
And the owners of these social networking sites don’t plan on changing that any time soon, implementing new features every couple of months (like the cryptic Facebook algorithm) to keep users coming back for more.
Instagram alone has grown from a basic
So, what are users actually doing with all this time they’re spending on social media?
While the main function of social media is still connecting with people and entertainment, about 1 in 3 users are looking for new products to buy. In the next section, we’ll define social commerce, and discuss what makes shoppers move from social media users to social media shoppers.
Social Shopping: Why It’s So Great
If you’ve ever shopped online (which, who are we kidding, of course you have), you know the benefits of
But why has social shopping in particular become so popular? Why not leave the browsing and buying to sites like Amazon and eBay or directly from a brand’s website?
With how much time people spend on social media, it’s no surprise that they’d rather not be redirected to another website. Afterall, who’s spending 17.5 hours on Amazon each week? And with 67% of social media users accessing their accounts from mobile devices, being able to easily complete a purchase on the go is critical. Social
What is social commerce? Social commerce is a form of
For businesses, social commerce has lots of benefits too. Rather than building a website and driving new traffic to it, you can list your products where your customers are already spending their time — whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or even Snapchat.
Social media audiences are substantial, to say the least — Facebook’s total
- Facebook — 2.9 billion
- Instagram — 2 billion
- Pinterest — 444 million
- YouTube — 2.5 billion
- Snapchat — 557 million
- Twitter — 436 million.
Advertising on social media is like getting a billboard in Times Square at a fraction of the cost.
And social media works: young people discover more brands through social media than TV, newspapers, and blogs combined.
While social media allows you to reach massive audiences, it’s also not just a random crowd on a town square. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube have built in
And once you find the right people, they can easily buy your products thanks to built in social commerce features like:
- Facebook Shop and Product Catalog
- Instagram shoppable posts
- Buyable pins and more.
Despite the significant role of social media in our lives and an abundance of social commerce tools, only 40% of businesses are using social media to generate sales.
While that’s a pretty astounding statistic, it’s great news for you! By being early to the social commerce party, you’ll have an advantage over competitors who haven’t yet realized the power of selling on social. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to enter social
Social Commerce: How to Sell on Social Media
Once upon a time, many social commerce features were locked away from small businesses. But today, limitations are the exception. Essential social shopping tools are available to businesses of all sizes, right from day one.
Ecwid
Facebook
Thanks to its audience size and powerful business tools, Facebook wins the award for biggest social commerce platform:
- 78% of U.S. consumers say they’ve discovered products on Facebook.
- Facebook has 60 million active business pages.
- 93% of social media advertisers use Facebook Ads.
How you can sell on Facebook:
- Upload your product catalog to your FB business page
- Show your products in a separate Shop tab
- Tag your products in pictures you post on Facebook
- Advertise your products to highly targeted audiences (e.g. store visitors or people similar to your customers)
All that functionality is offered through three main Facebook business products: Facebook Shop (to let customers buy your products from the Shop section on FB), Facebook Product Catalog (to build effortless ad campaigns that display your products with titles, prices, and pictures), and the Facebook Pixel (to let you build custom audiences for advertising.)
Learn more in our blog post: Blow Up Your Sales With Ecwid’s New Social Selling Tools on Facebook
The most popular visual
Also read: Trending Products to Sell on Instagram
Here are a few facts about Instagram social shopping:
- Instagram Shoppable posts are available in 45+ countries.
- For Ecwid store CakeSafe (33,000 Instagram followers), shoppable links are clicked an average of 40 times per post.
- Instagram is testing Shoppable posts in Creator accounts, which could offer an opportunity to sell products through more than 500,000 active Instagram influencers.
To use Instagram’s social commerce features, you’ll need to switch to a Business account. Once that’s done, you’ll have the opportunity to:
- Tag your products in photos
- Tag products in your Stories
- Get your shoppable posts to the Explore section to expand your reach
- Receive a special tab for your tagged products (if you’ve tagged more than nine)
- Boost posts (with the exception of shoppable posts)
- Tag products on influencers’ posts (beta)
- Let your customers make purchases right from their Instagram app.
Learn how to get started with Instagram social commerce: Sell on Instagram: How Ecwid Merchants Can Reach 1 Billion Shoppers
If you sell home decor, beauty products, food, drinks, or
What we know about social shopping on Pinterest:
- 93% of Pinterest users decide what to buy by browsing the platform.
- Pinteresters pay more per order than other social media networks.
- The core Pinterest audience is women age
25-54 who make 80% of purchase decisions within U.S. households.
How you can sell on Pinterest:
- Serve Pinterest ads to your store visitors
- Build and advertise to audiences who are similar to your customers
- Sync your product catalog to display the actual prices and descriptions of your products (Rich Pins)
- Set up Buyable Pins to let customers purchase from Pinterest.
Learn more about this platform with our
Snapchat
While there’s no official
- Snapchat’s advertising audience had jumped an astounding 19% in July 2019.
- Snapchat ads now reach 369 million users on the platform.
- Only 36% of marketers currently use Snapchat, so there’s less competition for top spots compared to rivals Instagram and Facebook.
On Snapchat, you can:
- Advertise your products
- Collect data about who’s buying from your ads
- Reach more Snapchat users like your existing customers.
For a detailed review of social commerce on Snapchat, jump over to our guide: Sell on Snapchat with the Snapchat Pixel for Ecwid
Social Commerce: A Strong Trend
The future of retail is in selling where your customers are, and businesses that engage across channels (web, mobile, social media,
And social shopping is at the top of that
There’s no doubt, social media has integrated with our daily lives. And now, with Ecwid
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