For over a decade, brands have been monitoring what consumers have said online, through social listening and understanding the value of what consumers thought and how they reacted to activities that were social in nature.
The disconnect was that social metrics never translated into business impact. They made the headlines, but not the ones CEOs were looking for, so publishers and platforms evolved, making social link directly to sales.
Pivoting from ecommerce to ‘social commerce’
The approach to planning ecommerce activities has also changed. Brands do not only look at how to best acquire, engage, and convert consumers but also look at social-specific metrics like building word-of-mouth, identifying the right influencer or influencers to distribute content, managing communities of people that are interested in a specific type of product and, last but not least, creating reward- and CRM-led incentives for audiences to buy from a brand online.
Many advertisers are giving equal weight to both paid traffic conversion and organic conversion. This also means that commerce is not seasonal or campaign-specific anymore. It is now, like social, ‘always on’.
Over 43% of consumers use social media to find products and services to purchase. So, considering the number of sales this channel promises, taking advantage of social commerce should be a no-brainer.
What is social commerce?
Social commerce is the use of social media channels to buy and sell products. It allows customers to navigate the purchase journey of brand discovery, product research, and purchase without leaving the platform.
Reach your target audience effectively
There are approximately 4.59 billion people on social media. Thus, these channels expose you to a sizable population of your target audience. Even better, they feature a wealth of customer data, from their preferences and behaviors to demographics.
As such, you can fine-tune your ads using ultra-specific criteria. Using social media advertising, you can bring your product to the viewing pleasure of those who desire, appreciate, and eventually buy it.
Create frictionless purchasing experience
Innovative features such as social media chatbots, in-app checkouts, shoppable ads, straightforward buy buttons, seamless customer support, etc., make social media buying a seamless experience.
Receive feedback from customers
Social media offers a great means to reach customers directly. So, you can use it to get feedback from them.
Social media keeps setting revolutionary trends for customers and business interactions. Today, social commerce is the new kid on the block with benefits such as ultra-specific pin-point targeting, a frictionless purchasing experience, and easy ways to acquire feedback. These are necessary to maximize profit for any business.