Business Growth Through Social Commerce

The convenience, as well as the necessity, of online shopping, has resulted in an incredible growth in e-commerce. The trend was further exacerbated by the stay-at-home orders and social distancing throughout the pandemic around the world.

According to research, people increased the time that they spent on social media platforms every day by almost 10 minutes.

This increase in e-commerce popularity, when combined with the overall growth of social media usage every year, has encouraged plenty of companies to employ influencer marketing strategies as well as user-generated content in their efforts to promote brand awareness.

Additionally, younger generations of consumers who have already familiarized themselves with influencer content and digital shopping are likely going to engage with e-commerce a lot more often.

Social Commerce

One of the elements of e-commerce is social commerce, which refers to the customer shopping experience on social media platforms. This can include clicking a link on a social platform that will lead to a company‘s product page with a quick option to make a purchase.

Although not every single marketing strategy is efficient for every single company, almost every single brand can utilize user-generated content, influencers, and  consumer calls to action (CTAs), to successfully navigate the market of social commerce.

User-generated Content

Many companies in the last few months have demonstrated the importance of user-generated content by creating hashtag challenges and viral videos. These types of content are all incredibly viewer-friendly, and when they are combined with a strong Call To Action, companies can improve sales. Aside from those types of organic marketing opportunities, there are other strategies that businesses can utilize.

Influencers And Social Platforms

Lately, phrases such as “link in bio”, or “swipe up to purchase”, have become incredibly common as calls to action. They’re all used by companies looking to get users of social media platforms to make a purchase for the services or the products they have been seeing advertised.

Additionally, a couple of years ago Instagram finally gave its influencers the option to create shoppable posts. Snapchat as well as TikTok followed suit several months later, by allowing some select influencers to show a “shop” button with their content.

According to research nearly 20% of consumers have felt inspired to follow those calls to action from social media influencers.

Trends and Strategies

Recently, China set an incredible example for the future of social commerce. The country’s most popular messaging platform, WeChat, started introducing virtual storefronts for different merchants.

This allows the platform to function as both a social media platform and as an e-commerce platform at the same time.

Although currently, the largest social commerce categories are accessories and apparel, plenty of other brands and categories are looking to market themselves this way.

Some of the other key players include home decor as well as electronics. Additionally, some of the brands that are best suited for this new environment are those involved in social commerce or those that are introducing new products into the market.