An eCommerce retailer who sells children's toys in Europe and US increased their monthly sales by 310%. From 2,800 sales they ramped up to 11,500 sales per month. How? Thanks to social media for eCommerce!
Blending social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, the retailer was able to positively increase their eCommerce sales. But the revenue factor didn't happen just like that. They had to use social media marketing strategies in order to be active where their potential customers were and keep them engaged.
So, in the path of increasing their revenue, they took a road that helped them increase Facebook likes by 1,778%, earn 2,327 new followers on Instagram, and were mentioned 3,000% higher on Twitter. All in a span of two months.
That's the power of combining social media and eCommerce.
In this blog, we'll see how social media is impacting the eCommerce industry and try to understand this evolving concept. We'll also go over why social media marketing is important and present actionable strategies to use social media for your eCommerce business.
Statistics on the impact of leveraging social media for eCommerce
During the pandemic, a Shopify report revealed the boom in online shopping — a whopping 86% of Indians transitioned to online stores for their needs. And this trend is predicted to be on the rise. However, data shows that the key aspect behind changing buying behavior — from brick and mortar stores to eCommerce shops — is social media.
Another report cites that almost 55% of younger consumers who purchase from independent retailers actually discovered them through social media. It's proved to be an effective prospects magnet. Interestingly, even among middle-aged consumers, 45% use social media to find out about new brands and shop with them.
These numbers show the importance of incorporating a smart social media marketing strategy for your eCommerce stores. It will be a long-term investment and can be your strongest success catalyst. You really can't miss out on this since the social eCommerce market is forecasted to reach $70 billion in India by 2030 in a Bain & Co report.
What is social media eCommerce marketing?
A social media eCommerce marketing strategy is defined as a set of techniques and hacks that you could use to market your eCommerce business. Your strategy can be different from that of your retailer peer based on your business model and goals.
For example, here are some social media for eCommerce strategies:
- Increase social commerce
- Improve pre and post-purchase communication with customers.
- Gather insights about your eCommerce business such as your audience or competitors or benchmark metrics.
- Promote an eCommerce destination such as getting users to install your mobile app or driving traffic to your e-store.
At this point, it's vital to understand that social media eCommerce is different from other related terms such as social commerce and social selling. Here's a quick definition to help put things in perspective.
Social media eCommerce marketing: Consists of promoting products, increasing brand awareness, improving social listening, managing feedback, and analyzing the competition. It also encompasses social commerce and social selling and is, therefore, a superset of the two.
Social commerce: Consists of selling your eCommerce products on social media platforms with the help of tools like Instagram Shop, Facebook Shop, Product Pins, and other native social platform shopping solutions.
Social selling: Consists of leveraging social media to discover, connect with, and nurture sales prospects.
Why social media is crucial for eCommerce brands
You might be thinking that while social media for eCommerce worked for the toys retailer, it might not work for you, or that you might not get a tangible return. It's time that you did not side with that perception anymore because data clearly shows that all types of businesses can benefit great returns using social media.
And here are three reasons why social media is vital for the success of your eCommerce stores:
- Connect with potential customers
- Cost-effectively market your products
- Create a solid brand image
1. Connect with potential customers
Almost three-quarters of consumers connect with their friends on social media and seek their advice while making a purchasing decision. Additionally, most prospects use social network to discover brands and products to fulfil their desires and interests. For instance, if you sell stationary, build a following of art and craft makers on social media to gradually sell to them.
While you do not have to sell directly on social media, it's still a choice you have to make. Nonetheless, improving customer engagement with meaningful and relevant content would inevitably lead to improved sales anyway. And this can impact the entire customer journey: right from product/brand awareness to customer acquisition and retention.
2. Cost-effectively market your products
Just like how it is free to use social media, so it is free for you to set up your business page, post content, respond to message, and also increase your number of followers without spending anything at all. While of course, you would have some in-house costs such as for creating content, handling queries, collaborating with influencers, and the like, it's still possible to realize massive growth while using social media channels for free.
Alternatively, you could also try paid social ads to convert social media users into your customers. Now the discussion of using paid social ads could be divisive. When deployed right, it can be exceptionally cost-effective since it can be easily measured considering its direct attribution. However, if you would delve into paid social ads without a robust plan, it's easy for costs to get out of hand fast.
3. Create a solid brand image
Social media presence helps you to seed, build, and brand your business and products. That's why your logo, cover photo, and visual content posts are all important. The color palette that you use in your Instagram stories and the like are exactly what your audiences, over time, would recognize your brand as — even when they aren't making any purchase decisions.
Beyond building your own brand image, social media sites give you powerful tools that you could use to create lookalike audiences and expand your social commerce strategy and also build an engaged audience.
Moreover, product reviews from your customers on social media networks can be a powerful influencer marketing of its own and can serve as tangible social proof for users. Even those wondering the legitimacy of your brand would be convinced to try out your products.
How to use social media for eCommerce
1. Define your social media goals for your eCommerce business
Social media for eCommerce can be used in two ways — one, to drive traffic to your website, and the other is to drive sales. Now these two factors are important in their own way and depending on where you are in your business journey, you need to identify that which is of greater value and effectively plan your resources.
So, ensure to chart your goals. Then, invest time and energy into strategy and implementation. Failing to map your goals would render you incapable to measure your success or repeat that which works best.
2. Decide if your eCommerce business should become social commerce
As mentioned already, social commerce refers to the process of directly selling to your customers on social media platforms. Right from discovering your brand, to making a buying decision, to the checkout process — your customers do everything that they can on an e-Commerce platform in social media platforms.
For instance, Target’s Facebook page has a shop built right into it. This way customers can easily browse and purchase products.
3. Develop a social media marketing strategy for Your eCommerce business
Finally, you need to develop a social media strategy that incorporates your goals, resources, and the best social media platforms that will help you reach the majority of your customers. Once you have clearly charted out your plan, you can expand on each element to creative effective marketing campaigns that will help you achieve your goals.
Try social media for eCommerce
Tying E-commerce and social media in multiple simple steps can give you an excellent opportunity to get in front of your potential customers and sell your products. You can use the various social channels available to increase brand and product discovery, sales, and loyal customers.
A regular use of social media for e-commerce endeavors is a natural move when you are an online retailer. If you haven't yet tapped into the benefits of social media marketing, it's high time you begin, so that you do not leave money on the table for your competitor.
Try following the steps described in this blog. As a first step, ensure that your eCommerce platform is integrated to all your social media accounts. An AI-driven CRM like Ingage can help with this. Moreover, it can also give you exhaustive and invaluable insights on customer behavior. Check it out by requesting a free demo.
Need help investing in social media for e-commerce in your business? Get in touch us, we'd be more than happy to help!
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