You know what social commerce is. You are already employing this new way of selling and marketing your business.
But the question is, are you employing the right social commerce strategies to succeed?
If not, then you are in the right place.
Your social commerce strategies are what will help you get the best out of selling on social media.
The last few years have been quite interesting for technological innovation. Specifically with the introduction of social media platforms.
Even more, how social media platforms have changed the business landscape and affected how customers want to purchase products or services.
Social commerce is simply selling products and services directly on social media.
Because of social commerce, your customers can purchase your products on a platform as soon as they discover them.
Deloitte Global research shows that the global social commerce market is predicted to surpass US $1 trillion in 2023.
The more social media gets integrated into our society and more users join social networks, the more social commerce grows.
So, in case you thought this was temporary, it is time to fully adopt social commerce for your brand.
And the best way to do that is to pick the best social commerce strategies. You don’t want to waste time and money on practices that will not work for your business.
In this article, we will be exploring top social commerce strategies that will increase your sales in 2023. Let’s dive in!
Contents
1. Pick The Right Social Commerce Channel
When considering different social commerce channels, you need to pay attention to your customers’ demographics.
Understand who they are, their age group, and their social media habits and behavior.
This is one of the social commerce strategies that require you to research who you are selling to and the new group you want to reach.
Social commerce channels enable your customers to discover, purchase, and share your products directly within the platform.
They come in various ways such as social media platforms, online marketplaces, messaging apps, and social shopping platforms.
Various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, have social commerce features such as shoppable posts and buy now.
These make it easy for a customer to buy without living the platform and making the most out of your social commerce strategies.
Examples of marketplaces include Amazon, Shopify, and Alibaba. While Messaging apps such as WhatsApp Business enable customers to make inquiries and buy your products on the app.
Consider the places your customers are most likely to be found. If your customers are between the ages of 18 and 26, they most likely spend a lot of time on social media platforms and that is where you want your business to be.
2. Streamline The Checkout Process
This is one of the social commerce strategies that are crucial.
The success of your social commerce strategies is measured by how many sales you can convert.
If you do everything right and ignore this part, it might be what is stopping you from making any sales.
The checkout process needs to be simplified. Your customers do not need to be confused about how they can buy your products otherwise they will abandon the process.
According to Accenture, if the checkout process is too complicated, 87% of online buyers will abandon their carts.
Consider the number of steps it takes for a customer to add your product to their online shopping cart up until they complete buying.
If the steps are too many, reduce them for the sake of your social commerce strategies.
Also, it is beneficial for you if your social commerce channel of choice can receive different kinds of payment.
Consider PayPal, credit and debit cards, google pay, apple pay, M-Pesa, and all the other options.
If you would like to keep your returning customers, make sure your platform is capable of saving their information.
This will come in when auto-filling their details so they don’t have to repeat the process each time they make a purchase.
It would be helpful if you also provided instructions on the steps your customer will need to make to buy your product.
3. Content And More Content!
In today’s age of social media, the attention span of most users is reduced.
This means that you need to capture the attention of your audience as quickly as possible and this is where content comes in.
No matter the platform you chose, your content needs to be highly engaging.
Duolingo is a language learning platform that has garnered a lot of followers on its TikTok account due to the type of content they make.
You also need to recognize the type of content that receives high engagement. For example, short videos are how most audiences are consuming content right now contributing to your social commerce strategies.
If you do decide to use images, make sure they are of high quality and visually appealing photos.
Good content makes your products or services easily discoverable as they are easily shareable by your currently existing audience.
Seek out the help of professionals like Twiva Studios, to help you create high-quality and engaging content.
4. Pay Attention To Your Customer Experience
How do your customers feel from the moment they show interest in your products and services up until they purchase?
Would they consider your customer service and support good?
This is important especially when they want to recommend your business to their friends and family.
Your social commerce platform needs to provide ways in which customers can reach you if they have any concerns or inquiries that can’t be answered on the platform.
Ways you can improve your customers’ experience:
- Display your contact information
- Promptly reply to messages from customers
- Always consider the feelings and needs of your customer
- Offer compensation for mistakes made by your business
- Have a clear and reasonable refund policy.
Other social commerce strategies you can consider are live shopping and social media advertisements.
5. What Does Your Social Proof Look Like?
As described by Dynamic Yield, social proof is a phenomenon where decision-making becomes credible and validated through the behavior of others.
In social commerce strategies, social proof manifests in different ways such as reviews, ratings, comments, and user-generated content.
To build trust and loyalty with your customers, you need to collect and broadcast your social proof.
Show new customers that other people are buying and enjoying your business and this will influence them to also make a purchase.
User-generated is important. Your customers will appreciate the fact that others are enjoying and sharing your product with them without you paying for it.
Go pro is an example of a company that users UGC on its 20+ million followers Instagram page to display the powerful capabilities of it product.
Social commerce strategies are heavily concentrated on customers and how best to get them to trust you.
Trust is the backbone of successfully selling on social media.
Your customer will be convinced if your business has a 4.7-star rating and over 300 reviews as they use this to decide whether to buy from you.
A Global News Wire survey showed that customers (95%) will read online reviews before they shop.
6. Optimize Your Marketing Tools
When listing your products in a social commerce platform, the product must be optimized to the maximum.
You can do this by using SEO to write your product description. This will help you rank higher in search engines and be easily discoverable when products like yours are looked up by customers.
Also, consider using influencer marketing. Work with micro and nano influencers.
Right now, most brands are leaning towards nano-influencers because of the high engagement they get from their audiences.
Also, influencers help you in generating user-generated content. When their audiences purchase and use your products, they are likely to share what they thought of them.
There are other various benefits why your brand should consider influencer marketing.
If you are as open to the process, Twiva is an influencer marketing company that can help you.
You must have the right social commerce strategies. As you navigate your business in social commerce, pay attention to the channel you are using. Is it working for you?
Are your customers’ able checkout seamlessly? Is the content on your social media working?
What is your customers’ experience and have you collected and displayed enough social proof?
For a business that wants to succeed in social commerce, you should be able to answer all these social commerce strategies questions.
Register your business on a competent social commerce platform in Kenya, Twiva, and increase your sales today. Sign up on https://app.twiva.co.ke/#/auth/sign_up/create_account/Business
Penned by Lydia Mwende.
Lydia is the Social Media & Community Manager at Twiva. She enjoys reading, writing and watching films.