All You Need to Know About Social Commerce

Social commerce is gaining increasing popularity. Social commerce is when e-commerce is combined with social media. This form of e-commerce is especially beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as it allows them to directly engage with customers and promote products and services.

With platforms like Facebook and Instagram now providing built-in shopping features where users can make purchases directly from profiles, ads, and videos, businesses can increase sales without inconveniencing users to leave social media apps.

If you want to find out how your business can leverage social commerce effectively, this article provides just that.

1. Understand the Evolution of Social Commerce

Social commerce isn’t just about adding a “buy now” button to your Instagram post. It’s essentially how people shop online. Research suggests that 68% of South Africans scroll social media aimlessly without a specific goal. Businesses can build relationships with these users and display their products and services in front of them.

This means that SMEs don’t need to direct their audience to an external website; the entire shopping experience takes place within the social media app. Businesses can stay ahead of the curve by integrating shoppable posts across multiple platforms, allowing customers to conveniently make purchases directly from social media.

2. Create Shoppable Content That Aligns with Your Brand

Growing your business through social commerce thrives on engaging, visually driven content. Whether you’re showcasing a product, telling your brand’s story, or sharing customer testimonials, the content you create needs to resonate with your audience emotionally and visually. If you want to improve your social media engagement, you can use your authenticity to your advantage, which often appeals to social media users more than corporate-driven campaigns.

Types of content you can post include high-quality, authentic images or videos of your products in real-world situations. Additionally, behind-the-scenes content, user-generated content, and influencer partnerships work exceptionally well.

3. Use Influencers to Build Trust and Drive Sales

Influencer marketing is an essential part of social commerce for many businesses, big or small. By collaborating with micro-influencers or industry-related figures, SMEs can reach niche markets and tap into an established audience.

Collaborating with influencers can be intimidating, especially since there’s a narrative that it’s expensive to work with them, but there are ways to collaborate with influencers such as barter deals where you both benefit from the collaboration. It’s important to identify influencers whose followers align with your target market.

4. Build a Customer Journey on Social Platforms

One of the biggest benefits of social commerce is that it gives businesses the opportunity to make the shopping experience smooth. Customers can find a product and buy it all in one place. To keep things simple, make sure your product listings are clear. Add good descriptions, correct prices, and strong images.

Additionally, your business page should be easy to navigate. It should work well on mobile. It should also have fast and safe payment options. This keeps your customers happy and makes them want to buy again.

5. Take Advantage of Data and Insights

One of the biggest benefits of social commerce is that you can gather data directly from social media platforms. With detailed insights on what content works, who your audience is, and how they interact with your posts, you can tailor your strategies more effectively to ensure it speaks directly to your customers.

You can use analytics tools provided by platforms like Instagram Insights, Facebook Analytics, and TikTok Analytics to track the performance of your social commerce efforts. Pay attention to engagement metrics, purchase behaviour, and customer demographics to optimise your content, target the right audience, and fine-tune your ad campaigns for better results.

6. Explore Cross-Platform Selling and Advertising

Social commerce isn’t limited to one platform. While Instagram and Facebook are obvious choices, looking at other platforms like TikTok, which offer opportunities to sell products directly on their platforms. When you integrate cross-platform advertising into your strategy, you can reach a broader audience and find where your products resonate best.

While cross-posting content on different platforms increases exposure, it’s important to customise your messaging for each. For example, you might post an influencer review on Instagram while offering a behind-the-scenes look at how your product is made on TikTok. Additionally, invest in paid ads to drive targeted traffic to your shoppable posts or ads across multiple platforms, maximising your visibility.