How does social commerce work?
If your business sells physical goods, then integrating social commerce to power up into your strategy is essential. It eliminates any barriers to purchasing, such as slow website loading times or complicated user journeys.
A large amount of purchasing on social media is driven by impulse buying, especially if the price is available. During Q2 of 2021, Statista reported the average value of online orders referred through social media was $81.05.
It works by a user simply seeing an item they would like to purchase, such as a pair of sunglasses, and clicking ‘shop now’ or ‘buy now’ to complete the purchase. The price, description and delivery information will all be visible within the social platform, meaning there is no need to even visit the retailer’s website.
User-generated content, created by customers and influencers, combined with social commerce features such as shoppable tags and links, leads to an increase in impulse purchases. This increase is motivated by lifestyle and emotion. Users are looking for social proof that the products are credible, well-made and recommended by people they respect or admire.
What platforms offer social commerce?
Within the next three years, Statista anticipates that 8 in 10 ten US businesses anticipate will sell on social media which just shows the value of these networks as a sales channel.
Social commerce is currently available on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. In 2022, YouTube is also testing capabilities of adding shoppable tags and links to video content.
Users can create a shop within social media if they use a professional account. This is something that can be switched over to from a personal account, in the settings menu.
Social commerce on Facebook and Instagram works in a similar way; you can tag items from your shop in your photos and videos. On Instagram, this includes Stories and Reels content.
When people see your products tagged in your posts, they can select those tags to find out product details including name and price. When they click on telemarketing list these tags they will be taken through to your shop in the platform to find out more detail, and purchase. See the example below on Instagram where hovering provides product information.
Instagram example of hovering
Instagram example of hovering
Currently, users will see the option to purchase the product on your website – but Meta is testing in-app purchases currently in the US. You can tag products while creating a new post or tag products in an existing post. You can tag up to 30 products in a post, but this would look busy and complicated so no more than 10 tags are recommended per post.
Some brands on social commerce
The brand, ‘Not on the High Street’, uses Facebook shopping to tag products within posts on its Facebook Page.
This means the brand can showcase seasonal items easily around key retail dates such as Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Ramadan, while allowing users to see pricing and find the exact landing page to purchase on their website.