According to a recent survey, social media is the fave marketing channel for Ecwid merchants. Some use their social media pages for customer care, some build private groups for loyal customers — some just wanna share a juicy meme from time-to-time (ya know, if that’s what their audience is into).
But some merchants have gone the extra mile. Rather than just being on social media, they’re embracing the latest tools and selling on social media, turning their followers into paying customers right on their favorite platforms.
The zealous call it “social commerce”: you can just call it your new favorite way to sell. In this post, we’ll illustrate social media’s sales potential and offer an effective strategy to get the most out of your channels over the coming months.
In this post:
The Numbers Don’t Lie: People Love Social Media
First, a confession. To better understand social media’s popularity, I looked into how many hours per day I was spending on my favorite channels (you’ll see these stats below). Using iPhone’s screen time calculator, I was able to see how much time I spent scrolling the internet and what percentage of that was dedicated to social media. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised.
Eleven hours a week on social media! At least I was having a good time?
With over 3 billion users worldwide, social media reaches about 40% of the world’s population. Yep, you read that right. Literally billions of people are glued to social media.
And the owners of these social networking sites don’t plan on changing that any time soon, implementing new features every couple of months (like the cryptic Facebook algorithm) to keep users coming back for more.
Instagram alone has grown from a basic photo-sharing platform in it’s early days to a full-blown digital media juggernaut, complete with business tools (ads, analytics, and networking tools) and the support of various content formats (looped video, live stream, Stories, photos and photo galleries, IGTV, etc.).
So, what are users actually doing with all this time they’re spending on social media?
While the main function of social media is still connecting with people and entertainment, about 1 in 3 users are looking for new products to buy. In the next section, we’ll define social commerce, and discuss what makes shoppers move from social media users to social media shoppers.
Social Shopping: Why It’s So Great
If you’ve ever shopped online (which, who are we kidding, of course you have), you know the benefits of e-commerce well. A few clicks here, a tap or a swipe there, and next thing you know, your package is on your doorstep. It’s idyllic, to say the least.
But why has social shopping in particular become so popular? Why not leave the browsing and buying to sites like Amazon and eBay or directly from a brand’s website?
With how much time people spend on social media, it’s no surprise that they’d rather not be redirected to another website. Afterall, who’s spending 17.5 hours on Amazon each week? And with 67% of social media users accessing their accounts from mobile devices, being able to easily complete a purchase on the go is critical. Social e-commerce enables customers to shop right where they are without clicking off to another site or app, allowing them to move seamlessly between discovering and purchasing, right from their mobile devices.
What is social commerce? Social commerce is a form of e-commerce that involves the use of social media platforms to promote and sell products and services.
For businesses, social commerce has lots of benefits too. Rather than building a website and driving new traffic to it, you can list your products where your customers are already spending their time — whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or even Snapchat.
Social media audiences are substantial, to say the least — Facebook’s total user-base is roughly the size of four European Unions. So, selling on these platforms open doors to billions of potential customers. Look how many monthly active users are on some of the top social platforms:
Advertising on social media is like getting a billboard in Times Square at a fraction of the cost.
While social media allows you to reach massive audiences, it’s also not just a random crowd on a town square. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube have built in e-commerce tools to help brands target the right people for social shopping. For example, Facebook tracks your customer data and allows you to serve ads to users who share similarities with your existing customers — like similar interests or geographic locations.
And once you find the right people, they can easily buy your products thanks to built in social commerce features like:
Despite the significant role of social media in our lives and an abundance of social commerce tools, only 40% of businesses are using social media to generate sales.
While that’s a pretty astounding statistic, it’s great news for you! By being early to the social commerce party, you’ll have an advantage over competitors who haven’t yet realized the power of selling on social. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to enter social e-commerce on some of the most popular platforms.
Social Commerce: How to Sell on Social Media
Once upon a time, many social commerce features were locked away from small businesses. But today, limitations are the exception. Essential social shopping tools are available to businesses of all sizes, right from day one.
Ecwid E-commerce helps businesses of any size list and sell their products across multiple platforms at once from a single product catalog. Create your Ecwid account once to sell your products on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Snapchat (plus Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, WordPress, Wix… you get the idea). Keep reading to find out how you can tap into social shopping on some of the top platforms.
Thanks to its audience size and powerful business tools, Facebook wins the award for biggest social commerce platform:
How you can sell on Facebook:
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