Incorporating social commerce into your eCommerce strategy

Social media use has shifted dramatically for both consumers and marketers in the last few years, with commerce becoming an integral part of the user experience. Social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are no longer just a way to post updates and share pictures. Now, they are a way to interact with brands and access products and services quickly and conveniently. 

Social commerce is a subset of eCommerce, in which online merchants sell products directly to consumers via social media platforms. It’s a booming sales channel that’s forecasted to double its revenues in the US between 2021 and 2025, with the average user spending more and more with each purchase. Meanwhile, China saw $351 billion in sales via social media last year, making it the leading country by far for social commerce.

Here, we want to take a deeper look at social commerce and how it can be incorporated into your business strategy, helping to increase sales and offer a superior customer experience.

What is social commerce?

As opposed to social media marketing, which redirects a user to a store’s webpage, social commerce allows shoppers to make purchases directly through the social media platform or via a link that brings them to a product page.

It differs from traditional eCommerce in how consumers access products. Instead of browsing a store’s product catalogue on a website, social commerce uses social media ads to target users for a specific product, which they can purchase directly on the platform.

Bringing social commerce to your business strategy

There are a lot of benefits to bringing social commerce into your business strategy. Since this trend is growing, getting on the social commerce bandwagon now can help you grow your business well into the future.

Here are just a few of the benefits in incorporating social commerce into your business strategy:

• Marketing channel diversification
• Using influencer marketing and brand partnerships
• Streamlined purchasing process
• Personalized shopping experience
• The ability to make informed marketing decisions based on data
• New ways to grow your email subscription list

Ready to incorporate social commerce into your business strategy? There are several steps you can take to do it right:

Research your customer

You need to know where your customers are and what they need. What channels are they using? Where and how are they finding you? What apps or other shopping experiences are they using? What products are they searching for? You can gain a better understanding of these answers by analyzing past sales and social media marketing you’ve done or even by surveying your customers.

Identify relevant platforms

Identifying which social media platforms are used by your customers can give you a better understanding as to which platforms would work best for your social commerce strategy. While Facebook is currently the largest social commerce platform, with Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok following close behind, you’re still going to want to take advantage of the platforms used most by your customers.

Take advantage of available data

Research and use the available consumer data from social media platforms, including the number of likes, shares, session duration, clicks and more, which will help inform your social commerce strategy.

Boost engagement on your social media pages

You want to make sure your social commerce posts are being seen, so you first need to boost your social media pages to engage more consumers with your business. Encourage your followers to become more involved with your brand via surveys, exclusive discounts to those who like, share or comment, tagging followers or brands you partner with, and more.

Streamline your business payments from social commerce

Once you have a sound social commerce strategy, you can begin working on streamlining the payments from your new revenue source.  At Payoneer, we provide you with the tools and services you need to effectively manage your social commerce payments, including:

• Local receiving accounts – Get paid like a local worldwide. Local receiving accounts allow your customers to pay you via local bank transfer in a variety of currencies.
• Currency conversions – Quickly convert your payments to a variety of currencies at applicable market rates with no hidden fees.
• Store manager – Manage all your marketplace stores from a single location, allowing you to easily track your payments, analyze trends and revenues and more.

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