When 90% of the online shoppers say reviews and recommendations on social media help improve their purchase decision, why should they neglect to invest time and money in defining social shopping strategy?
Around 3.78 billion people worldwide are active social media users, which are equal to 48% of the world population. With the effective reach, low cost of investment, scalability, measurement, and engagement, this has led to change the social sharing platform into the social shopping one with a span of some time.
The Future of Social Shopping
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At the beginning of the social media channels, no one thought it would turn into the platforms where e-commerce activities can also commence. However, with exponential growth and popularity, these channels are transformed into a place where marketing activities can be easily performed.
Hence this has brought rise to social media marketing which eventually introduces the latest social media concept called social media shopping.
But do you know exactly what social shopping is and how it works? In this blog, we will learn how social media shopping is changing online marketing and attracting people to buy directly through social media channels.
So let’s start with,
What Do We Mean By Social Shopping?
Social shopping can be said as the bridge that connects eCommerce and social media platforms. Social shopping is the trending social media marketing strategy where brands and businesses sell their products and services directly through social media channels.
There are several other websites, too, like Amazon, eBay, etc., where brands can promote their products and generate sales. But social shopping is an exclusive social media strategy that allows brands and marketers to utilize the potential of social media platforms to boost product awareness, reach targeted audiences, build interest, increase social proof and allow people to buy directly from the social media platforms.
What is Social Shopping?
Social shopping is a complete process where customers find reviews and recommendations for your products on the social media channels or stumble upon where they come to discover or learn about your product on social media channels.
Moreover, social media shopping also includes buying and selling products through social media channels by redirecting the users to the online store or selling through social media shops.
Several social media channels have emerged into platforms that support social shopping, allowing brands and businesses to easily create their social shops and directly sell their products through their channel.
Social Media Channels Supporting Social Shopping
With the largest number of millennials and Gen Z users, Instagram is the most popular social media platform for social shopping. Instagram, with the features like Link in bio, Insta Shop, product tags, swipe up, etc., increases the opportunities for brands to sell their products directly to their followers and target potential customers that fit their buyer’s persona.
For the past decade, Facebook has been the prominent social media site to promote and grow business to millions of people worldwide. As a result, many businesses and brands run full-fledged marketing campaigns on Facebook to boost brand awareness and attract their audience’s attention. Hence, Facebook recently introduced Facebook Shop to promote and sell their products while their customers enjoy Facebook posts.
With the largest number of vibrant images and highest popularity among female internet users, Pinterest is transforming its platform where retailers and brands can tag their products that allow users to shop through their favourite pins. Pinterest called this new feature Pinterest Shoppable Pins. Using this feature, brands and businesses can turn the pinboards into shoppable pins by tagging their products displayed in the image.
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How Can Brands Strategize Social Shopping Through Websites?
Now, you know about social and online shopping, how it works, and major social media channels that are promoting social shopping through their platform. But do you know you can also leverage social shopping through your business website?
You can now embed social media posts like images, videos, or user-generated content on your website and add a buy button on the posts by tagging the product, making it easy for your visitors to discover new products and buy directly from the post.
The biggest advantage of using Shoppable Post on a website is that your customers will come to know about the social proof of your product and get a trustworthy testimonial from the real-life experience of the existing customers.
Embedding Shoppable Posts on websites will tremendously boost conversion rate with increased authenticity and credibility of your website.
Conclusion
In this growing online marketing era, social media marketing and social shopping are indispensable for every business and brand. Whether you are a large business or small, social media marketing is crucial to survive and grow in this competitive edge.
Then, start strategizing for social shopping as your next social media marketing move.
Hope this blog helps you understand social media shopping and its importance to grow sales and revenue for your business. So without any delay, start creating social media shopping strategies.
