The Ecwid Blog>Социална търговия: How to Sell on Social Media

Социална търговия: How to Sell on Social Media

Posted от Kristen Pinkman, Ecwid Team

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. В този пост, 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.

В този пост:

The Numbers Don’t Lie: People Love Social Media

Първо, 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. излишно да се каже, I wasn’t surprised.

Eleven hours a week on social media! At least I was having a good time?

Сега, in all honesty, 11 hours isn’t all that much when compared to the average for an adult age 25-34, which rests at 2 hours and 37 minutes per day and 17.5 hours per week.


Daily time spent on social media, Digital Information World

Based on the graph above, it’s clear that social media isn’t just for kids anymore. Internet journeymen of all ages are now liking, commenting, and sharing on their favorite channels.

С над 3 billion users worldwide, social media reaches about 40% of the world’s population. да, 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 (реклами, анализи, and networking tools) and the support of various content formats (looped video, live stream, Истории, photos and photo galleries, IGTV, и т.н.).

Така, 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 в 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 (който, 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? И със 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.

За бизнеса, 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. Така, 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.

And social media works: young people discover more brands through social media than TV, newspapers, and blogs combined.


Sources of brand discovery for Generation Z, държавник

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. Например, 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.

Социална търговия: How to Sell on Social Media

Once upon a time, many social commerce features were locked away from small businesses. Но днес, 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 Пазаруване, WordPress, Wix… you get the idea). Keep reading to find out how you can tap into social shopping on some of the top platforms.

Facebook
Thanks to its audience size and powerful business tools, Facebook wins the award for biggest social commerce platform:

How you can sell on Facebook:

All that functionality is offered through three main Facebook business products: Facebook магазин (to let customers buy your products from the Shop section on FB), Facebook Продуктов каталог (to build effortless ad campaigns that display your products with titles, цени, and pictures), and the Facebook Pixel (to let you build custom audiences for advertising.)

Learn more in our blog post: Blow Up Your Sales With Ecwid’s New Social Selling Tools on Facebook

Instagram

The most popular visual photo-sharing platform is a perfect spot for showcasing products. But it’s not just a gallery of your favorite product pics. Instagram Shoppable posts allow followers to purchase tagged products within the app in just a couple taps.

Прочетете също: Trending Products to Sell on Instagram

Here are a few facts about Instagram social shopping:

To use Instagram’s social commerce features, you’ll need to switch to a Business account. Once that’s done, you’ll have the opportunity to:

Learn how to get started with Instagram social commerce: Продавайте в Instagram: How Ecwid Merchants Can Reach 1 Billion Shoppers

Pinterest

If you sell home decor, beauty products, храна, drinks, or e-goods, Pinterest could hold huge social shopping potential for your business. While Pinterest traditionally appeals to women, 50% of new signups in 2018 were actually men, signaling a shift in the platform.

What we know about social shopping on Pinterest:

How you can sell on Pinterest:

Learn more about this platform with our in-depth look at Pinterest advertising: Пуснете по-ефективни реклами с Pinterest Tag за вашия магазин Ecwid

Snapchat

While there’s no official e-commerce functionality that allows users to complete purchases in the app (yet), Snapchat is widely embraced by brands of all sizes. Snapchat is especially popular amongst the younger crowd, so if that’s your target audience, its advertising tools are definitely worth a closer look.

On Snapchat, можеш:

For a detailed review of social commerce on Snapchat, jump over to our guide: Продавайте на Snapchat със Snapchat Pixel за Ecwid

Социална търговия: A Strong Trend

The future of retail is in selling where your customers are, and businesses that engage across channels (web, Подвижен, социална медия, в магазина, и т.н.) retain more than twice as many customers as those without effective cross-channel strategies.

And social shopping is at the top of that cross-channel list. With business and social commerce tools, buying products in-app from any device is fast and convenient.

There’s no doubt, social media has integrated with our daily lives. И сега, с Ecwid E-commerce, your store can be just as integrated with the most popular social platforms. As you’re thinking through your marketing and sales strategies for the upcoming year, consider testing one-to-two social channels. It might be just the thing you need to take your business to a whole new level.

Not selling online just yet? Join our e-commerce crew by creating a free Ecwid account, and sell anywhere, from web to social media to marketplaces. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Ecwid blog to learn more about social commerce and other e-commerce and marketing trends.

About The Author
Kristen is a сontent creator at Ecwid. She finds inspiration in sci-fi books, jazz music, and home-cooked food.

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