How can social commerce earn revenue for your eCommerce Business?

Social commerce blog by setubridge

In October 2021, Li Jiaqi and Viya, China’s famous live-streamers, sold $3.1 billion worth of items. That is almost three times the sales data average for Amazon. This is the power of social commerce. Social commerce is a way of using social media platforms to generate revenue for your eCommerce business.

Whether you like it or not, online shopping is now the trend. Social commerce is transforming the way users shop online and is anticipated to grow by $1.2 trillion globally by 2025. Social media is now becoming a major e-commerce platform, and almost 77% of the audience uses it. And this type of e-commerce is helping small enterprises reach a larger audience now than before.

In this article, we’ll explain how social commerce works and how you can use it to earn revenue for your eCommerce business.

“It’s word of mouth on steroids.”

— SADIE HAWKINS, TikTok’s GM of North America  

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce is a way for eCommerce businesses to earn revenue through social media platforms. It is more like leveraging the user base on social media by influencing them with products and services directly on the platform. By creating and sharing content on social media, businesses can drive traffic back to their website and, ultimately, convert it into sales.

In social media, merchants are allowed to set up a complete catalog of their products or services, and, in some cases, the platform also allows social media users to complete purchases within the platform. In another case, an interested buyer is redirected to the merchant’s eCommerce website after clicking on the “BUY” button. 

The e-commerce sector has grown steadily since 2003, and it even enjoyed a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the social commerce market has grown by an amazing amount. The social marketplace, according to eMarketer, grew by about 38% in 2020 to $26.77 billion and is expected to reach $50 billion a year by 2023.

Social commerce provides businesses with a priceless opportunity to connect with customers on their preferred social media platforms, where they spend most of their time. For companies looking for new clients, a targeted collection of potentially qualified leads assembled in one location is a good hunting area.

For visitors, social commerce offers an attractive possibility to make lightning-fast impulse purchases and quickly follow preferred influencer suggestions. They may

finish the entire shopping procedure while remaining within the social network cycle. 

Ecommerce vs. Social Commerce

Ecommerce is the term used to describe internet shopping through a website or branded app like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart, and customers can simply access them via desktop or mobile. Many people are getting confused by social commerce and E-commerce, but both are different. Social commerce is like an extended version of ecommerce based on how social media is influencing the buying decisions of its audiences. 

Customers are influenced by the online store via top-of-the-funnel approaches such as digital advertisements, social media posts, and other marketing initiatives. Also, after arriving at the store, even more steps in the purchasing process should be completed by the consumer, which increases the probability that they may lose interest and a possible sale.

This is where social commerce takes place.

Social commerce eliminates needless processes and optimizes the purchasing process by permitting customers to check out immediately via social media sites. This makes the customer’s experience more seamless and boosts revenue for the merchant.

Furthermore, because social media platforms are designed to be mobile-friendly, social commerce is a very accessible approach to reaching a wide range of customers.

Shoppable postings help businesses increase revenue by making the purchasing process easier. They can buy your goods directly from a social network post if they are shoppable.

The leading platforms, Facebook and Instagram, are the ones that help to drive more clients with their advanced levels of functionality. Other social media platforms are also enhancing their capabilities, like Pinterest, TikTok, and even Snapchat. which helps them to draw a particular audience for their product.

1. Facebook 

Facebook shop for social commerce

In the year 2020, Facebook introduced Facebook Shops to support small companies with their online sales. With this feature, Facebook allows merchants or brands to set up products or services right on the company’s Facebook profile under the “shop” menu. This feature is completely customizable and allows merchants to import products through a CSV. There are approximately 250 million active Facebook Stores already registered with some brands that are achieving wonderful results by having a retailer have 56% more sales conversion via shops than a usual budget campaign.

Facebook extended this feature later by introducing a product tagging feature through which products from the catalog can be tagged while publishing an image or video post on the platform. If a follower clicks on a tagged product in your post, they can view the price and product details before purchasing on Facebook. Just to mention that Facebook offers both in-app purchasing and redirecting to merchant websites. 

2. Instagram

Intagram shop for social commerce

Instagram has mentioned that almost 40-45% of people utilize their platform to shop every week, using features such as shopping tags. Almost 28% of their Instagram transactions are pre-plan. Instagram is a terrific platform to sell on when it comes to generating revenue.

Unlike Facebook, Instagram shops allow loading products or services directly from a Facebook business account. You may enable the option to tag items in posts, stories, and reels by creating an Instagram business account. Followers will see the product’s name, description, and price when they touch the promoted product. Instagram also offers in-app purchases or redirection to a merchant’s website to complete the purchase.

Instagram, well-known for its eye-catching images, stories, and videos, is an excellent platform for presenting high-gloss marketing imagery. Instagram Live Shopping lets you market and showcases things live. Influencers are generating live videos in the form of unboxing, explainers, promotions, and style guides to influence their audience by tagging the same product so that viewers can browse product information like price, description, etc. Visitors can purchase them without leaving the app. The functionality allows business accounts to add and show products from their Facebook or Instagram Shop during the live stream. 

Businesses are more likely to have an Instagram Shop discovery tab if they regularly create Instagram Shoppable content. This implies more brand visibility and increased revenue possibilities.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest is an excellent medium for promoting your small business and, based on Pinterest, 46 percent of weekly Pinners have discovered a new brand or product on the site.

Brands may now post their items to Pinterest Shopping and transform them into product pins. These are Rich Pins that extract product descriptions, pricing, and accessibility from your website instantly.

Pinterest TV is a broadcasting platform that helps creators develop exponentially. It only shows one live episode at a time, so all attention is on you when people tune in. In general, artists that host Pinterest TV episodes find significant viewership growth.

The platform also includes analytics and improvement services, such as an ad manager, which assists merchants in creating and monitoring effective marketing campaigns.

4. Twitter

Twitter, too, wants a piece of the social commerce cake, and the company just launched its Twitter Shops service to a limited number of businesses. When you visit the profile of a merchant who has activated Twitter Shops, you’ll see a “View shop” button immediately above their Tweets. 

At present, app checkout is not possible on Twitter. Instead, clicking on an item will send you to the sales page, where you can finish the transaction. However, we anticipate that Twitter will soon provide its native payment function, similar to Instagram and Facebook.

To increase eCommerce traffic through the immediacy and involvement of store broadcasts, Twitter has become the most recent social media platform to dabble in live-stream purchasing.

5. TikTok 

TikTok, a recent participant in the social commerce industry, is becoming much more than a short-form video-sharing platform. TikTok is a social commerce platform worth highlighting now that it has shoppable posts, real-time shopping features, and chances for branding.

At present, brands can link to their Shopify product listing and appear in a shopping tab on their TikTok profile if they have a TikTok For Business account.

Businesses like Chipotle have accumulated over 1.7 million followers and over 3.8 million likes. Chipotle took its Boorito Halloween event to the VR realm in October 2021 by letting customers attend a virtual store on Roblox. By using the hashtag #Boorito to advertise on TikTok, they amassed over 4.2 billion views.

TikTok Live is a real-time broadcast that users can view on their TikTok app.

Organize live shopping activities

Live shopping is a technique in which businesses exhibit their items via a social media broadcast. Retailers chat about product details, engage with consumers, and sell things from the camera in real-time throughout the live show. 

This raw, spontaneous, and instantaneous engagement with your viewers may help you create more true and meaningful connections with them, as well as produce revenue in ways that other online selling approaches cannot.

So far, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and TikTok all support native live shopping. Sellers may tag highlighted items from the Shop page inside the app, and those products will be shown at the bottom of a streaming video so visitors can click to learn more and order.

Twitter and Pinterest, not to be left behind, are now adopting live commerce. Twitter released its Live Selling function in November 2021, and Pinterest introduced Pinterest TV the same month with a collection of live, original, and shoppable programming on the Pinterest app. The retail revolution will be broadcast live rather than recorded.

The Advantage of Social Commerce

If you are reading this article while here, and if you aren’t persuaded that social commerce is essential for your organization, consider the following important benefits.

1.Social media has a large number of prospective clients.

According to Search Engine Journal, there are currently 4.55 billion active social media users worldwide, which is 9.9% greater compared to last year. With more of these individuals beginning to purchase on social media, this is a big chance for you to get your items in front of fresh faces and dramatically build your market.

The idea is to capitalize on this purchasing habit by making it as easy as possible for customers to checkout straight through their social media sites, with as little as a feasible disturbance.

2. Effortless, seamless purchasing.

With features like the purchase button and in-app checkout available on many platforms, social commerce helps to reduce needless steps in the purchasing process. Each extra step in the sales funnels increases the likelihood that the buyer will lose interest and abandon your page

However, by designing a simple purchasing experience that keeps customers in the app throughout their transactions, you may reduce this risk and enhance revenues.

3. You will be able to reach your ideal customer.

Social commerce is all about going to where your consumers are. The majority of your potential customer is currently using social media. This presents you with the ideal chance to share your brand voice through original content and communicate with current consumers in a fresh, more genuine way.

Numerous social media networks also provide analytics features that let you monitor users’ social and purchasing trends over time. You may immediately personalize your content and products for your intended audience using this data.

Increase your sales by having a social commerce presence.

Smaller businesses may now access markets that were previously exclusively available to larger companies thanks to social commerce. And, with Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all aggressively creating social buying capabilities, small companies may attract buyers without the need for major promotions.

Check out these resources to get ahead in the amazing world of social commerce and engage with all of its interesting features:

  • Pinterest Small Business Portal is brimming with tools and solutions to assist you in selling things, growing your following, and driving clients to your site.
  • Twitter Small Business Solutions contains small business marketing tactics as well as Twitter suggestions. Furthermore, when Twitter Shops are ultimately pushed out to small companies, you’ll be the first to know.
  • TikTok For Business Small Business Resource Center provides best practices, information, success stories, and innovative tools to support your small business in succeeding on TikTok.
  • Meta for Business Seller Resource Collection has training, advice, and encouragement to support you in selling on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger.

Wrapping Up

Social commerce is a great way to earn revenue for your eCom business. By utilizing the power of social media, you can reach a larger audience and sell more products. Plus, social commerce is easy to set up and manage, so you can focus on running your business instead of worrying about marketing. If you’re not already using social commerce to earn revenue for your eCom business, now is the time to start.

For queries related to your e-commerce websites, feel free to talk to our experts.

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