Selling products on social media platforms (also known as social commerce) has emerged as a viable digital advertising strategy for ecommerce brands worldwide.

With social commerce, you can leverage social media to engage with your target customers and encourage them to complete the sale on their favorite apps without ever needing to visit your website.

It’s incredibly convenient, especially considering 54% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

Check out the following social commerce best practices and examples of which brands are getting it right.

1. Get To Know Your Audience Profile

If you want the best engagement rates, you must align your social commerce strategy with the recipients of your brand’s message (your target audience).

Getting to know your target social audience does take time and effort, but it makes a difference in conversions and sales.

It’s no secret that you can expect better results when you convey the right message using the right platform to the right people.

Instead of just using the same messages on your website, be more intentional in choosing products and wordings that align with your specific social media customer subset.

Use analytics to stay informed on demographic and performance data to help you identify which products to include in the listing and how to position them.

For example, Target created a fantastic browsing experience for their Instagram users by using smart listing based on hashtags and content engagement and constantly upgrading their product offerings.

Customers who click on a product on Instagram no longer leave the app to complete the sale.

2. Stay Creative With Your Social Storefront

People have already changed their shopping habits thanks to the pandemic.

Since most shoppers now learn about brands via social media, you must rethink your social profiles as they serve as your brand’s digital storefront.

Keep in mind that you only have one shot at creating a good impression.

Create a fantastic buying experience because your social media profile’s ambiance is just as important as the products you sell.

You can attract repeat business by making a winning customer experience backed by quality products.

For example, The Tiny Tassel retail shop has a digital storefront via their Facebook Shop.

They created product pages specifically for Facebook with information like style, material, and shipping details.

All their listings provide value and build trust, which is essential to attract new customers to make their first purchase.

3. Schedule Consistent Promotional Posts

Creating promotional posts is an excellent way to share more product details, such as close-up product shots, short demos, and walk-throughs.

You can even add links to your posts which helps you:

• Create better brand awareness.
• Meet more customer demands.
• Streamline the purchase process.

Take this example from Ralph Lauren.

Notice how they use a combination of products to showcase their seasonal collection.

This strategy gives the shopper a better idea of how the different products look when worn together (or layered).

4. Humanize Your Social Media Replies

One of the primary reasons people reach out to brands on social media is the immediate response. Social media makes it easy to connect if customers want more information on products, order inquiries, or general questions. Instead of just giving a simple answer, you can:

• Recommend a product.
• Share a direct link to purchase.
• Offer a promo code to secure the sale.

This interaction is also an opportunity to show your brand’s personality and build trust with the shopper.

Overall, it’s a winning scenario because you deliver outstanding customer service while potentially increasing your bottom line.

Here is an example of Vicidolls doing just that via their Instagram page.

5. Use Analytics To Guide Your Strategy

Working in the dynamic world of social commerce requires trackable metrics.

So rely on your social media analytics to understand what’s working and what isn’t.

Diving deeper into analytics will uncover new opportunities and assess which social commerce posts drive sales.

From there, you can adjust your strategy and make your future posts more compelling to potential customers.

You can also use data to guide the design and functionality of your social media assets.

For instance, you can customize Pinterest boards to act as your product navigation tool for your audience.

Patagonia’s Pinterest board does a great job because its product pinboards mimic its website navigation.

Thus, they create a similar feel for loyal customers while attracting potential new customers.

Similarly, you must create a consistent brand experience to pave the way for instant recognition for your audience.

6. Streamline The Checkout Process

Studies show that mobile users have a higher cart abandonment rate than desktop users, at a whopping 85.65%.

Therefore, when buyers move to smaller screens for daily purchases, it’s vital to gain full support with a streamlined checkout process.

Social commerce helps because it removes the drop-off points that result in abandoned transactions.

Now, customers don’t have to make personal accounts to shop on your site.

Instead, they can use their social media profiles for a seamless transaction.

Instagram business accounts like Spearmint Baby make shoppable posts that provide relevant information and pricing.

You can upload up to 30 of your best-selling products into a catalog (or link to corresponding product pages on your site if the items are not in the catalog).

In addition, brands can now host a Live Shopping event on almost all social platforms.

Live Shopping allows the company to discuss the product, answer questions, and even pin a product from the catalog on-screen during the stream.

Make the broadcast interactive and inform viewers why this product is indispensable in their lives.

When they click on the product picture, it will show a keyword-rich description, making it detailed, catchy, and concise.

From there, the customers can readily purchase the item using a credit card or e-wallet without leaving the app.

Here is an example of Hollister utilizing IG Live Shopping.

First, the left photo shows the video in your list of Live Shopping videos.

(Hint: To see all of the Live IG Shopping, visit the shopping tab on your Instagram, and at the top, scroll over until you see the Live category.)

Then you can click into the video, and finally, you have the option to “view products.”

7. Collaborate With Social Influencers

Finally, consider influencer marketing.

It is not a new concept, but you can optimize it to expand your reach and improve social sales.

For example, when influencers use shoppable tags on IG, they push potential buyers directly to your shop.

This approach curates an engaging experience for your customers because they can see a Live Story from an influencer promoting your product.

Then, when they click on a link, they can make an Insta-purchase.

With so many people following what influencers recommend, this is an ideal opportunity to expand your audience.

Here is the influencer Alexa Anglin doing just this for Walmart.

In Closing

Take note of the brands mentioned above who are winning the social commerce game – there’s no reason your business can’t do the same!

Follow the tips to stand out on social media and make it easy for customers to purchase via your brand’s social profiles.

More resources: 

Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock

Squarespace announced an expansion of their Member Areas monetization platform that now allows publishers to host and monetize video content. The new capabilities makes it easy for publishers to sell access to video content and build a new revenue stream.

Screenshot of Squarespace Video Hosting Admin Panel

Squarespace Video Monetization Platform

Squarespace is a website building platform that helps publishers build online stores, an online presence for a local store or to simply create a blog.

In response to rapidly changing trends Squarespace rolled out a program called Member Areas that allowed publishers to earn money selling instructional and other kinds of content online through private members-only sections of their Squarespace website.

The goals of the Member Areas are:

“Engage your audience with exclusive content.
From virtual classes and workshops to newsletters, podcasts, and video series, Member Areas help you build, harness, and monetize the power of your online community”

Squarespace announced today that they are now fully video capable and that publishers can now fully host videos on Squarespace and sell access to them via the platform.

Squarespace handles all of the infrastructure for hosting the videos and for collecting the fees. Publishers can choose to charge a one-time fee or a recurring fee.

According to Squarespace:

“Sell access to video content: With Member Areas, customers can choose to charge a one-time or recurring fee to access their video content.

Host video directly on Squarespace: Squarespace is now supporting native video hosting on our platform, in addition to externally hosted videos on YouTube and Vimeo.

Video hosting storage: All customers will be able to upload up to 30 minutes of high-resolution video content to their website for free.

Leverage our new video player: All Squarespace hosted videos will be played on our new video player with slick playback, speed controls, resolution controls, and a deep integration into the Squarespace platform.

Customize video details: Titles, descriptions, URLs, custom thumbnails, metadata, and more can be fully customized.

Merchandise video content: Videos can easily be categorized, arranged, and styled to best represent a customer’s brand.”

Squarespace Makes it Easier to Earn Income

The new video platform allows publishers to sell access to recorded member-only video content. This provides local businesses and entrepreneurs an opportunity to provide services like online classes to a wider audience, giving businesses and individuals a new way to earn income.

The new video platform is available as part of the Member Areas add-on service with plans that start as low as $9/month.

Citations

Video Hosting and Monetization Announcement

Introducing: Video Hosting and Monetization Tools

Read About Squarespace Member Areas

Create members‑only content

Instagram is rolling out updates that will give users a new way to promote their live videos, and more options when it comes to remixing videos.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, announced these updates while reiterating the company’s focus this year is building on video and messaging.

“We’re focused on building for teens and creators, and in the spaces of video and messaging. And these are within those themes.”

Mosseri first hinted at the new direction Instagram is headed in when he proclaimed last summer: “We’re no longer a photo sharing app.”

Instagram is bringing that vision to life this year starting with two updates that are focused on video — both live video and recorded video.

The updates include:

• Promoting scheduled lives streams with a new banner
• The ability to remix any video

Let’s take a look at these enhancements and what they can do for you as a creator.

Highlight Scheduled Live Videos On Your Profile

When you schedule a live video on Instagram, you can now highlight it on your main profile page with a new banner.

Mosseri explains:

“Creators have been able to schedule lives for a while now, but now, you can separate scheduling a live from creating a feed post, or even now a story post, about that live. You also get a little badge on your profile that’s lets followers know, or anybody know that goes to your profile, that there’s a Live coming up and they can subscribe to be reminded.”

You can create as many scheduled live videos as you’d like. This gives you the option to promote a livestream that runs every day at the same time, for example.

See an example of what the new banner looks like in the screenshot below:

People visiting your profile can tap on the banner to create a reminder for your upcoming live video.

Remix Any Video On Instagram

Users now have the ability to remix any video on Instagram.

A “remix” on Instagram means taking videos published by others and responding to or reinventing them with your own video. It’s similar to TikTok’s video reactions.

In fact, when Instagram first rolled out the remix feature, it was basically a copycat of the reaction videos made popular on TikTok.

Previously, users could only remix the TikTok-inspired Instagram Reels.

Now, users can remix any public video on Instagram whether it’s a Reel or a feed post.

Simply tap the three-dot icon that appears in the top right corner and select “Remix this video.”

Screenshot from twitter.com/alexvoica, January 2022.

Remixing is an opt-in feature, so users can pick and choose which videos they want to allow others to remix.

Source: Adam Mosseri on Twitter

Featured Image: Mehaniq/Shutterstock