Social Commerce for Small Business: 5 Tips to Get Started

With more and more brands promoting on social networking sites and new shopping features popping out left to right across various social media platforms, online shopping has indeed become more social.  

And, it’s changing the way consumers behave too. Many shoppers spot a product they like on TikTok and purchase it right away.  

Others see tagged photos of real-life people using a product on Instagram and buy it. In both scenarios, consumers were able to purchase without ever leaving the platforms.  

A report revealed that US’s 2021 retail social commerce sales will hit a whopping $36.09 billion, which is about 4.3% of the total eCommerce sales that year.  

If you’re serious about growing your business, our digital marketing agency in Miami suggests that you need to get your social commerce strategy up and running.  

Your tactics must also consolidate with the rest of your digital experience to create a cohesive brand experience across all touchpoints.  

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce refers to selling products directly within social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and other virtual networks.  

Social commerce is not social media marketing because it doesn’t aim to drive traffic to your site. Instead, you give customers the ability to checkout within the social network or platform they’re interacting with you.  

This creates a seamless in-app buying experience, which boosts customer satisfaction.  

Social commerce come in many forms, including the following:

• Social shopping
• Group buying
• Shopping via mobile apps
• Shopping fused with social media  

• Retailers adding social features

There are different ways you can implement social commerce into your strategy. From Instagram shops to Facebook marketplace and in-app campaigns, they can help drive traffic to your social store.  

As the leading digital marketing agency in Miami, we believe that social commerce is definitely here to stay and might even become a core pillar of eCommerce in the future.  

Why is Social Commerce Essential for Businesses?

Did you know that Global eCommerce sales are predicted to hit $5.5 Trillion in 2022? And it’s estimated to grow by 50% over the next four years, reaching about a whopping 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025.  

Aside from the fact that you can make a lot of money through social commerce, here are the other reasons why it’s important:

• Shopping on social media makes the entire experience more interactive and engaging than in a typical eCommerce store.  
• Social commerce eliminates friction from the customer journey, making it easy to go from discovery to purchase.  
• 81% of shoppers research Instagram and Facebook. Make it easy for your customers to find and buy what they want by selling on social.  
• People leave reviews and discuss them in the comment section of a post. This offers an effective way to collect feedback.
• 48% of Gen Z and Millennial internet users purchased social media in 2019. Social media has become their go-to shopping channel.  

• Social commerce offers targeted advertising, which allows you to put your products in front of specific people who will want your products or services.  

How to Get Started with Social Commerce for Small Business

1. Collect Customer Data and Create a Social Media Persona

Collecting information about your customers on social media and turning them into valuable insights has never been more important.  

It’s how you can improve your customer experience and delight them throughout the entire buying journey.  

In fact, according to a report by Adobe, brands that use data and analytics insights to refine their customer experience are 23 times more likely to get new customers, six times more likely to retain customers, and 19 times more likely to be successful.  

If you’re to ask tips from a digital marketing agency in Miami, here’s what they to say about how to create buyer personas with social media data:

• Evaluate your existing audience across social media platforms. Then, determine the qualities of your most engaged followers.  
• Identify the factors that depict your ideal customers on social media. It could be their demographics, behavior, pain points, who they're following, what kinds of content they interact with, their interests, and purchase history with your brand.  
• Compare if the current audience you have on social is the same as your ideal customers. If not, it’s time you work on attracting the right crowd.

• Determine customer pain points and goals by searching for a positive and negative brand or product mentions on social. This will give you insights into how people view your offerings and what motivates them to buy.  
• Segment your ideal customers according to the different social media personas you’ve created and determine what products and content each group is interested in.  
• Use tools to help you keep track of social media data, like social listening tools, brand tracking tools, and social media analytics.  

2. Implement Discovery-Based Social Commerce

The Discovery of social commerce is based on impulse buying. Instead of waiting for potential customers to search for your products on social media, you predict their needs by recommending a product that catches their attention.  

The idea is to use customer data, like their purchase history or searches, to present the right products via advertising.  

By displaying content and products that are related to a customer’s specific lifestyle, you can pique their interest in products they never thought they wanted or didn’t know about.  

In traditional commerce, it is the customers who try to find the right product. In discovery commerce, it is the product that finds potential buyers.  

As more and more people use social media platforms to discover new brands and products, you must jump into the trend and use discovery-based social commerce to your advantage!

Instagram has 200 million users that visit at least one business profile each day. 60% of its users also use the platform to discover products.  

TikTok users have also made purchases based on trending content on the platform.  

Bringing your products closer to potential customers on social can even help you gain more loyal customers and boost your online sales.  

So, how can you implement discovery-based social commerce? Consider doing the following:

• Set up a shop on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. To avoid getting overwhelmed, you can start with one platform where most of your ideal customers spend their time online. And then gradually expand to other social media platforms.  
• Link your latest product collection or promo on your bio.  

• Create an Instagram Highlight dedicated to your ongoing promotions, feedback from customers, and user-generated content.  
• Use videos, stories, reels, and TikTok to feature your products, and provide tips and tricks, tutorials, and hacks. You want to provide them with content they find valuable and interesting. The more they understand how your products make their lives easier or help them fulfill a desire, the better the chance they'll buy them.  
• Partner with micro-influencers to promote your products or services to their audience.  

3. Try Out Shopping Features Across Social Media Networks

Various social networks offer many different shopping features that can help you implement social commerce successfully.  

Here are some of the most popular features you should test to see which one works for your business.

Facebook

Facebook has  social commerce feature called Facebook Shops that is packed with additional features that can help small businesses set up their online store on the platform, including the following:

• Product listing on your business's Facebook page.  
• In-app checkout feature to support sales.  

• Shop customization to match your brand’s aesthetics.  

Instagram

Instagram is jam-packed with shopping features you can use to engage and entertain your audience while inspiring them to buy. Below are some of our favorites!

• Tag products in shoppable posts to help users discover items and buy directly with Instagram Checkout.  
• Set up your online shop through Instagram business. Customers can tap on the “Shop” tab on your profile to view product catalogs.  

• Add product stickers to your stories to enable viewers to check out and buy items on your Stories.  
• Curate a list of your best-selling products or a targeted list based on a specific group's interests or needs.  
• Instagram live allows you to engage your audience and sell in real-time.  
• Showcase your products through Reels and allow customers to shop items they want through shoppable Reels.  

TikTok

TikTok offers a display feature where you can highlight your products and users can easily access them with a click. TikTok also has a bunch of other social commerce features that will help you generate more sales like the following:

• Live Shopping where you can sell products or engage your audience in real-time.  
• Link product tags to your posts. Users can easily click on them and they're redirected to your site or the shopping hub within the platform.  
• The shopping tab found on your profile is your eCommerce storefront. You can feature your products there.  

4. Optimize Social Commerce for Mobile

During the third quarter of 2021, 90% of US internet users accessed the web via mobile. A 2021 report also revealed that Americans spend 8% more time on mobile than watching TV every day.  

Mobile commerce is expected to account for 44.2% of all retail eCommerce sales in the US by 2025.  

As your go-to digital marketing agency in Miami, we suggest that you optimize your social commerce experience for mobile to truly succeed.  

But, how exactly can you do this? Here’s how:

• Design your ad creatives, videos, catalogs, and other social content for mobile.  

• Test your content on multiple devices.  
• User vertical images and add an overlay to give viewers an idea of what to expect and to pique their interest.  
• Keep your videos short to hook viewers.  
• Space out product tags, especially if you’re tagging multiple products in a single post.  Since mobile screens can be small, it can be difficult to tap on them.  
• You want to make it easy and convenient for potential customers to search, discover, compare, and buy your products.  

5. Use User- Generated Content to Boost Sale

People trust reviews and recommendations from other buyers online. They consider it just as important as personal recommendations from their family and friends.  

UGC plays a very influential role in the final stages of the buyer’s journey. If you’re looking to boost your social commerce sales, you should leverage UGC.  

They act as authentic social proof that your products are indeed worth buying and that they should give them a try.  

According to Yotpo, sharing visual UGC and reviews on your social media accounts will draw potential customers in and boost your conversion rate by 161% more than those who don't leverage engaging UGC.  

Here’s how you can use UGC to boost your social commerce sales:

• Share your customers' photos, reviews, and ratings on your Stories, and create a Highlight dedicated to all customer feedback.  
• Compile customer reviews and create an Instagram Reel or TikTok video.  
• Include customer photos and reviews in your ads to build trust.  

• Encourage your customers to share their experiences and to post about your products online. You can give them a special discount they can use in their next purchase if they do it.  
• Create a branded hashtag dedicated to UGC to organize your posts and to make it easy for users to see all posts from real-life customers.  
• Do a social media giveaway or contest to generate UGC.  

Looking for The Best Digital Marketing Agency in Miami to Kickstart Your Social Commerce to Success?

If you want to get started with social commerce, all you have to do is to collect customer data, create social media buyer personas, implement discovery-based social commerce, try out various shopping features on social networks, optimize your social commerce experience for mobile, and leverage UGC.  

Digital Resource is the leading digital marketing agency in Miami. Our social media experts will work with you to kickstart your social commerce to success!  

Want us to create a custom social commerce strategy that will enable you to capture more customers and make more sales? Contact us today!  

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