Omnichannel in 2023 necessitates the implementation of a wider range of channels than has traditionally been the case and this applies to customer service, as well as sales and marketing. Today, alongside the traditional service and sales channels, brands are increasingly transforming their social media presence into a new shop window.
With increasing numbers of brands marketing and directly selling products through social media, understanding and developing a strategy for the implementation of a social shopping channel should be a key consideration in 2023.
This guide will detail what exactly social shopping is, offering examples of brands that have excelled in the latest customer contact channel. It will discuss the differences between various social platforms and assess what customers think about this new addition to the overall omnichannel offering.
Contents
- What is social shopping?
- How retail brands are using social media to reach buyers
- How different social media platforms offer different buying experiences
- What consumers think of social shopping
- Conclusion
What is social shopping?
Social shopping represents yet another way for customers to interact with brands. Rather than trying to draw customers in to visit a site or store, social shopping brings commerce to customers in a place where most customers will spend a lot of their time, on social media. With roughly 58 percent of the world’s population being active on social media in 2022, the opportunity to not only market to these users but to bring them opportunities to purchase products or services directly within social media platforms, is too big to pass up on.
In 2021, US$37bn in goods and services were purchased through social media in the US and that figure is expected to rise to $80bn by 2025. With this equating to five percent of total US ecommerce, social shopping is clearly a channel that is here to stay. This is not to say that social shopping will replace our current array of channels. As we have seen in the past, even with the rise of innovative new channels, traditional means of contact such as email or phone, still remain popular.
What we should see instead is social shopping being adopted as another option in a wider omnichannel strategy that seeks to offer a broad range of customer segments the option to interact with brands in whatever way they see fit. This is happening now, and happening fast, as brands realize the advantages of offering a shopping experience within social media that reduces the number of steps required to arrive at and purchase a product or service.
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How retail brands are using social media to reach buyers
A social media retail presence allows brands to bring the marketplace to the customer, rather than the other way around. This allows brands to potentially engage customers that previously had no intention to visit their site or store, or even to shop at all. An excellent example of this is the livestream shopping approach that has been adopted by Mallows Beauty.
Livestream shopping is employed by brands to promote and sell products to customers, often in partnership with influencers, in a manner that is engaging, relatable and meets customers where they feel comfortable.
“On a Tik Tok live, I make in two hours more that we do in a week [in our flagship store in Cardiff].”
Given that it is entirely free to stream on social media, and the fact that so many customers are available on the various social media platforms, social shopping appears to offer a revolutionary new option for the omnichannel offering that can reduce or eliminate the need for extensive marketing
One of the main advantages of social shopping is the seamless transition between social browsing and shopping that it offers. One brand that has nailed this is CLUSE, an online retailer of watches and accessories.
CLUSE has mastered the art of creating social posts that mirror what their customers might expect to see in their social feeds from friends or influencers. The brand generates content that shows off their products without shoving them down customers throats, all while providing quick and easy links that allow social media users to buy the products that they see in the posts.
How social proof gets customers on board
Another advantage of social shopping that brands enjoy is the concept of social proof. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon whereby people will tend toward copying the actions or beliefs of others when considering how to act or behave in a certain situation.
With so many social media users available to interact with a brand through messages, tags, comments and likes brands open themselves up to a whole new range of customer insights and feedback. While, as with any other means of feedback, not all of this will be positive it does give brands an opportunity to showcase some of their most positive interactions, as Dollar Shave Club have done.
By sharing customer’s positive reviews and social posts the shaving product retailer is able to demonstrate its customers are satisfied and create a sense of community that others might want to join by posting their own reviews or unboxing videos.
How different social media platforms offer different buying experiences
With the advantages we have discussed here, it is understandable that many brands are keen to drive efforts to engage in social shopping and improve their social media offering. There are many platforms brands can choose from however, making it important to consider how the buying experience differs between each one.
With its 280-character limit on posts, social posting on Twitter is best kept short and snappy. Trending themes change rapidly on the site, making it a great place for posting the latest news or updates from your brand.
With regard to Twitter’s ecommerce offering, brands are able to market up to 50 products in their ‘Twitter Shop’, which is accessible by clicking a button on the brand’s profile page. The only problem with the Twitter Shop is that it is not possible to pay within the platform, which requires customers to leave Twitter to purchase products from your site. This eliminates one of the key advantages of social shopping as a channel and creates additional friction between shopping and buying, likely reducing the number of shoppers converted to buyers.
On Instagram, the most well-received content is generally in an eye-catching, visual format, with brands engaging customers through stories and reels that feel more personal than traditional marketing.
Shopping has never been easier on Instagram, which now features a ‘shop’ tab right on the homepage where customers can browse featured products. Instagram features offer an impressive level of interactivity, with brands able to tag products in their stories or reels that customers just have to tap to be able to buy, save or share the product with others.
Facebook content is broad and varied and with a range of content performing well on the site it is arguably one of the most versatile platforms for marketing.
Facebook is another platform that has closed the loop from discovery to purchase, having developed its own payment functionality called Meta Pay. This could explain why the platform has developed the largest base of US buyers of any of the social platforms. It is also worth noting that a large amount of ecommerce that takes place on the platform is done through Facebook Marketplace, which allows customers to sell products to each other.
So, while there are many customers willing to make purchases on Facebook, brands have to compete with a highly active marketplace which generally sees customers offering goods at reduced prices.
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What consumers think of social shopping
With more than half of consumers claiming to have already bought something on at least one social platform, it is clear that the majority are on board with the idea of social shopping. Research has shown that most customers who have experienced social shopping have positive things to say about it. The survey revealed that 67 percent of customers said it was easy to pay for a product through the social media payment system, while 39 percent highlighted the comfort of having a full buying experience in one single place, and 38 percent enjoyed the swiftness of having their personal data already filled in.
Despite a general sense of approval for social shopping, the same research has shown that some age groups show a preference for social shopping and for individual social media platforms. Younger generations do appear to be more on board with social shopping, with 43 percent of Generation Z and 39 percent of Generation Y claiming to have already purchased products through social media. Older generations are engaging with social shopping but less so than younger ones, with 27 percent of Generation X and 12 percent of baby boomers claiming to have already made a purchase.
Despite clear preferences from younger generations, there does appear to be a market for almost every brand on social media regardless of the target market. There is an advantage to social shopping for brands targeting younger audiences as they display much more interest in social that older ones, with 74 percent of baby boomers claiming they have no interest in purchasing through social, compared to only 24 percent of Generation Z.
In the coming years the number of customers actively available to purchase products on social media will only increase, as more and more of the younger generations find themselves on social media and able to make purchases. For this reason, any brand that is serious about long-term growth must at least develop a plan for reaching customers through social media as the number of customers unfamiliar with it steadily shrinks.
Conclusion
With interest in social shopping on the rise among both customers and brands, it seems as if social shopping will cement its place as the latest customer contact channel that brands should be adding to their omnichannel offering.
We have looked at some examples of how brands have excelled in the latest frontier of ecommerce, developing a social presence that engages customers in a way that they are used to and enabling them to make purchases without ever leaving the social platform they were browsing. Statistics show that there is a preference for social shopping among other generations, although brands targeting older audiences will have less to gain from a push for social shopping implementation.
All brands can undoubtedly benefit from this addition to their omnichannel offering however, as the level of growth that is predicted for the market suggests that social shopping may well become the ‘new normal’ for ecommerce in time.