If your company sells physical goods, incorporating social e-commerce services to power up your strategy is critical. It removes any purchasing barriers, such as slow website loading times or complicated user journeys.
A large portion of social media purchases is impulse purchases, especially if the price is available. Statista reported that the average value of online orders referred through social media was $81.05.
It works by a user simply seeing an item they want to buy, such as sunglasses, and clicking ‘shop now’ or ‘buy now’ to complete the transaction. There will be no need to visit the retailer’s website because the price, description, and delivery information will all be visible within the social platform.
Customer and influencer-generated content, combined with social e-commerce service features like shoppable tags and links, leads to an increase in impulse purchases. This increase is driven by both lifestyle and emotion. Users seek social proof that the products are credible, well-made, and have been recommended by people they respect or admire.
What platforms facilitate social e-commerce?
Statista predicts that 8 in 10 US businesses will sell on social media within the next three years, demonstrating the value of these networks as a sales channel.
Currently, social commerce is available on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. YouTube is also testing the ability to add shoppable tags and links to video content in 2024.
Users with professional accounts can set up a shop on social media with a digital marketing agency. This is something that can be changed in the settings menu from a personal account.
Social commerce works similarly on Facebook and Instagram; you can tag items from your shop in photos and videos. This includes Instagram Stories and Reels content.
When people see your products tagged in your posts, they can click on the tags to learn more about them, including the name and price. When they click on these tags, they will be taken to your platform shop to learn more and make a purchase with a digital marketing agency.
Read More: How to Start A E-Commerce Business?
Who can benefit from social commerce?
Businesses can only sell physical products through social commerce, so events, digital products, and services are currently ineligible. Despite the fact that Meta is testing in-app purchases on its social virtual reality app Horizon Worlds.
Each social media marketing has its own set of merchant guidelines for businesses that want to sell on their platforms. Alcohol, some healthcare products, digital products, event tickets, and subscriptions are among the items that cannot be sold on social media.
By Googling, you can find the merchant guidelines for each social media marketing.
The largest category for social commerce is apparel/accessories, but consumer electronics, cosmetics, home decor, and consumer goods are also important players.
According to eMarketer, brands with “new and differentiated products and/or aspirational imagery are best suited for the social commerce environment.”
In some cases, the social media platform may reject an item due to changing rules or errors in algorithms picking up on specific words in product descriptions. The platform will notify you if a product is rejected and not listed in your shop. They will also provide the option to appeal the decision.
Instagram and Facebook social commerce setup
Despite the differences in platforms, the commerce setup is the same via Meta. Instagram and Facebook Shopping are powered by a single catalogue from which you can manage your inventory and sales.
You can create your catalogue in Meta Business Suite’s Commerce Manager. The catalogue can be manually uploaded by entering product names, images, and descriptions.
You can also import your products to a Facebook catalogue if you host them on a partner platform that integrates with Facebook. Shopify, WooCommerce, and Big Commerce are all supported platforms.