Social Media Trends Shoppers will expect to buy your products directly on social media
Before the pandemic, social commerce was a flashy opportunity for the most innovative businesses (mattress disruptors, eyeglass disruptors—basically you had to call yourself a disruptor before you’d let your customers shop on social).
But increased social media consumption combined with stay-at-home mandates created the perfect conditions for a social shopping explosion. Which is not going away.
eMarketer predicts social commerce will be an $80 billion industry by 2025. It’s riding the coattails of equally massive e-commerce growth (an increase of 18% in 2020 alone).
81% of shoppers were already using social media to discover new brands and research products before the pandemic. Many businesses have figured out that letting these users checkout in the same app just makes sense.
After all, navigating to a website is an extra step, which is an extra potential leak in your conversion funnel. Especially on mobile, where cart abandonment rates are high.
Most social networks have in-app shopping solutions now, including live video, and are working to provide new features to meet rising demand. But Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are the most popular. And TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube aren’t far behind.
To-Do List
Social commerce likely won’t replace e-commerce soon. But, depending on your business, you shouldn’t be designing a retail experience without thinking about it.
If you sell products to people, set up a Facebook Shop and/or an Instagram Shop. Or, test out Product Pins on Pinterest.
There’s some design flexibility in these shops, so make the customer experience as visually seamless with your brand as you can.
Don’t worry about getting your whole inventory up. Focus on curating the items you think your Instagram followers will like best.
Experiment with shoppable posts, or even ads! This will allow customers to see your products in context—and then place an order in just a few taps.
*info provided by Hootsuite