Social Media in E-commerce

As social media and e-commerce become increasingly enmeshed in our lives, the opportunities for them to interact with and bolster each other are innumerable, considering that the average person spends around an hour and 40 minutes browsing social media every day, and the number of internet shoppers in the USA alone will reach 217 million this year.

Back in the old days, a business’s presence would be signified by advertisements in the paper and a physical storefront. Now, in the digital age, business reputations live and die by their social media standing. Right now, social media is used by brands as a way to advertise, increase their online presence, and deliver high-quality customer service. Those trends will continue, and new ones will emerge within the growing role of social media in e-commerce.

Paid advertisements

With the level of customisation you can put on a Facebook ad (age, geography, preferences and more) and the detail with which Facebook can report your results, it’s a no-brainer for brands to keep using Facebook and other social media advertising. It’s also a win for Facebook, which raked in more than $7 billion in advertising in 2016.

Private messaging

Over the past few years, private messaging services have exploded in popularity. WhatsApp, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger are all app juggernauts with colossal engagement numbers running into the billions.

Where the people go, the businesses must follow, and brands are edging their way into private messaging through chatbots. Chatbots are Artificial Intelligence personalities that can simulate real conversations, can answer questions on products, offer recommendations, and resolve customer complaints.

Additionally, many private messaging services now offer financial integration. Opening up WeChat, chatting with a brand AI representative, and purchasing a product without closing the app once, is entirely within the realm of possibility in 2017.

In-app purchasing

The harder it is to buy or access something, the less likely we are to follow through. This explains why e-commerce sites that take a long time to load have higher bounce rates, and online stores with clunky interfaces sell less. One can already buy products through Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Once Apple Pay experiences widespread adoption, it’s almost scary to think about how easy impulse buys will be – if you see something you like on social media, one swipe will get it delivered to your door. Brands should immediately start evaluating how they can sell their products through social networks, coupling a strong advertising presence with an easy purchasing process.

Is your company as present as it should be in the social media world?

Adapted from an article by Ellie Martin, entrepreneur.com