Why you should embrace social shopping for your brand

Shopping online has long been an easy way for customers to indulge in a bit of retail therapy, with clicking to purchase reaching peak popularity during the pandemic. But in recent times, one style of online shopping has proven to be particularly popular with savvy shoppers – and that’s social shopping. 

Social platforms started out as a way to connect with family and friends but have long since become fertile territory for brands looking to connect with customers. They are now a key destination for direct purchasing. Business is booming and projected sales on social platforms are expected to reach $2 trillion globally by 2025.

So why has it become so popular? The brilliance of social shopping is that it’s literally a one-stop-shop: You can grab the customer’s attention with advertising, convert them with engaging content and then complete the sale with direct checkout, all on the one platform. And then, to make it even better – you can turn them into recurring customers through ongoing content. 

It's a dream marriage of ecommerce and content marketing and most of the social platforms have joined in the action, providing their users with a variety of methods for selling and tools including shoppable posts, on-platform shopfronts, hashtag or keyword searchability, shop tabs and more. 

Combine this with a variety of advertising opportunities (think in-feed ads, discovery pages, story ads, product demos, influencer-generated content) and you have a seriously powerful approach to retail that gives brands more access to their customers than ever before. It also gives consumers the easiest possible experience using the device that is literally at their fingertips. Win, win. 

The benefits of social shopping are numerous and here are our top four:

1. Increased Visibility

Social media lets you cast your net wider than ever before when connecting with customers – and you’re much more likely to be found by the right people, as many consumers are now effectively using social platforms as search engines. 

2. Highly targeted customer base

It’s great to have your brand seen by a big audience, but sometimes you want to speak to a specific group. Social media is all about data, which means you can be really specific when searching for the right customers. Advertising on the platforms lets you narrow down your targeting in a variety of ways, from location to gender to interests, so you can serve your ads to a very precise group of customers and then track the metrics. This means less wasted advertising spend and a much better return in the long run. 

3. Increased loyalty

Curated content on social media combined with shopping allows brands to make the retail experience about more than just buying, which is perfect for attracting customers looking for a greater sense of connection to brands. Ongoing engagement allows customers to build a relationship with your brand that ultimately translates into increased loyalty and ongoing sales. 

4. Extreme convenience

Social shopping literally couldn’t be easier: You see, you click and then you buy. The  platforms have been set up with speed and simplicity in mind, so customers can fly through the process with a few taps of their index finger, all in the time it takes to wait for a barista coffee to be made.

The impressive growth in this sector is really just the beginning and you can expect social shopping to continue to soar in the future, especially as virtual and augmented reality come into play in the years to come. For now, there’s no doubt that it’s an important way to connect with customers and a smart way to do business.

If you’re considering a move into social shopping, or maybe have previously dabbled in it but are looking to do more, get in touch with our team here at Awaken. We would love to help you put together an effective strategy for converting your social to sales. We have a huge amount of experience running retail campaigns across various social platforms and we would be happy to help you connect more meaningfully with your customers. Give us a call and let’s start a conversation.