In short, brands offer up their goods on specific social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) by displaying their products’ images along with the product description using the available shopping functions of certain networks (e.g. Facebook Shopping). Potential buyers not only find the shoppable content there but can fully proceed to the checkout using only their social commerce platforms.
Instagram Shopping feature is one of the brightest social commerce examples. It allows Instagram users to browse the best products of brands and buy directly in their Instagram store.
Instagram Shopping offers such features as a customizable storefront, shopping tags as well as ads with these tags, product collections, and a detail page of a product. Apart from that, product launches and live shopping is available to brands that use the checkout on Instagram.
Facebook Shopping feature was introduced in 2020, mainly with the goal to help small businesses struggling with sales after many stores were closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Brands can easily set up an online store, choose goods they want to feature and showcase their brands by customizing their look, colors, and images.
You can either use Commerce Manager for setting up your store on Facebook or use eCommerce integration to synchronize your product catalog with one of the popular eCommerce platforms. Facebook browsers can find the online store on a Facebook Business Page or find out about the products of a shop through Facebook advertisements.
TikTok is a younger player in the social commerce industry. TikTok For Business feature was launched in 2020 and now offers livestream purchases, shoppable posts, and also features for influencer marketing.
Brands can use TikTok advertisements to promote their products, meanwhile, the users can just click on the “shop now” button and get directly to the seller’s eCommerce site to proceed to checkout. TikTok users can also attach a Shopping tab to their business account, where they can showcase their product catalog and let the shop browsers purchase directly from the application.
Some other examples of social commerce companies use to sell are:
If you want to fully embrace omnichannel sales, it’s absolutely important to sell on as many platforms as possible. Offering your products on social media commerce platforms is an effective way to boost your sales and improve your brand visibility.
It helps you grow your audience and boost their engagement, improve your customer experience by making it more personal, raise your SEO ranking, grow your sales, and build on customer loyalty.
Air Jordan Sold Out on Snapchat is an example of a prosperous social media commerce campaign. The application reached new heights when the popular Air Jordan Shoes were sold out in minutes during NBA All-Star Game. All of its consumers within a certain span of the field could get access to the exclusive sale of the iconic shoe line. The offer was accessible only within the area where the NBA game was played. The collaboration with Snapchat was a genius idea as people tend to livestream such big sports events, and it was a perfect platform to use for sale.
