Product fulfilment through social selling means directly selling your products through social networks and having the orders fulfilled with 3pl services.
As you know, social media has had a major impact on how we live our lives, from how we get our news, to how we interact with friends and family. Now it’s having a major impact on how we do our shopping. In a new age of social media more consumers are looking to social networks to fast-track their buying decisions. In fact, over 40% of digital consumers use social apps to research products online. Compared to Google, it’s the next best search engine.
Consumers can use Youtube’s own search engine to find thousands of unboxing videos for their favourite products. Facebook and Instagram now offer digital merchant stores where consumers can directly see products from those apps and choose to buy directly from there without having to go to a third-party website. Even Tik Tok, an app that exploded in 2020 with millions of new users (mostly for entertainment value) is adapting its model for business owners. In the third quarter of this year, TikTok will soon alter its platform to help eCommerce businesses profit from brand buying.
In 2021, 53.6% of the world’s population currently uses social media with an average daily usage of 2 hours and 25 minutes! Those are big numbers that brands simply can’t ignore anymore. A 2020 social media trends report has proven that social media apps inform buying decisions. Younger demographics are particularly keen, which is why so many brands and retailers are targeting them. So, the question is, is your brand making the most of social selling through these eCommerce platforms?
As history has shown, one of the most essential elements of running a successful business is adapting to the times. Innovation inspires new trends and shopping behaviours, leading companies to either explode with growth or imploding with declining sales. Social networks have shaped eCommerce selling in new ways the same way the adaptation of the internet changed traditional shopping. Back then, what many seasoned veterans of retail thought would be a superfluous undertaking (moving from bricks and mortar stores to online) has
proven false. The internet has circumnavigated many antiquated predictions about consumer trends. Simply put, many were wrong about the shifting trend to online shopping. We see much of that same thinking today with companies not quite embracing the power of social media. Two-thirds of companies have yet to create a social media strategy for their sales organisation.
“84% of executives consider their future success to be extremely dependent on innovation”
When Blockbuster and Toys R Us failed to transition online to a digital platform, they both went under, and new companies captured the available market. The internet boom of the last two decades has forced businesses of all sizes to question their marketing strategy. Time and time again modern history has revealed this critical idea of how innovation sparks change, requiring more businesses to be flexible in their model. Having a big picture social media strategy can catapult your business into a new direction of prosperity and profit.
Social media gained 490 million users in 2020, a 13.2% increase from the previous year. The number of users now on social media is estimated at 4.2 billion. Why any business wouldn’t target this volume of potential customers simply does not make statistical sense.
Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms. Social selling products on both platforms makes it easy for customers to interact with your brand and make a purchase. Facebook currently has 2.7 billion users while Instagram has 1.2 billion. As many know, Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012, so promoting on both platforms is easy with a Facebook ad account. Recently Instagram has released the option to advertise on their platform without selling with Facebook, and you simply take some different steps to advertise directly from posts. You can find out how to do that here.
Learning how to market and advertise on these platforms is not an easy “plug and play” option. Online advertising is an art form that takes time to master, but once this process is mastered with effective means of targeting your customers, your brand can highly profit from it. One company that has had major success is Termaza Haute Couture.
This fashion house specialises in handmade evening and bridal dresses. By targeting women 18 – 60 who showed an interest in unique and elegant clothing, they were able to increase sales by 55% in six months, doubling the total company revenue. Utilising Facebooks targeting tools as well as their Lookalike Audience targeting, along with several A/B tests of their own, garnered amazing results.
Rather than having a picture of your product, have someone physically using the product. If it’s clothing, someone should be wearing it. Someone should be shown applying it if it’s beauty products like face cream.
The quality of your media reflects the quality of your brand.
Selling with Instagram and Facebook gives you tools for narrowing your audience. Being more specific than broad is ideal.
For effective Facebook selling, check out this article from Hootsuite.
For effective Instagram selling, check out this article from Instagram.
Another effective sales tool is creating a Facebook group around your brand. Facebook groups centre around sharing useful information about any industry or topic. By creating your own Facebook group around “Beauty products” for example, you could easily promote what you are selling. You can directly discuss relevant topics around the benefits of what you offer to assist with health and beauty. Learn how to about effective on Facebook group selling.
Video content is an effective means of communication when it comes to attracting new customers. YouTube is the second most popular website after Google. People go to YouTube for all sorts of reasons for entertainment, but also for information, even for products. In fact, over 70% of viewers say that YouTube makes them aware of new brands.
The sheer volume of video content has grown exponentially, especially in 2020 with everyone being home. People prefer watching videos than having to read all sorts of information about a product. One survey concluded that 72% of consumers prefer to watch a video to learn about a product or service. More marketers are keenly aware of this which is why video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year.
Below is a great example of brands leveraging social selling with Youtube eCommerce videos
Skincare Tutorial | Skincare Realness with @tashaggreen | Boots X
Your brand can easily stand out from the rest by investing time into video marketing. Buying some equipment and video software is not extremely expensive, and by doing so can take your brand to new heights. Posting on YouTube is free and you can easily link your YouTube videos to your website.
A website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video
When most people think of TikTok they typically think of entertaining dance videos. What they may not know is that businesses are thriving on this platform. There is a completely new subculture that has been created, disrupting the social media industry, and attracting new customers. It’s become so addictive that nine out of ten TikTok users use the app multiple times daily.
Much like YouTube, there are helpful videos around everything you can imagine. From mental health to fitness, cooking to entrepreneurship, financial planning to real estate, you name it. No dancing and no twerking whatsoever! Because the largest video you can create on there is only 1 minute, it forces influencers and brands to jam a lot of quality into 60 seconds. People like quick and easily digestible information. This is one of the many reasons why the app has become so popular and why TikTok is the world’s most valuable start-up, currently estimated at 100 billion dollars. It is also offered in 155 countries.
TikTok currently has 689 million users
In October of 2020 TikTok partnered with Shopify. What this partnership means is that TikTok has designed a format for eCommerce businesses and retailers to sell their products directly from their channel – just like Facebook and Instagram. Using TikTok’s API, Shopify users can now connect TikTok to their dashboard and manage their business ads manager from there.
Currently, business owners can advertise on TikTok in the following way.
Further innovating, TikTok also wants to offer live stream shopping capabilities whereas users can order directly from the app during a live stream. So, if there is a particular influencer that users like following, that influencer can include a link for the product their showcasing live. It is not available yet but be on the lookout for it.
Get on TikTok and start promoting your brand. Develop followers and start creating a public image on this powerful platform.
Embrace the power of Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok. Social media is strong and it won’t be going away. Get creative with your marketing strategy and work to be on each one of these platforms. Your bottom line will thank you for it. Should you have any questions about order fulfilment through Selazar with these platforms set up a discovery call with us.
