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From clothes to holidays, furniture to cars – online shopping has become a permanent fixture in our lives, with 70% of people preferring to buy online over in-store. This means that it has never been more important for advertisers to focus on a simple, trustworthy and effective consumer journey to grow their business online.
Almost 50% of Gen Z users looked to social media for brand and shopping information over search engines in 2022.
Over the last few years, and especially due to the recent pandemic which saw a decline in in-store experiences, social commerce has become an increasingly popular form of online shopping. From Instagram’s shopping tags to the ever-popular TikTok shop function, Gen Z and Millenial shoppers are more often than not looking to social media to search for and buy their purchases over regular search engines.
Around 40% of Gen Z and Millennials make an impulse purchase on social every 2-3 weeks.
Despite the recent changes to social platforms’ approach to commerce, the need for quick and easy purchasing amongst the younger generations means that social shopping isn’t slowing down any time soon. Instead, commerce businesses looking to thrive online are encouraged to branch out to new formats and platforms to make some noise amongst this impulsive and fast-paced audience.
So what should brands deliver to leverage these consumption behaviours and ensure success with their social commerce campaigns?
In order to seamlessly combat all of these different aspects, platforms are developing more ways for brands to reach out to and connect with their consumers.
Let’s have a look at the latest developments from Pinterest and Meta...
Pinterest is one platform that is really focusing on its e-commerce strategy right now, as it looks to combine being a discovery engine and a social commerce platform for a more seamless customer journey.
To help them achieve this they have recently introduced several new innovative features.
Shop tab on lens
Designed to allow users to shop straight from their camera, allowing the consumers’ shopping experience to be more fun and interactive.
Just click the camera in the search bar, snap or upload a photo, and see a “Shop” tab with a feed of shoppable Pins based on the products identified in that image.
If you can see it, you can shop it!
Product tagging pins
A shopping feature that allows sellers to make their lifestyle Pins shoppable and help viewers move easily from inspiration to action.
Sellers just need to tag items from their product catalog to their images once uploaded to platform, meaning that consumers can easily shop their perfect product just from scrolling through their feed.
The Pinterest API for shopping
The Pinterest API for Shopping enables merchants to manage their inventory and provide shoppers on Pinterest with more real-time, accurate information such as pricing and stock availability.
Formats that are instantly connected to a brand’s inventory provide a more trustworthy experience for the shopper.
Instagram shopping
With 70% of shoppers using Instagram to find their next purchase, it’s no surprise that the social media giant is developing new ways to capitalise on this audience behaviour.
Instagram Shopping is a set of features that allow people to shop a brand’s content all across Instagram, making it easier for customers to find and buy the items they love.
Key features include:
Meta's advantage+ shopping campaigns
Advantage+ Shopping campaigns are automated product promotion campaigns that use machine learning to dynamically serve your ads to audiences most likely to convert across Facebook & Instagram.
These ads streamline the campaign build process and eliminate manual ad creation. Plus, customers can see products that are tailored to them, and are able to click through to buy more easily.
Why use Advantage+ Shopping:
Personalised
Automated
Prospect and Retarget
Simplify
Creative testing
Gaining an advantage with Advantage+
We were able to showcase the value of social commerce as part of Elsevier’s Black Friday sales campaign, promoting their large portfolio of medical journals and books.
Leveraging the nature of Black Friday, where individuals purchase items as they discover them, we utilised Meta Advantage+ catalogue ads. These ads use machine learning to scale your ads when you have a broad range or large volume of products, and automatically deliver relevant products to people based on their interests, intent and actions.
This approach provided a frictionless experience for users allowing them to discover specific products in their social feed and then click through and purchase through the e-commerce site – in a quick and seamless way.
334 purchases
4x conversion rate uplight
3x ROAs
Having a strong presence on social media is integral for any retailer. However, before you dive in head first you should first consider your strategic approach and the platforms that will work best for your brand and your audience. That’s where we come in!
If you need guidance on how to take your social shop to the next level in 2023, our dedicated social team are here to help – get in touch: hello@eightandfour.com
