Social media is no longer just a space to interact and share content—it’s a dynamic marketplace for businesses to drive sales. In fact, about 104 million U.S. consumers purchase directly on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, thanks to built-in shopping features that streamline the customer journey. 

This social commerce trend makes it simple and convenient to sell products to consumers on their favorite apps. Here’s how to create an effective social commerce strategy and choose the best e-commerce platforms to maximize your brand’s conversion rate.

How Does Social Commerce Work?

Social commerce refers to purchasing and selling products on social media. Unlike traditional e-commerce, which redirects users to an external website, social commerce allows customers to browse products, then finalize transactions in the same platforms where they consume online content. This seamless experience will increase brand recognition, curb friction in the buying process, and capitalize on emotion-based purchasing behaviors.

Social commerce uses integrated features such as shoppable content, virtual storefronts, livestream events, influencer collaborations, and user-generated content (UGC) to pique the consumer’s interest and ultimately boost conversions. These tools make it easy for brands to create compelling, interactive e-commerce assets to reach target audiences as they scroll on their feeds. Let’s dive into the main touch points of this process.

• Discovery: Consumers learn about products through social media content, including posts, stories, videos, influencer collaborations, or advertisements. The algorithm can even tailor product recommendations to a specific user.
• First Impression: Consumers can interact with your product through likes, comments, shares, or DMs. They can also save the post for future reference if they plan to make a purchase later on. This interaction helps lay the groundwork for you to continue building interest and nurturing trust with potential leads. 
• Consideration: Consumers research the product details through in-app features such as Instagram Shops, TikTok Shop, and Facebook Marketplace. During this step, your brand can harness user-generated content, reviews, or influencer endorsements to offer social proof and motivate purchasing decisions.
• Purchase: Consumers then use integrated checkout tools to complete their transaction without leaving the social media platform. Features like “Buy Now” buttons and built-in payment functions will minimize cart abandonments.
• Post-Transaction: Your brand can encourage consumers to share their experiences on social media through product reviews, testimonials, or unboxing videos, which will further enhance social proof and bolster your audience reach.
• Retarget and Upsell: Your band can also curate social ads to retarget consumers, who have made purchases or interacted with your content. These ads can offer customized promotions or recommendations to entice repeat sales.

The Best E-Commerce Platforms on Social Media

While almost all the major social media platforms now include shopping features, it’s crucial to find the right one for your brand niche. Each of the following options offers certain tools and formats that cater to specific audiences or businesses. Here’s what to keep in mind about the best e-commerce platforms to leverage on social media.  

• Instagram: With its visual format and two billion active monthly users, Instagram is one of the most widely accessible platforms to launch a social commerce strategy. Features like Instagram Shops allow brands to turn profiles into virtual storefronts, and shoppable images, reels, and stories make it easy to tag products in your content.
• Facebook: As one of the earliest social commerce adapters, Facebook has a robust, comprehensive suite of retail tools through Facebook Shops, Marketplace, and clickable advertisements that will redirect consumers to a product checkout page built into their feeds. You can also integrate your brand’s Facebook profile and content with Instagram to create an effective cross-platform social commerce strategy.
• TikTok: Nearly 35 percent of 18–34-year-olds purchase on social media weekly, and TikTok is one of the best e-commerce platforms to attract this young audience. TikTok Shop consolidates all touchpoints of the customer journey in one seamless ecosystem. Users can browse new products, make selections through personal recommendations, then checkout in the app. Interactive functions like “Shop Now” buttons and livestream broadcasts also enable real-time purchases while consumers scroll.      
• YouTube: Brands can monetize YouTube content by allowing viewers to buy featured products through links in the video descriptions and interactive banner advertisements. You can also embed shoppable tags within the content itself, which makes it even easier for consumers to purchase as they’re watching the video. 
• Pinterest: Consumers who frequently use Pinterest spend two times more than other consumers each month, and their cart sizes are 85 percent larger. Pinterest is a visual search engine, which makes it an excellent social commerce option for fashion, home décor, or lifestyle companies. Upload look books or other product visuals to the site and turn them into pins for users to interact with. You can also create a digital storefront and automate product listings with the Pinterest Catalogs feature.

How to Refine Your Social Commerce Strategy

Now that you know the best e-commerce platforms to invest in, let’s talk about how to use them to your advantage. To maximize ROI, you’ll need an approach that leverages each platform’s unique capabilities and aligns with consumer behaviors. Below are some actionable steps to refine your brand’s social commerce strategy:

1. Optimize Your Product Listings

Ensure that all your product listings on social media are compelling with quality visuals and clear links, descriptions, availability, prices, or other relevant details. Many social commerce platforms have built-in features to sync these social media listings with product catalogs and inventories on your website for convenient and seamless integration.

2. Harness UGC for Social Proof

According to a recent survey, 98 percent of consumers agree that online reviews are essential to help them make buying decisions. This social proof is one of the most valuable tools you can harness to increase sales on social media. Simply encourage customers to tag your brand in a post that showcases their experience with your product, then reshare this UCG content on your own feed. This is an authentic, organic way to build consumer trust.

3. Experiment with Interactive Tools

Host live retail experiences on social media to connect with your target audience in real-time, show off the human side of your business, and create a sense of urgency to make purchases. Consumers can interact with your brand through live product demonstrations, Q&A sessions, or flash sale promotions, boosting the likelihood of conversions.

4. Collaborate with Influencers

Influencer marketing is another powerful tool in social commerce—in fact, nearly 70 percent of consumers trust an influencer’s content over information that comes directly from a business. Partnering with social media creators who align with your brand values and can speak to your customer demographic will enhance the product reach. Instagram and TikTok even offer creator marketplaces, where brands can forge these influencer collaborations.

5. Keep the Customers Coming Back

Most social media platforms also have robust tools that allow brands to retarget consumers from previous transactions or other interactions. These features help you curate promotions based on user browsing histories and purchasing behaviors. Not only will this tactic encourage customer retention, it can also recapture sales that otherwise might be lost.

6. Use Metrics to Adapt Your Efforts

Monitoring analytics such as user impressions, click-throughs, and conversion rates will help you evaluate the success of your social commerce efforts. Use this data to refine your strategies, optimize content, streamline touchpoints, and test various features, tools, or platforms to see what will resonate the most with your target audience.

Tap into Social Commerce with 10xDigital

Social commerce is transforming how businesses sell to consumers—and here at 10xDigital, we’re on the frontlines of making this trend accessible to brands. If you want to harness the benefits of social commerce and scale your revenue potential, reach out to us today. Our team of experts will show you the best e-commerce platforms to use and help you build an effective social commerce strategy in this lucrative new space.