E-Commerce has become a staple in how customers shop for the products and services that they need. Mobile devices play a pivotal role in this as mCommerce has become the leading way for customers to shop. With this in mind, it is important for your company to find ways of engaging with customers and facilitating online sales.
Most companies have the infrastructure in place to handle online sales, but they do not have the sales funnel that they need in place. Relying on customers to go to your website to find products means that you may be losing a lot of potential customers in the process. Instead, implement a strategy for creating Shoppable Posts on Instagram. When implemented correctly, it can drive traffic to your website, and make it possible to shop for products from Instagram. In this article, we discuss how Shoppable Posts is one of the latest eCommerce trends that your company should invest in.
What are Shoppable Posts?
Shoppable Posts is a feature that Instagram developed to let companies and brands sell products from within the Instagram platform. One of the biggest problems that both Instagram and sellers on the platform have is that customers have to leave Instagram and go to another website to be able to buy things. While Shoppable Posts cannot eliminate this problem, it makes redirecting those customers much easier.
Shoppable Posts lets Instagram sellers place links to products and services in posts. When a user clicks on the link, it takes them to the seller’s website where the product is already in their shopping cart and ready to be purchased. Essentially, it shortens the gap between seeing something on Instagram and buying it. It also turns the Instagram post into an ad for the product that users can use to buy the product.
Shoppable Posts is expected to raise the number of successful sales because of Instagram advertising. Companies can, essentially, turn their posts into sales ads for products. Because of the changes to the UI to accommodate Shoppable Posts, customers can find and purchase products more easily reducing the resistance to buying products.
Impact of M-Commerce and Shoppable Posts
Towards the end of 2019, there were close to 5 billion internet users. A decade ago, there were fewer than one billion social media users worldwide. User growth like this is a key indicator of the rise of alternative social networking platforms.
Consumers and marketers alike are always looking for the newest thing they can engage with. Consumers love social outreach and sharing. Marketers are enthralled by e-commerce trends and sharing. That said, there is a huge amount of content available to consumers on both social and retail platforms, and more alternative platforms are on the way.
Consumers’ online behavior leads to a marketing Möbius strip: growing consumer online activity leads to increased expectations, increased expectations lead to newer alternative social and retail platforms that are created to meet those expectations, this increases consumer activity, which leads to an increase in online activity and increased expectations, and on and on it goes.
When it comes to social e-commerce, the behavioral and experiential nature of consumers’ social and retail interactions has become more commonplace. Depending on the category, consumer expectations tend to grow within a range of 18 percent to 25 percent per year. Brands, however, are only able to keep up by about 5 percent to 7 percent. This creates a huge gap between what billions of internet users expect to see and what brands are able to deliver. In this article, we will explore social e-commerce and shoppable content tricks and tips.
Social Strategies for Shoppable Posts
Consumers are always online. They shop online, share online, and learn online. In fact, online, consumers have access to almost everything. Questions can be answered with a quick search. Additionally, expectations are at such a place where people don’t want to search for something when they stumble across it online, they just want to be able to tap an image and have access to whatever it is they are seeking.
Shoppable content addresses this disconnect between the store and the user. Shoppable posts are designed to make it easier for customers to enter the sales funnel and explore or purchase products that spark their interest. By shortening this gap, it makes it easier for companies to engage customers on a new level. Imagine being able to quickly and easily find out everything about a product or be able to buy it almost instantly from Instagram. Since most companies use Instagram to advertise products through visual media, the potential for a lot of sales is expansive.
The consumer simply taps an image, and then they know everything about the product. Business-to-consumer platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and business-to-business platforms like LinkedIn, are failing when it comes to meeting consumer expectations. However, they are also adopting or developing shoppable content that takes into account social e-commerce and shoppable strategies that will help them compete with sites like Amazon. With more pay-to-play platforms, engagement will become more problematic.
Alternative e-commerce platforms like TikTok will allow brands to engage consumers who are already migrating or planning to migrate from older platforms that do not meet their expectations like new platforms do. If marketing history has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t want to let your consumer down. There are plenty of options these days, and that means consumers are less likely to give social or retail sites a second chance. Consumers’ expectations will drive them to look for competitive options on alternative platforms, or, they will force brands to offer shoppable content along every touchpoint that brand uses to engage with the consumer.
Social E-Commerce
TikTok uses ads that have a “shop now” button that is connected to user-generated content that redirects to a microsite. Instagram now has a program that lets retailers with Shopify embed point-of-sales items in their posts. You tap on an item, and the price comes up. Tap the price, additional product information pops up. Shopping is as simple as tapping on a link.
In a recent Pinterest poll, ninety-two percent of users said that they felt the platform helped them make purchasing decisions. These e-commerce trends have been felt around the web, with more and more platforms creating formats that allow consumers to make purchases in the creative posts. Consumers may have gone online just to share, but, with shoppable formats, they’re able to purchase something with the tap of a link.
Shoppable Posts Requirements
To be able to use Shoppable Posts on Instagram, there are certain requirements that you must meet first. The first requirement that you must meet is that you must have an Instagram business account. Only business accounts can create Shoppable Posts. Fortunately, setting up an Instagram business account is easy and free. You can even convert your current personal account into a business account so that you don’t have to start from scratch.
Once that is done, the next step is to submit your account for a review by Instagram. This audit is to ensure that you do represent a legitimate business and that you have everything in place to sell legitimate products. Having a review process in place ensures that users can trust the posts that are available on the platform.
You will also need a Facebook account and it must be connected to your Instagram account. Facebook has stronger user identification measures than Instagram. Plus, Facebook makes it easier to make sure that the Instagram account is attached to the right person or business. Finally, the last step is to create a product catalog through Facebook. Once you have all of this in place, Instagram unlocks the Shoppable Posts system so that you can start selling directly from Instagram.
Measure Analytics to Guide Business Development
Analytics should help retailers prioritize the products they want to make shoppable. Analytics will also allow marketers to find ways to blend social and retail because things that broadly appeal to consumers are usually less specific than retail. These days, engagement is all about emotion and awareness. These two concepts make something desirable, sociable, shareable, and shoppable.
Recruit Help Managing Shoppable Posts
Setting up Shoppable Posts can be a lot of work, but the payoff is the ability to turn Instagram into a direct sales funnel for your company. Social media management agencies, like the team at KitelyTech, can help you set up and manage your social media platforms. That way, they become a valuable resource for your company instead of an ongoing struggle.
If you are interested in learning more about Shoppable Posts, e-commerce trends, or implementing shoppable content within your own business, contact KitelyTech by calling us at (800) 274 2908. KitelyTech has a wide range of experience in the tech sector, and has a proven track record of working with entrepreneurs to make their business goals a reality. Call us to discuss how we can help you with your social media platforms and shoppable content.
