Ecommerce sales growth still strong for 2021
Buying online has increasingly been a “thing” for the last 20 years; however, during the pandemic lockdown, it finally became a necessity.
During the pandemic, many people went online to shop for basics, like groceries. Many local stores quickly built Ecommerce stores with curbside pick up systems to meet the demands.It was a heady time, with US Ecommerce rising 33.6% or over $799 billion in 2020, according to eMarketer.
Now, with the pandemic is almost behind us, many people have returned to in-store shopping. However the online shopping isn’t going away, with eMarketer estimating a healthy 13.7% growth rate in 2021.
https://www.emarketer.com/content/how-will-pandemic-affect-us-ecommerce-sales-2021
Popularity of Social Ecommerce Marketing
So, with eCommerce finally a real part of our daily lives, Ecommerce is expanding away from just Ecommerce websites and into our social media channels.
“Swipe up to purchase” marketing, where people can buy right from their social media accounts, grew 25% during the pandemic, according to eMarketer, and is expected grow an additional 12.9% in 2021.
https://www.emarketer.com/content/social-commerce-2021
Eventually, Ecommerce will be everywhere, including our smart fridges and TVs, but for now, Ecommerce from our social apps represents a huge, growing industry that’s building right now.
How best to start your social Ecommerce?
The easiest way to start selling on social platforms is to build your eCommerce website on a service that already integrates with social selling services, like Shopify or BigCommerce. Those platforms allow you to quickly connect to social selling services, along with auction services like eBay, and start selling with very little setup.
Hosting your site at a Shopify or BigCommerce will still be the cheaper, faster and easier solution.
Facebook Shops
Facebook has its own “Shop” page for your account that you can use to display your products. Sales can happen on your site or right on Facebook, so there’s less of a chance that customers don’t finish the sale. This option makes it much easier to complete a purchase.
https://www.facebook.com/business/shops
Once you set up the Facebook store, you can easily add and manage an Instagram store. Instagram accounts are already directly tied into your Facebook account, so there’s no additional setup. This makes it easier for the busy store owner to manage both stores in the same place.
https://business.instagram.com/shopping
Pinterest is another product channel for you, especially for products that are unique or unusual. When you connect your Pinterest account from Shopify or BigCommerce, it will push the products to your chosen board. Because there’s no eCommerce capabilities on Pinterest, customers are sent to your eCommerce store to finish the transaction.
Tiktok
Tiktok is a great product promotion video site for your brand, but can also act as a direct sales channel. Currently, integration hasn’t started yet with Shopify, but Shopify has announced that it will add Tiktok integration soon.
https://www.adweek.com/commerce/shopify-tiktok-social-commerce-global/
We expect BigCommerce will follow as well. Tiktok currently doesn’t have the ability to run eCommerce transactions from its site, so customers are sent to your ecommerce store to finish the transaction.
Added Tip: Talk “Lifestyle” not “Products”
Selling on social media is different from selling on your eCommerce website. Unike your website, potential customers don’t come to social media to read about products. Instead, they come because the information they see on social media sites fits their lifestyle. So, if you as an eCommerce seller fit your products into that same lifestyle, then they’ll be interested in you too.
Your Brand Story
Your brand story is often the “why” behind the products you sell. By engaging people in your lifestyle (your brand), you build both your excitement and there’s, and as a result, increase followers. Once you have followers who are excited about your adventure, they are engaged in your Brand and sales will follow.
Influencer marketing benefits everyone
Influencer marketing is simple. Find like-minded people who have lots of followers and pay them to market your brand and products. Like the advice “lifestyle over products”, it’s important to find influencers who have goals and tastes that are similar to your own. Once you make a connection that fits, have your influencer try your products and ask them to “share” in their social media sites. You can also provide a discount code for them to post that allows you to see how many sales that influencer influenced. Take your picture with your influencer and together, you will increase your tribe.
Finally, social media ads are inexpensive. Use them!
Google Ads have only increased in price. However, social media ads are more reasonable and can often work as effectively. The easiest route to advertising on social media is to promote a post. Find the posts which have the most views and “promote” them using the social media tools. Because most promotions are driven by artificial intelligence, a post “promotion” is often as easy as clicking “promote”, adding your credit card and setting your budget. The social media site does the rest.
Just remember that for every promoted post, it pays to ask people to “follow” you on your social media channel. This allows you to capture their attention in the future without the advertising cost.