Social Media Ecommerce

Harnessing the social power of your website

According to recent research, 81% of all online shoppers and 96% of product researchers read online reviews, confirming the importance of advocacy when it comes to e-commerce sites. Most companies will never have a larger online community than that which they already have on their e-commerce website, so it’s important to harness the power of that community to its full potential- and that is where the use of social commerce comes into play.

When customers visit your e-commerce site there are certain social elements that you can provide them with to enhance their shopping experience, and provide you with more conversions. Remember that a review written by a customer for a customer is much more powerful than any material a marketing or sales expert can write!

Provide advocates with a platform

The additions of blogs, forums, rate & review and question & answer functionality can give a potential customer the ability to make an informed decision, without having to leave your website or even leaving a product page. Many large e-commerce sites have been incorporating this kind of functionality for many years and some have now mastered the art of social commerce, Amazon being a perfect example.

Encourage social participation on your e-commerce site

Once you have provided visitors with a platform to share their opinions, then it’s now important that you let them know it is there and start to encourage them to use it. There are certain techniques which can be employed to facilitate this, e.g. creating reward schemes for participation, although most people enjoy writing reviews with a view to helping others.

Amplify the positives

Once your customers are actively taking part in the social commerce elements of your website then the positive reviews and comments need to be highlighted to help to sell your products or services further. In real terms this means displaying positive reviews in prominent positions on your site, while in some cases these have even been used offline, with Twitter reviews being printed off and displayed in-store.

Feed back into your business

The effect that social commerce can have on your business is not restricted to just your website as many companies use the insight it provides to ensure that they stock more of the most popular products, purchase products that they don’t currently stock and to influence their marketing messaging.

Social commerce has the ability to take your e-commerce website to another level, giving you increased sales, brand loyalty and repeat custom; it is must for any company that conducts its business directly online.

If you’d like to find out more about how the Just Search social commerce service can benefit your business, then contact one of our social media experts today on 08451211194.