Business
Social Commerce Trends That Will Go Beyond 2023
Browsing on social media is one of the top activities for most internet users. And with the rise of social commerce, 25.9% of social media users are looking for items to purchase on social networks. Furthermore, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are the top platforms when following brands and searching for products. Now that you know where users hang out, learn what social commerce trends will endure beyond 2023. This way, you can get ahead of the game and increase sales.
1. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. As technology progresses, AR will be a handy tool for many brands to engage with their target audience online. Meta brands (Facebook and Instagram) are optimized for AR. At present, brands can use AR to create filters and publish ads to interact with their target audience.
Meanwhile, on TikTok, brands can use Effect House to create custom AR filters. This is ideal for brands that want to interact with their user base and connect with them.
2. Micro-Influencer Partnership
Influencer marketing will never go out of style, especially in the social shopping setting. Influencers can grow your brand to new heights. Brands can benefit from partnering with micro-influencers to introduce people to new products.
However, many social media users are looking for authentic and organic content online. Micro-influencer partnerships can defeat the purpose of that. But you can make that work. It’s best to ask the influencer to make genuine content like them trying your products or them giving a review about the products they tested.
Another way to do this is to have a brand advocate. For example, Aerie has a brand ambassador or advocate program. They re-post their advocates’ posts to introduce followers to these micro-influencers and vice versa. Plus, the content posted by their advocates has an authentic feel to them, even if they’re promoting Aerie products.
3. Customer Service (Community Engagement & Chatbots)
Customer service will play a more prominent role in the social commerce industry in the future. Some prospects may reach out to you first before purchasing an item. Customer service will play an even more pivotal role in boosting sales.
For example, once a prospect sends you a message via direct or private message, it’s your first touchpoint with them. Don’t immediately spam them with sales talk. Instead, answer their questions clearly to connect with them. And once your conversation with this prospect is nearing its end, you can give them a hint about your product or promos.
That said, customer service is one form of community engagement. You need to build a rapport with your audience. You want to ensure that you’re not hard selling all the time.
Additionally, chatbots will remain one of the most popular social commerce trends beyond 2023. However, when using chatbots, ensure that you have the option to connect your customers with a real person, especially if they have issues with their item. Chatbots, however, can be great companions for introducing new customers to promos and products. Plus, they can help your audience be directed to what they need before talking to an actual person.
4. Live Stream Shopping
If vanity metrics matter to you, live stream shopping is one social commerce trend that will go beyond 2023. This trend is not as popular as it should be, but live stream shopping can bring benefits to your business, such as:
- Better relationships with your target audience and prospects
- Provide more info to your target audience before they decide
- Streamline the buyer’s journey
For your reference, if you want to start a live stream on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, here is the max stream duration:
Of course, with social shopping, you don’t want to reach the max live stream duration. Instead, it’s best to have an outline or flow before going Live. This way, you’ll know which products to feature, how your customers can buy during the stream, and what other promos are in store for them.
5. Curate Your Digital Storefront
Your social media pages aren’t just a platform to post images, videos, or text. Since you’re selling items on your page consider your pages as a storefront. With this in mind, you need to schedule posts regularly but make them visual or relevant to your current promos. In addition, make sure to use the cover photo feature to entice prospects into followers. Eventually, you’ll turn them into customers by posting on your page regularly.
But Facebook and Instagram have a Shopping feature, leaving your page for all your other posts. With the Shopping feature, you can make it a visual treat for your prospects and customers.
6. Seamless and Frictionless Experiences
Although social media is another way to reach customers, you want to drive that traffic to your site too. That said, it’s important that you establish a seamless experience from discovery to check-out. This means you have to use integrations from your eCommerce store to provide a smooth experience for your customers. Alternatively, you can keep them on the social media platform and identify spots in the buyer’s journey that will keep them from adding to the cart.
7. NFTs
Finally, one of the emerging social commerce trends is the integration of NFTs into the social scene. You can introduce NFTs into your social networking sites through tokens. Meta no longer supports NFTs in their platforms. However, you can introduce them as part of your ads or promos.
TikTok is the only platform so far that allows NFTs. This can be tricky to do. However, brands can turn their videos into an NFT. The user can then add that to their collection.
Final Thoughts
Social commerce trends come and go. But the ones above show us that these trends can become long-term strategies to grow your brand and increase sales. To note, not all trends-turned-strategies will work for your brand. It’s up to you which of these trends will make an impact on your long-term social commerce sales goals and help bring momentum to your brand.