Social Media for Ecommerce: How to Integrate Ecommerce With Social Media Efforts

  • 9 minute read

Are you someone who’s making use of social media to promote your online business? Of course, you are! 

Are you someone who struggles to get your social media audience to the website, or your website visitors to your social pages? 

If you nodded your head right now, this article is for you. 

After speaking to thousands of brands online, we found that a lot of business owners and marketers are not able to sync the efforts they make on their online store and social media accounts. They feel there’s a disconnect between the two, each working in silos and not being able to add value to the other as effectively. 

So in this blog, we’re going to share a few tactics and strategies that you can use to integrate ecommerce with your social media efforts, driving better customer engagement and conversions for your business! 

How to leverage social media for ecommerce 

There is no one set way of using social media for ecommerce. Your social media marketing strategy may vary based on the business you run, who your audience is and the products/ services you sell. 

But after taking a look at some of the leading brands online, we found following these best practices can help supercharge your social media efforts to run a successful ecommerce business:     

  • Optimize your about section 
  • Make your link in bio shoppable 
  • Explore live shopping on social 
  • Showcase user generated content as social proof
  • Leverage WhatsApp links to start conversations 
  • Make your social posts shoppable   

1. Optimize your about section (bio) 

Many times we are all very focused on creating engaging content for social media pages, and miss out on the absolute basics. 

It’s important to note that when a consumer comes across your content on social media, they head over to your page to understand what your business is all about. They might scroll through some of the other content you have posted, but they definitely take a look at your about section or bio! 

Make sure you spend some time on your about section to clearly state what you sell, and your value proposition. 

Here’s an example of a good Instagram bio from Amrutam, an ayurvedic health and lifestyle brand: 

And here’s how they have optimized their bio for Facebook, as it gives them a higher character limit to describe what they are all about: 

 Additional resources:

2. Make your link in bio shoppable 

While platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest, allow you to add a different link in every post, your bio can only consist of one and changing it every time you post new content can be time consuming and prone to error. In addition to that, platforms like Instagram only allow you to add one link - in your bio. 

Typically, businesses try to update this one link every time they’re running a campaign. But that means a person coming across a previous post might not find the link they were interested in a week after! 

That’s where making use of link optimization tools like Linkpop comes into play. It is a free link in bio tool designed for commerce businesses, keeping in mind the restrictions imposed by social media platforms. 

The tool lets you create a custom, branded page of all your recent links based on the campaigns you’re running or the content you want to promote. So when someone stumbles upon a post weeks after it was published, they can still find a URL of the same on your Linkpop page and click through to your website. 

Additionally, it lets you create an intuitive shoppable link for the page. A consumer can simply click on the URL, add the product to cart and complete the purchase, instead of going the traditional route of landing on the website, searching for the product and then making a purchase. 

Here’s a glimpse at how the shoppable link on your Linkpop page works: 

 

The good thing here is that you can use the same Linkpop URL across all social media platforms, and also track which of the URLs from the page tend to get the most engagement, traffic to store and sales. 

Exactly what you have been looking for? Sign up on Linkpop to create a shoppable link today.

3. Explore live shopping on social 

As per statistics, live content earns 27% more minutes of watch time per viewing. But what if we said you could do more than just engage people in a live video, driving actual sales from it?

That’s where live shopping comes in. 

Also known as livestream shopping, this content format is being used by brands to promote and sell products through live streaming on social media platforms. The aim of live shopping is to make it simpler for consumers watching the livestream to ask questions and buy products being shown. 

Here’s what live shopping on Instagram looks like: 

source

You can make live shopping more immersive, engaging and easy to shop from by connecting your social media platforms and the backend of your storefront using solutions like Channelize.io and Livescale. 

4. Showcase user generated content as social proof 

If your social feed consists of user generated content that you reposted, it’s time to leverage it as social proof on your website. 

Statistics say that roughly 30% of the time millennials spend consuming content is spent on user generated content (UGC). The study also says that about 48% of consumers say UGC is a great way to discover new products, and 41% say they are tempted to make a purchase if a product has at least one to four reviews. 

The good thing is that you don’t need to get into your website’s code to embed user generated content from your social media accounts. You can display your social media feed on the storefront with the help of Shopify apps. Explore them all here. 

For example, here’s how Vajor displays user generated content on the website, establishing a connection between their Instagram account and storefront. 

Another way of displaying user generated content is to collect it on your website. You can do this with the help of social proof apps like Judge.me, Loox and others that essentially let consumers easily upload their pictures or videos along with product reviews on the website itself. Explore all product review apps here. 

Here’s an example on Indie and Harper’s website: 

Additional reads: 

5. Leverage WhatsApp links to start conversations  

If you’re using WhatsApp for marketing or even offering customer support, it’s time to make use of the WhatsApp Business features to connect your social media and ecommerce business. In this case, WhatsApp Business links. 

You can create custom WhatsApp links and share them on social media in posts or even your stories as a call-to-action. This helps you encourage your social media followers to reach out to your business on the messaging app, giving you a chance to strike conversations. 

And as we all know, meaningful conversations can lead to more conversions and sales for your store! 

Here’s how Home Brigade uses WhatsApp links for every product they share on Instagram stories to capture consumer intent and confirm orders: 

6. Make your social posts shoppable 

Another way to encourage the audience you capture on social media to visit your store or buy from you, is by making your posts shoppable. A shoppable post is basically one wherein you tag the product displayed in the picture shared, connecting it to your store to complete a purchase. 

The ‘shop’ bag appearing on the post is clickable and lets consumers tap on it to find more product details and even add it to cart. This is a great way to supercharge your commerce through social media by reducing the length of the sales cycle an online shopper needs to go through. 

Here’s an example of a shoppable post on Instagram from Shayagrams, an online store that sells fine jewelry: 

 

A consumer can click on the products tagged on the Instagram post, which leads to a page within the app that shares more information about the products. It also displays a button ‘view on website’ that leads the consumer to the website to complete the purchase: 

Ready to supercharge your social media efforts? 

We know how time consuming it is for businesses to maintain a consistent flow of great content on their social media accounts. Each platform comes with its own set of nuances that need to be looked in and that means a lot of hard work to keep up with it all! 

That’s why you need to make every effort count, and the above are just a few hacks that you can use to supercharge your social media efforts to scale your ecommerce business. 

Ready to use social media to go beyond brand awareness and grow your business? 

Explore all Shopify apps for marketing here. 

Additional reads: 

Frequently asked questions about social media and ecommerce

How do ecommerce businesses use social media?

Ecommerce businesses can use social media in a number of ways to promote their products and deals. They can leverage various platforms to organically reach out to their audience and introduce their products to them, or run advertising campaigns to target social media users and drive them to the website. With the widespread use of social media platforms and millions of daily active users, it’s the one channel that gives businesses an opportunity to market or promote at scale!

Which social media is best for ecommerce?

While Facebook and Instagram are reigning the list of the best social media platforms for ecommerce, the answer lies in who your target audience is. So before you decide which social media platform to go for, understand your target audience, ideal customer persona, the channels they use and their intent behind using the platform.

How much website traffic comes from social media?

As per statistics, social media today accounts for 5% of website traffic across the globe. But the number may vary based on the type of products you sell and your target audience. It may also increase/decrease based on whether or not your business is leveraging paid advertising campaigns on social media. You can check this information for your Shopify website in the Analytics page against the metric "Online store sessions from social source".

How do I check my social media traffic?

You can easily track your social media traffic on Shopify Analytics. The analytics dashboard shows you traffic by channel and source, helping you identify where your target audience is the most active and double down on your efforts in a timely manner. On the other hand, you can also use tools like Google Analytics to track your social media traffic.
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