3 Ways To Supercharge eCommerce Through Social Media

3 Ways To Supercharge eCommerce Through Social Media

The growing permanence of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has made social media an indispensable component in moving shoppers into the eCommerce funnel. A study has found that 66% of digital marketers who have spent at least 6 hours on social media marketing every week generated more quality leads than the competition. 

It's a clear indicator that social media can drive more conversions and significant profits when integrated with the sales funnel. However, running eCommerce through social media can be quite tricky to master. The key is having a good grasp of how your target users are using social media. 

Posting the right content at the right time through the right platform is critical to the success of your eCommerce sales funnel.

eCommerce Through Social Media: More Critical Than Ever

A recent study by Accenture signals just how impactful social media is to the eCommerce industry. Social commerce, or eCommerce, built on and driven by social media, is poised to overtake traditional eCommerce in terms of global revenue - from $492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion in 2025.

A different study has found that enterprises that have successfully created and maintained a solid presence in social media networks enjoy 32% more sales than businesses that do not use social media. 

Why is this? Because there are almost 4 billion social media users worldwide. It's virtually a big waterhole to find and discover leads, attract new buyers, and engage many existing customers. Social media networks provide eCommerce funnels large streams of paid and organic traffic to their landing pages, product pages, websites, and more.

Here are three ways social media moves your eCommerce sales funnel.

Create and Increase Brand Awareness

Social media is an excellent platform for building and spreading brand awareness. With 4 billion people spending 147 minutes each daily on social media, it makes sense for enterprises to run eCommerce through social media and grow a strong presence on social networks.

Even smaller businesses acknowledge the role of social media in promoting their brands, with 71% of SMBs leveraging social media to market themselves and make their presence known to potential customers outside the reach of traditional marketing. Many smaller retailers and eCommerce websites that don't have the budgets to compete heavily through paid search can leverage social media to create buzz for their brands at little to no cost.

Building and increasing awareness through social media is an effective strategy for optimizing the eCommerce sales funnel. More than half (52%) of brand discovery online occurs because of relevant content, videos, hashtags, paid ads, and articles posted on social media sites.

When people become aware of a brand and realize its potential value to them, they intend to follow that brand, consume more of its content, check their websites, and more. Ultimately, people share their discoveries with their circle of families and friends, further extending the brand's reach, making more people aware, and driving more traffic to their landing pages, websites, and other digital assets.

Generate High-Quality Leads

An estimated 59% of social media marketers use social media to generate leads. Social media traffic analytics help organizations extract vital insights to know their audience better, such as age, profession, geographic location, preferred devices, social media channels, content types, and more. Discovering how consumers use social media helps enterprises refine their strategies, increase engagement, and drive the best leads to and along their eCommerce sales funnel.

By comprehensively understanding their audience's social media activities, businesses can deliver the best content to the right audience at the most opportune time. Or provide them with the information they need through their most preferred social media sites to help facilitate their customer journey. With the best leads entered into the eCommerce funnel, businesses can expect higher conversion rates at the end of their cycle.

Build a Strong Community

Shareability in social media is one of the most significant advantages of running eCommerce through social media. The eCommerce websites most likely to attract more clicks and engagement from social sites sell products consumers like to chat about, such as jewelry, apparel, and accessories.

It allows for quick content distribution by people who share the same goals and struggles to a large audience. It also allows for fast, two-way interactions between users themselves and between brands and consumers.

By building and maintaining a community, organizations can leverage an avenue where they effortlessly and quickly connect with their customers. Users can easily bring in new people who share the same values or seek solutions for their challenges.

When brands create and maintain social communities, they can unite users in the same zone and boost the momentum of their campaigns while building personal relationships with their customers through immediate, meaningful engagement. Social communities help users support each other. At the same time, these communities give businesses easy access to crucial customer feedback, fueling them with insights on how they can further optimize the sales funnel and increase conversions.

Customers Expect to Meet Brands in Social Media

The reality now is that social media is crucial to the sales funnel because customers expect companies to engage them in social networks. A recent study has shown that more than 91% of social media users follow their favorite brands or businesses mainly through their preferred social media platforms. On top of that, 70% of customers demand companies deliver support through social media channels.

In terms of conversion, social media is an influential factor in many successful purchases. Customers who interact with brands on social media will likely spend 20-40% more money on products and services. Nearly half (49%) of buyers between 18 and 29 admit to purchasing a product because they have seen a social media ad.

Integrating social media into your eCommerce sales funnel strategy is no longer an option. It's a must. Social media is one vital component of a holistic approach to optimizing your eCommerce sales funnel. The results are extraordinary when funnel optimization efforts are executed strategically with social media, videos, buyer personas, email nurturing, and data analytics.

Social Media for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Cyber Week, running from Thanksgiving Day through Black Friday to Cyber Monday, is one of the most concentrated shopping periods of the year and generates 20% of holiday revenue. Many retailers and eCommerce websites depend on Cyber Week to meet their annual business and revenue goals. 

Social media has become a popular alternative to shopping on a retailer's website, offering new opportunities to drive sales and provide an omnichannel, frictionless shopping experience. With its widespread reach, retailers can encourage their customers to share their best finds and deals on their preferred social channels, thus expanding the brand's reach and bringing more shoppers to the table. 

With inflation at a 40-year high and a full-blown recession looming, the stakes are higher than ever this Cyber Week. If you're looking to supercharge your eCommerce sales funnel, download Weather the Holiday Economic Storm: 5 Fixes You Must Make to Your eCommerce Website Before Black Friday to prepare for a happy, profitable holiday shopping season.