How to make social commerce work for your business.

Shopping experiences has changed dramatically over the last few decades. When looking for new clothes, jewellery or home decor, you almost always take out your phone and scroll through online stores. Sometimes you'll stumble across a social media post from your favourite influencer promoting a skincare product or a new pair of shoes - and if you like it, you're likely to add it to your shopping basket. Online shops are connecting to social media platforms to make it even more convenient to buy products.

Social commerce has become very popular with the rise of social media platforms. If you have an online store and are considering integrating social commerce into your business strategy, you've come to the right place. We'll show you how to make social commerce work for your business. With Adobe Express, you can adapt your social media content for social commerce and optimise your posts for advertising campaigns.

What is social commerce?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let's take a step back and look at what exactly social commerce is. We talk about social commerce when social media platforms are integrated into the process of buying and selling products online. Social media channels allow customers to engage directly with the content showcasing the products by liking, commenting and sharing the posts. They can send direct messages to companies to ask about their products and review them on their own social media profiles.

What is the difference between e-commerce and social commerce? Social commerce is a part of e-commerce. E-commerce refers to online shopping in general, such as websites and online stores. Social commerce is a subset of online shopping. In this case, for example, you are scrolling through your Instagram feed and you find a post from a brand promoting their brand new bag. You see that the brand has tagged the bag as a product. Clicking on the product tag takes you to a product page, where you can find more information about the product itself and buy it in just a few clicks. Users can get a great overview of your product catalogue while staying on the social media platform.

The best platforms for social commerce.

Many social media platforms are aware of the potential of social commerce. As a result, they have introduced more and more features on their platforms to promote social commerce. These features help you promote your products on social media platforms and drive sales. Many platforms allow you to add pricing and product details to product posts. However, users generally need to click on a direct link to your store to purchase the product. The most common platforms with integrated social commerce features are:

• Instagram is a highly visual social media platform. It is perfect for presenting products on a social media profile, just like a shop window but on a digital platform. It allows businesses to tag their products in their posts and stories so that users can buy the product in just a few clicks. Most influencers have an Instagram profile which makes it easy for businesses to cooperate for promotions.
• TikTok is the go-to platform for viral shopping trends. You might know the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt and there is a reason why this hashtag has established itself. The platform is very trends-based. As soon as a product goes viral on TikTok, sales will definitely increase. Try short and engaging product videos on this platform to reach new audiences. TikTok also offers in-app shopping features, so interested users won’t have to leave the platform to buy your product.
• Facebook: Similar to Instagram, you can set up virtual storefronts to present your products. When seeing a product ad in their feed, users can click on it, scroll through your product catalogue, and see more product details when clicking on a specific product.
• Pinterest allows you to set Product Pins. This means that you can showcase your product including its price and product details. For purchasing the product, the user will be directed to your website.

These four platforms are recommendations to check out if you want to make social commerce part of your business strategy. Just as e-commerce is a fast-moving business, so too is social commerce. Keep checking for updates on social commerce features and see how you can benefit from them.

Implement social commerce into your social media strategy.

If you already have social media profiles for your brand and products, you can easily incorporate social commerce elements into upcoming content. Here are some tips on how to spice up your social media content to showcase your products and convert users into consumers:

• Your audience: Learn who your community is and which content appeals to them the most. Use an analytics tool to find out which posts performed the best and how people feel about them. Try to find out which other brands and social media profiles are interesting to your audience apart from your own brand account. This helps you understand what further interests your audience has and how you can adapt your content to their interests.
• Popular platforms: Do you use several social media platforms to represent your brand or products? Find out which platforms support social commerce features and prioritise the platform where you see the most benefits for your products and your audience. It helps to take the perspective of your customers to see if the user journey works for them and makes buying your products easy.
• Engaging content: Create content that not only showcases a product and its price. Think about more engaging posts, for example, showing how to use the product, introducing the differences between several products, etc. People want to see how the product performs and what the advantages are, compared to similar products by competitors.
• Community momentum: Involve your community and cooperate with influencers. Respond to messages in the comment section and actively engage with your customers. Answer direct messages if people have questions. If someone tagged your brand account in their stories and posts, think about sharing it in your stories. If you’re confident with your product, ask influencers if they want to test and review it on their profiles. This is a chance to reach a different audience.

Leverage your social commerce activities with social media ads.

There are no social media platforms without social media ads. To reach a new audience, try social media ads for your products. Follow the classical marketing funnel and get to know your audience more and more.

1. Start with brand awareness campaigns to learn which social media copies and assets work best and which community shows special interest in your products. Assets at this stage are simple and introduce your product on a very general level.
2. Move on to the next step: consideration. Assets for this section usually contain more detailed information on your products. The goal is that people engage more with your content and consider buying your product.
3. The next stage is conversion. Set up a campaign with audiences that have engaged with your content in the consideration stage. Create social media assets that have a clear call to action. Many social media platforms offer a call-to-action button like “Buy now”. On most platforms, this button then leads the user to your online shop to place the item in their shopping cart.
4. The final and most difficult stage is loyalty. Customers will stick to your product and brand and will order more than once. Target them regularly (but not too often) with social media ads to keep them updated about your offers.

Follow this funnel when creating campaigns to develop your brand effectively and get a better understanding of your target audience and your customers.

Enhance your social media posts for social commerce with Adobe Express.

Planning and creating social media content constantly can be overwhelming. That is why planning ahead to schedule content production and a consistent social media posting plan are crucial. This is where Adobe Express can help you. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create brilliant social media posts for your brand. It’s easy to use and you can schedule content immediately after creating your posts. We show you how:

1. Open Adobe Express to start creating your social media post.
2. Choose from our professionally designed social media templates. You can find templates for all popular platforms in all needed sizes.
3. Adapt the template according to your brand colours, fonts, and your use case. If you want to push social commerce sales, use clear call-to-action words such as “Buy now” or “Learn more about the product”, etc.
4. Browse through our library of Adobe Stock photos, illustrations, audio tracks, and videos to design the perfect post for your product.
5. If you’re happy with your post, you can download it to your computer or your smartphone.
6. Or use the content scheduler included in Adobe Express to schedule the post on your social media channels.

Try Adobe Express for free now

Good to know.

What’s social commerce?

Social commerce is a part of e-commerce. It describes the process of including social media channels in the user’s journey of buying a product. For example, a user sees a social media post of your product. The social media post can include information on the price, usage, and reviews. Many social media platforms offer special features for social commerce such as call-to-action buttons like “Buy now” or the opportunity to include a price tag to promote the product even more.

How do I include social commerce in my business strategy?

Find out which social media platforms your customers use to inform themselves about products. Instagram, for example, is a highly visual platform. It can be the perfect place to promote and sell jewellery, for example. Create content that promotes your product. This can be a simple post to introduce your product with an image and information on pricing and delivery. However, you should also brainstorm how you can make use of the whole marketing funnel. You could make videos on how to use the product, include product reviews, and show how the product is manufactured. Such content helps to build brand trust and trust in your product.

Which platform is best for social commerce?

Many social media platforms offer features for social commerce. Which social media platform is best in your case depends on where your customers inform themselves about products before they buy them. On which platform do you have the most followers? Which social media profiles do they follow as well? What content do they want to see before buying a product? You could start a survey among your customers. Then create content and implement social commerce features such as including a call-to-action button and more product details. An analytics tool helps you to learn which content works best for your followers. Adapt your content accordingly and see if your sales increase.

Can I use Adobe Express for free?

Yes, Adobe Express offers a free plan providing access to professionally designed templates for your social media projects and printable assets. Adobe Express offers features such as photo editing, text editing, and layout tools. Choose from a wide selection of Adobe Stock images and videos as well as audio tracks to create stunning content. You have access to more advanced features like brand management tools and additional storage if you upgrade to a paid plan.