Ltap Research: Social Commerce

Showing posts with label Social Commerce. Show all posts

Monday, May 3, 2021

Consumers use social media to browse producs and make final purchases

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Buy now? How social networks are approaching in-app purchases

By Wendy Parish | September 16, 2014

For the marketing professional, social media seemingly does it all. It can build name recognition, build brand reputation, and spark real relationships with followers. But until recently, a tangible ROI on social media has been hard to prove. Plenty of people may have seen the brand post or ad, but how many are making purchases because of it?

In an effort to draw a more direct line between social media and sales, many of the major platforms are working towards installing in-app or in-platform options for direct purchases. If successful, these tools can drive sales and offer a better measurement for social media ROI.

Once the tools are in place for in-app purchases, social platforms will have to be careful of security concerns. Google learned the hard way that some problems are hard to prepare for – like children accidently making purchases on parent’s mobile devices because of in-app purchase buttons. That’s an unforeseen problem that recently cost Google $19 million.

See how some of the big networks are working towards in-app purchases.

Twitter

Twitter is leading the pack with in-app purchases with it’s recently introduced“buy” button. Still in early phases, the micro-blogging site has launched a limited test with brand partners like Strip, Fancy, Gumroad, and Musictoday. The buy button – launched earlier this month – will only appear to a certain group of select Twitter users to start.

The buy button will appear in sponsored tweets. Users that click on the buy button will be prompted to enter payment information and can complete the purchase all without leaving the app. Twitter will save and encrypt users’ payment information so it only has to be entered once. The hope is that the instant gratification of one-click buying will capitalize on impulse buys.

Facebook

Facebook seems to be neck-in-neck with Twitter in the race to release a functional in-app “buy” button for its social platform. Tests of the buy button were first spotted in July and was tested among SMBs in the U.S.

Appearing within the newsfeed and on page posts, the buy button sits within a Facebook post. Similar to the buy button in Twitter, users that click the button are offered a secure connection to enter payment information to make a purchase within the platform. In a company blog, Facebook stressed that the connection is secure and none of the sensitive information would be saved after the purchase – something the social site knows is a concern for users.

From its inception, Pinterest has always aimed to be part social experience/part shopping app. While a lot of the activity on Pinterest falls under “aspirational” shopping – window shopping of the digital world, there is some real retail value from Pins. According to data from Piqoura, every Pinterest pin is worth about $0.78 – a number that can really add up.

With its reputation for being a shopping site, Pinterest is prime real estate to develop in-app purchases. Nothing concrete has been introduced yet, but it does seem like the ground work is being laid. On what Pinterest calls “Product Pins” there are additional details like pricing and a link to a purchase site. To encourage shopping, Pinterest grouped all products for purchase into a “Gifts” feed that’s browsing friendly. The site also encourages bargain shoppers byemailing users when something they have pinned lowers in price.

Instagram

Facebook-owned Instagram hasn’t released any of its own in-app purchase options, but some third parties are developing some promising tools. StartupCuralate launched Like2Buy earlier this month to offer a direct link from a filtered photo to retail purchase.

Like2Buy sets up a link in a brand’s profile that directs users to an e-commerce site meant to mirror an Instagram feed. Within that feed are Instagram quality photos with options to buy directly. Users are able to make nearly one-click purchases without the hassle of registering. Essentially, a consumer can now go from falling in love with a pair of shoes on Instagram to owning those same shoes within a matter of minutes. It’s not exactly an in-app tool, but it does play on impulse shopping.

A fair guess would be that with parent-company Facebook and third parties working on it, that in-app purchases aren’t too far off in the future for Instagram.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Retailers Use Social to Spur Shopping, Research

FEB 10, 2014

Social commerce lives on—but not the way it was once expected to

Few would argue that social media has proven to be a significant direct sales channel or that it is not as strong a sales driver when compared with other tactics. Though it cannot be tracked in traditional ways, social is indeed valuable to retailers for engagement, brand awareness and influence that unquestionably affect sales, according to a new eMarketer report, “Social Commerce: Influencing Shoppers and Assisting Sales.”

Since social media storefronts are now a relic—according 8thBridge, just 15% of retailers with Facebook apps had product browsing in 2013 vs. 62% in 2012—the hard sell on social sites has been replaced with new creative endeavors. Some are meant to engage and inspire. Others aim to motivate further down the purchase funnel.

Spurring shoppers to create, participate and share is at the heart of most retail social marketing. Consequently, adding social network sharing buttons on product pages is becoming standard. In 2013, 94% of retailers analyzed by the e-tailing group were doing this, up from 89% in 2012. And according to marketers surveyed by Adobe, social sharing was one of the most effective social marketing tactics for increasing conversions last year. User-generated content, whether product collections or images and videos, had similar rankings.

Now that retailers are accepting that the average shopper isn’t flocking to social media to purchase, they’re realizing that social can be a valuable research tool, and the opinions of online friends can be persuasive.

True enough, product reviews were the leading digital tool that influenced US internet users to shop at a specific retailer (39%), according to Q2 2013 polling by Ryan Partnership. Retailer social media was also relatively influential and performed especially well at inspiring users to buy products or brands they had not bought before.

While buying wasn’t a leading reason US internet users followed brands on social networks, according to December 2012 polling by Technorati Media, learning about products was. In fact, that was the top reason for following brands on Facebook, Pinterest, and perhaps surprisingly, YouTube, which had a strong 61%. If visual content aids shopping, the reasoning goes, then video has the potential to be even more compelling.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Why Social Commerce Is Set To Explode

JOSH LUGER JUL. 9, 2013, 5:43 PM 4,896

BI Intelligence

Overall usage on social media platforms is exploding. Millions and millions of consumers are expressing likes on Facebook, tweeting about products on Twitter, and pinning on Pinterest every single day.

Retailers and brands are therefore increasingly focusing their attention on social commerce.

But, many struggle with the question: how do you convert a "like," a "tweet," or "pin" into a sale?

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we look at successful examples of businesses and business models for generating commerce via social media-based strategies, analyze Pinterest's success as a social commerce platform, look at Facebook's potential as a social commerce contender, and examine the e-commerce conversion and order value gap.
Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here's an overview of the converging trends that promise to transform social media into a viable commerce platform:

The rise of mobile: The rise of mobile, which means shoppers can price-compare and solicit advice from friends wherever they are. Overall, mobile accounts for just under 40% of time spent on social media. Facebook has passed the 50% mobile usage mark and Pinterest is at 48%. Together, they combine for over 56% of social generated e-commerce at the moment, according to social commerce platform, Addshoppers. Given the continued growth of mobile devices, it will only rise. Brands' desire for guaranteed attention in the medium, coupled with this explosion, helps to explain social media's move away from traditional display ads - like Facebook's right-rail ads - and into the realm of social commerce.
The rise of the visual Web: Sites like Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and Wanelo are becoming repositories for shopping ideas, fashion tips, and wish lists — in essence user-generated catalogs. For example, in a recent survey by Zmags (a mobile catalog company), 63% of online shoppers said they plan to use online catalogs. And 35% said they plan to use Pinterest to make purchases.
Demographics: Today's mobile-savvy consumers in their teens and early twenties are accustomed to shopping online and tend to see their smartphones and tablets as their main computing device, and an important shopping tool. Pinterest's average user is between the ages of 30 and 49, which is an age bracket with considerable disposable income. Also, Pinterest users tend to be women (anywhere from 80 to 85% of its user base is female). Marketers know that it is women who usually control the purse strings for household purchases related to clothes, home decoration, and gifts — three strong areas for Pinterest.
Significant challenges remain: Social commerce — whatever the model — needs to better reflect the fundamental rule of e-commerce, which Amazon has always championed: Consumers will click to buy when it's relatively effortless. That's even more true of a casual shopper who ends up on a retailer's site because of a social recommendation. That intent to buy is fragile and can quickly evaporate. Currently, social commerce strategies involve too many intermediate steps before a user ends up in front of the crucial "buy" button.