2020 has driven some major shifts in consumer behavior and buying habits. The ecommerce side of most businesses, for example, is growing due to social distancing and people choosing to stay inside.
By now you should have seen a big shift in ecommerce sales and social media marketing. It is crucial to continue to leverage all forms of marketing, especially social media, during the holidays. In this post we will look at how you can expand your holiday ecommerce advertising, with a focus on social media.
Predicted Buying Behavior
According to Salesforce, in 2020 social media will be the most important emerging platform for engaging with customers. In support of this Salesforce points out that,
As much as 15% of mobile orders will take place during peak shopping days, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
10% of mobile orders will take place on social media channels.
Up to 30% of global retail sales will be made through digital channels this holiday season.
How to Leverage Social Media for the Holidays
It is true that no one can truly predict how much consumers will spend this season until after Q4. However, all businesses should be prepared, and well-stocked for this upcoming season. Make sure your website and apps work properly with some advanced maintenance. You can also increase your reach, volume, and revenue by implementing your social media accounts.
To assist with this, Facebook and Instagram have launched new features designed to help advertisers utilize ecommerce capabilities. The main new features are Facebook Shops and Instagram Checkout. With these new tools, both small and large businesses can create an easy online shopping experience leveraging audiences.
Mobile Strategy
Facebook’s Holiday Package report talks about how at the beginning of the pandemic 72% of Gen X and 50% of Baby Boomers have been spending more time on mobile devices. This along with the stats from Salesforce give a likely prediction that social media channels will see a massive increase during the holidays for ecommerce over several demographics.
Facebook Shops
In May, Facebook Launched Facebook Shops. This is an ecommerce storefront to help businesses expand their ecommerce efforts. With everything that has happened this year, this update came right on time. You can now adapt to selling more online to targeted audiences and allowing consumers to discover and shop more of the products you offer.
This feature allows brands to create a mobile first online store that is on their Facebook Business Page or Instagram Profile. You can use this to upload product catalogs that users can browse, save, or order products from directly within the app.
Facebook Shops Design Layout
In July, Facebook added new design layouts for Facebook Shops that allow you to feature single products or groups of products. This update also has a new insights section in Facebook’s Commerce Manager. This lets you measure the performance of your Facebook Shops.
Test Facebook Shops ASAP
With the holiday season here, and more holidays right around the corner, it is best to test Facebook Shops now. That way you have a better understanding of it before things get too busy. You’ll also be able to figure out how to correctly feature popular products to purchase for holiday gifts. Finally, it will give your products more exposure and make your products even more accessible to your targeted audience.
Instagram Checkout Drives Conversions
Instagram Checkout has been out for a little over a year now in test form for some brand accounts. Throughout the last year it has been slowly been rolled out to others, and is considered one of the best strategies for ecommerce on social media platforms. This feature makes it possible to purchase products directly from Instagram with easy, painless, and secure payment options. What else do you need?! Again, due to the pandemic this feature can play a huge role in your ecommerce marketing section.
You can leverage this feature by using the Commerce Manager or, if you use a 3rd party like Shopify, there is an easy integration you can plug into your account. With Checkout you should be able to:
Tag products in other creator posts
Create product launch announcements
Reduce friction for people trying to purchase products
Enable live shopping
Access additional ad products
Instagram’s Waived Selling Fees
Instagram is also waiving its selling fees through the end of 2020! This is even more enticing for small businesses to take advantage and push in-app purchases. This waived fee is a huge benefit and encourages people to leverage this feature during the holiday season to create an easy journey for your customers to purchase your products with few additional costs.
With the growth of online shopping this year and the approaching holiday season, optimize your ads to create the easiest buying experience possible. Shortening shoppers' gap between browsing and buying within Facebook and Instagram will allow you to do this and increase your sales.