Social Selling Revolution With Facebook Shops

You don’t need us to tell you that e-commerce and social selling of today is not a novelty that only certain people can cherish. It’s no longer the ‘phenomenon’ that it once used to be. In fact, it’s now the norm among the Gen-X and Gen-Y. So much so that even brick-and-mortar stores are expected to have an ‘online option’ for customers to purchase goods online. Even I’m guilty of ordering and paying for groceries online while picking them up from the store the next day, to save time.

(Courtesy – Medium.com)

But what if e-commerce suddenly has a love marriage with social media? Will selling on social media soon become the norm too, just like e-commerce)? Or are we still far off from that scenario?

Well first things first, let’s start with the bare definitions for the uninitiated.

What is Social Selling

Social Selling refers to directly marketing and selling your goods or services on social media platforms.

Suppose you’re a small business owner looking to sell your stuff on social media. One of your followers opens his/her favorite social media app or website, visits a certain page directly or after some research, browses to his/her heart’s content, shortlists your stuff, checks out and bam! You’re done ‘social selling’. That’s what it is in a nutshell.

(Courtesy – TechCrunch)

Social Selling is a bit different from Social Media Marketing though. Social Media Marketing is the process of actually marketing online using different social media platforms and tactics. This could be anything from creating branded videos on Snapchat, using Facebook Ads, or creating sponsored posts on LinkedIn. 

Speaking from a hardcore Digital Marketing perspective, the goal is usually to convert people there on the spot with Social Selling. This is in contrast with Social Media Marketing, which is focused more on lead generation and nurturing.

(Courtesy – AgencyBloc)

How exactly does Social Selling impact a business

74% of consumers say they rely on social media for information to help them in future purchases.

Also, 43% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after learning about it on social media.

With these kinds of statistics, businesses small or large can’t afford not to be on social media or not to advertise on social media. And they especially can’t afford to lose out on the opportunity of selling on social media.

Recent studies have found that business who practice social selling generally see a $5 return for every $1 invested.

(Courtesy – OptinMonster)

It’s not hard to ascertain from the above that Social Selling and Social Media Marketing go hand-in-hand. They complement each other to make sure casual shoppers become long term loyal customers.

Social Selling in India

As things stand the Indian shopper is quite skeptical. We need to be sure of the seller, the platform, the reviews, the after-sales support and triple check the price with 101 other places before we order. We fear being duped out of our hard earned money. So naturally we lean towards major players like Amazon, Flipkart and the like for that extra trust factor. And there’s that COVID-19 thingy going on too.

Having said that, India is still a happening place when it comes to social media sales online. Take a look.

(Courtesy – LyfeMarketing)

So what exactly is Facebook Shops and why should you care

A certain Mark Zuckerburg foresaw a business opportunity here and has just already launched his new thing today – ‘Facebook Shops’. This might just be marking a whole new era of online shopping and I kid you not. Hear from the man himself.

In a nutshell, this is all you need to know :

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just announced that Facebook is adding “Shops” to its social network and Instagram in its biggest move into e-commerce yet.
• It being the shiny new sales-oriented feature, Facebook Shops will allow businesses to list their products on their Facebook Page, Instagram profile, Stories or in ads.
• In the future, Facebook Shops will also allow businesses to sell products to customers through the chat features of WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram Direct and tag products during live-streams.
• ‘Shops’ will begin rolling out on Facebook initially in the United States and are coming to Instagram soon – sometime this summer. It will be gradually released in more countries as Facebook aims to secure a massive foothold in the e-commerce industry since as long back as 2016. In 2016, it introduced Marketplace, a destination within the app for peer-to-peer buying and selling. Two years later, Instagram began working on a standalone shopping app, though it was later abandoned. Instead, last year, Instagram added in-app checkout.
• Instagram will showcase brands on its existing shop account, which already highlights items that are available for purchase. Later in the year, it plans to add a dedicated shopping tab to its navigation bar.
• Facebook Shops comes as Facebook upped the ante to support small businesses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Small businesses make up the vast majority of Facebook’s more than 8 million advertisers. Shops will be free of cost and will encourage small businesses to remain actively engaged with the platform.
• In the long run, Shops and other e-commerce products could help Facebook drive more ad and social sales. For now the plan is to make the feature reside in Facebook and Instagram but there are plans to add it to messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger as well eventually.
• With Jio teaming up with Facebook recently, the details of which can be found here, Indian e-commerce scene will change for the better.

(Courtesy – Facebook)

Thus whether you’re an avid social media addict or an online shopper, it’s going to be a win-win situation for you. And if you happen to have splendid business ideas in mind and want to start your own thing on social media platforms, you’re in major luck.

A word of caution though. It sounds easy to come up with products and sell them online and be successful. Even if opportunities galore present themselves, it is genuinely challenging to be successful in the long run. You need the right skills and the right digital exposure for that.

(Courtesy – Medium.com)

But worry not, we are here for you! 

You may check out our affordable range of digital marketing courses that have been careful crafted keeping YOUR REQUIREMENTS in mind! Whether you want to be a social sales champ or a social media guru, we have got you covered.

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