In 2020 brands were scrambling to make a plan to sell their products and services online as a result of the pandemic. In response, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp began rolling out e-commerce tools to assist businesses by making it easier to sell directly from their social media pages.
These social networks have continued to release and improve upon new e-commerce features as online shopping continues to gain popularity in 2021. But, as with any trend, the question on some people’s minds has been, “do consumers actually shop on social media?” The answer, yes! With more than 50% of consumers saying that they have purchased from at least one social media platform. This is quite impressive considering social media shopping features are still fairly new to consumers.
Which social media platforms are consumers shopping on?
Yes, you guessed it! Facebook. Facebook’s online shopping popularity isn’t surprising as users of the social platform have been and continue to regularly use Facebook Marketplace to find items for sale from independent sellers and residents wanting to sell second-hand goods nearby.
Facebook shops
In 2020 Facebook launched Facebook shops, a newly rolled out feature that enables Facebook business pages to create a shop, located on their page that features a list of products or collections that are shoppable. Users who visit the Facebook shop page can tap or click on the ‘View Shop’ button to see products on offer, add items to their cart and purchase directly from the Facebook checkout page.
The Facebook shops feature is currently one of the best ways to sell products on social platforms and has the largest and broadest reach. It can also integrate with Instagram and Whatsapp, which means that if you want to expand your shops to other social platforms, you can do so easily.
Even if you already have an e-commerce site, Facebook shops is useful for reaching large audiences who specifically prefer to use mobile phones and apps to browse the internet. It’s a no-fuss, quick and easy alternative to reach audiences who are just interested in making a quick purchase on the go. The process is fairly straight forward. Shoppers can click into your shop, check out with a few products and pay using their phone’s payment tool. Facebook shops is also great for turning social media followers into customers.
Instagram has always been a great place for brands to engage and delight their audiences, but it hasn’t always been easy to turn followers into customers. When Instagram first launched, it only allowed one link in profile bios. As time went on, they launched Stories which allowed more links but could only be utilised if users had a verified account along or more than 10,000 followers. Selling products on Instagram became easier, however, when the platform launched Shoppable posts in 2017.
Instagram Shoppable posts
Shoppable posts highlighted an image of a product and enabled users to tap on the image to view an online catalogue outside of Instagram. They were created for brands that wanted to sell a few select products on the platform without having to create a Facebook business page or catalogue to open up a whole shop. Since then, Instagram has added a new in-app checkout feature that links to shoppable posts. It’s currently only available to users in the United States for now.
Instagram shops
A spin-off off of Facebook shops, Instagram shops uses the same design layout and technology. The only difference is that it’s linked to Instagram pages. Like Facebook shops, you need an existing Facebook business page and shop to access this feature on Instagram. To access Instagram shops, all you need to do is go to Facebook commerce manager settings and link your Facebook business page with your Instagram business page. From there you can set up your shop on Instagram so that users who visit your profile will be able to shop from it using the ‘View Shop’ button.
Recently acquired by Facebook, WhatsApp doesn’t have its own shopping feature but users can chat with brands with the goal of purchasing products from their WhatsApp business catalogue and pay for the items directly using WhatsApp’s payment feature. The WhatsApp payment feature is similar to that of Facebook messenger’s ‘Buy Now’ feature and is only available in India for now.
Buying products from WhatsApp does take longer when compared with Facebook and Instagram shops, but as WhatsApp continues to grow and expand it’s business features the app will most likely a very useful alternative to Facebook and Instagram shops.
Which social platforms should you be selling on?
Facebook might be the best place to start selling on, followed by Instagram purely because of the large amassed audience and easy to use shopping tools. It also might be best to look at where your audience already gathers and then meet them where they are with your product listings and online shop.
