Isn’t it amazing how quickly the business world is back on its feet post-pandemic? The majority of the business success presently can be attributed to eCommerce, especially social media like Instagram or Facebook. 

Talking about Instagram, the social networking site recently rolled out a new advertising opportunity by launching ads in the Instagram shop. 

This new ad placement is the newest addition to the long list of eCommerce capabilities introduced by the social networking site. It is also a perfect example of how Instagram is slowly but gradually moving towards social commerce. 

 The business community has buckled up its belts and diverted its focus on improving social commerce strategies to make up for the lost time. If you too would like to make up for the lost time and money, you should maneuver your social commerce strategy. 

 In the coming sections, you will find elaborate details about the social commerce strategy on Instagram. On top of this, we have put together a list of powerful steps to help you strategize social media eCommerce. 

 What is Social Commerce?

Social Media + eCommerce = Social Commerce

 The above equation sums up the definition in simple mathematical language. To be brief, when you try to sell something directly on social media platforms like Instagram, it is called social commerce. The entire process from product selection to payment is done on the social media platform.

 But why the sudden need for social commerce when you already have eCommerce? 

 As per a report, social commerce would cross $600 billion in the next seven years. Gen-Z users favor social media shopping as they spend a lot of time daily on social media platforms. For example, on average, millennials spend almost 53 minutes each day on Instagram.

Let’s find out more about how to build your social commerce strategy to attain its sales and marketing objective.

 Create a social media persona

Creating a social media persona can be a straightforward process if you know where and how to begin. Start with identifying your target audience. You can document the profile of an “ideal client” or study your existing client base to help you identify your audience on Instagram. 

 Choose the tone that you would use to communicate with them. Examples of different tones are memes, infographics, videos, etc. Ensure that all your social media platforms are in sync so that your brand should appear consistent everywhere.

 The last step in creating a social media persona is posting content regularly so that your brand presence is highlighted. 

 Select the right social media channel 

This is a very important step when it comes to building a successful social commerce strategy. The choice of social media channel would depend on your target audience, choice of content, and preference for content posting frequency.

 Having a presence on all social media channels is not wise. You must carefully choose what channels you would want to pursue your organizational goals. 

 Take advantage of user-generated content

User-generated content is an ultimate booster to the brand image on social media. Brand credibility is enhanced when actual customers mention your brand on social media platforms. Make sure that you make the most of the user-generated content in the social commerce strategy. 

A great example of user-generated content is the #RedCupArt challenge by Starbucks. It created a huge impact on the company’s social commerce strategy.

 Optimize for mobile

As per Statista, more than 4 billion active users use social media worldwide on their mobile phones. The probability of reaching wider masses increases when you ensure that your customers can easily access your content on their mobiles. Therefore, your social media content should be optimized for mobiles.

Make sure to design your video, ad creatives, and product images for mobile-first and test on different devices. For creating impressive designs for Instagram, you can use VistaCreate for your creative process. It includes 50K unique templates, 32K videos, illustrations, photos, and audio files. You can also animate any static object in a few minutes.

Use new shopping features

Instagram offers various options to help you sell your products on their platform. You can test different features and choose the one that works well for your business. Here are some of the valuable features you should try out:

• Instagram shoppable posts: Tag any product directly on your post, Instagram Stories, etc. Users can instantly click, find new products, and buy within the app. 
• Instagram Stories Shopping: You can use a product sticker to your story. People can tap on it to find out more about your product.
• Instagram Business: You can use your account as a business one and take advantage of the Instagram Shop option. Looking through your profile, users can click on the “Shop” feature to see the overall product catalog. 
• Reels, IGTV, and Instagram Live. All these features are a good way to present your products, tell how they can help people fix their problems, and give them a push to purchase with exciting offers. 
• Instagram Guides Shopping. Create a list of your best-selling products and targeted roundups based on your users’ needs. 

Encourage reviews

The latest study shows that about 97% of people make purchases only after checking online reviews. Your social commerce strategy should also focus on getting reviews from existing customers. It would help to lure more clients towards your objectives.

You can ask customers directly about reviews or send out an automated email by asking them to leave a review. Make sure to share these client reviews not only on the website but share them on Instagram. To generate more reviews, you can give them incentives in the form of discounts, free shipping, or freebies.

Optimize your content 

 You already know the importance of optimizing your content. It is essential for social commerce, especially when you are competing with a lot of other rivals on your social networks. Here are a few things you should take a look at:

• Use high-quality photos and keep them vertical as users view them from their mobile phones to get your message.
• Keep your videos short between 6 and 15 seconds.
• Your social content should be short. Stick to 100 characters or less for titles and about 500 characters for descriptions.
• Benefit from multi-language support to help users reach their language.
• Include captions to enhance accessibility to watch your content.
• Ensure to use your brand logo on each image.
• Use multiple filters to let your product stand out.

Create a great customer experience 

Social commerce is all about a great customer experience. Customers become more demanding than ever before. To satisfy their needs, you need to create an excellent shopping experience and deliver what they want. Here are a few tips you should consider:

• Be active. You can live stream and let people ask all questions and get answers to complete shopping.
• Using commerce plugins and apps to facilitate social shopping.
• Give more information about your company in the bio section.
• Use canned responses to reply instantly. Make sure to provide all responses based on their most frequent questions from customers if possible.

Listen to your customers

Social listening is vital to your social commerce strategy. It is a process where you try to listen and understand what people are talking about you on social media. Social listening helps to get a clear insight into what your customer thinks, what they feel, and their expectations. 

Try to invest in social listening tools like Awario or Mention to keep track of social media data. Based on that, you can strategize your actions to attract more audiences. Showing them that you listen and act on their feedback is a great way to build trust. 

Optimize your price strategy

When it comes to selling on social media platforms, pricing is of utmost importance. People can easily compare your pricing with your competitors and make a quick buying decision. According to this research, about 69.80% of people abandon their cart, and 49% blame the higher extra cost for it. 

You can monitor your competitor’s pricing strategy and gain insight into the response from the customer. It would help you define a more strategic pricing structure. You can use Prisync to optimize your pricing strategy and gain an advantage over others. 

Final Words

Social content strategy is all about maneuvering business strategies on social media platforms like Instagram to help you attain your business sales and marketing objectives.

 The tips mentioned in this article would help you build an effective social commerce strategy. So, start implementing the relevant techniques in your social commerce strategy and reach your desired goals.