
The stats back up how effective a platform Instagram is for brands. According to Facebook (Facebook now owns Instagram), 130 million Instagram accounts tap on a shopping post to learn more about products every month. Instagram is leaps ahead of other social media platforms in the social shopping space, and their shoppable posts are wildly popular. Two standout platforms in the social shopping space that brands should pay attention to are Instagram and Pinterest. Businesses who practice social selling generally see an average $5 return for every $1 invested. Social shopping sales conversionĬombined with chatbot checkouts and autofill options for payments, BigCommerce reports that social shopping is massively outperforming the ecommerce purchasing journey brands are accustomed to. It makes the purchasing experience much easier for customers.

Through social shopping, brands can tag product images in organic posts with key information and links for customers to purchase the product directly. Rather than getting your product in front of potential customers and then redirecting them to a website to make a purchase, social shopping cuts out extra steps to increase conversion and allows customers to check out right in the network they’re already using. It’s important to note that social shopping is different from social media marketing. Social shopping (or social commerce) is when sales take place directly through social media platforms.

The way we shop continues to evolve, however, and social shopping is making big gains in the ecommerce space. 74% of consumers rely on social media for information regarding product purchasing, and 43% are more likely to purchase a product after learning about it on social media, according to Lyfe Marketing. The average person spends about two and a half hours on social media every day, and brands have put themselves in that space for years to market their products and capture users’ attention. Sixty percent of people say that they find new products on Instagram, and according to Forbes, 30% of consumers say they’d make purchases through Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat.Ĭonsumers are increasingly turning to social channels to buy products, and the trend makes sense.

Window shopping isn’t just done on foot anymore: it’s done on social media.
