Ecommerce Social Media Marketing Trends to Focus on in 2017. If you’re looking to fine-tune your ecommerce social media strategy for 2017, here are some areas in which you should be investing some time and budget. Good AI not only has the potential to improve communication with your ecommerce customers, but can also increase your conversions by meeting your customers’ queries in the moment. So we expect to see social media moving more towards social messaging in 2017, allowing businesses to make a real-time connection with their audiences. Whether you have staff available to answer live chat queries or you use a live chat bot, the result is improved customer satisfaction and a more likely chance of conversion With messaging apps being used by over 4 billion users around the world, we can expect to see ecommerce social messaging taking off in a big way in 2017. Direct social commerce With around 93 percent of Millennials spending regular time on social networks, ecommerce is now spreading directly onto social media channels. Above: an example of a Facebook Store as used by the ice-cream brand Ben & Jerry’s Paid social advertising As ecommerce brands use social media increasingly, the market is becoming a lot more competitive. Networks, of course, want you to invest in their advertising. Facebook Live, YouTube and Periscope Pro are all jumping on the live video bandwagon, and you should be too. Live video has the potential to be used in a range of interesting and creative ways, whether it’s for a live Q&A, a product demonstration or a behind-the-scenes tour of your business.
Here’s a not-so-secret fact – when it comes to ecommerce marketing (and even marketing in general), social media is playing a more dominant role that ever. Both marketers and businesses are taking full advantage of the medium – and you should be too. But they way we use social media is constantly changing, and it pays to stay abreast of the latest trends and user behavior. If you’re looking to fine-tune your ecommerce social media strategy for 2017, here are some areas in which you should be investing some time and budget.
Private social messaging
Despite the name, social media is becoming increasingly private, with many users preferring private communication with individuals or groups to public broadcasting. It’s very telling that WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger and QC Chat currently have a wider community than the top social networks – people (and Millennials in particular) are looking to connect on a deeper, more intimate level.
And so it is that Chatbots have come onto the social media marketing stage. Artificial Intelligence looks set to be a game changer in 2017, if only because so many businesses are now investing in it. Faceless machines are a lot more charming than they used to be, having the ability to answer customer queries with an immediacy that is not always possible with other forms of customer service. Good AI not only has the potential to improve communication with your ecommerce customers, but can also increase your conversions by meeting your customers’ queries in the moment.
So we expect to see social media moving more towards social messaging in 2017, allowing businesses to make a real-time connection with their audiences. A great example of an online store using live chat effectively is Condor Cycles: a simple setup built using the Shopify ecommerce platform. You may remember Condor Cycles from our previous post: 10 Spectacular Shopify Plus Stores and the Design Agencies Behind Them. With its simple live chat interface, you can speak to a member of the team quickly and easily.
- Customers hate being left on hold or waiting days for a reply to their email – with live chat, the response is instantaneous. Whether you have staff available to answer live chat queries or you use a live chat bot, the result is improved customer satisfaction and a more likely chance of conversion
- With messaging apps being used by over 4 billion users around the world, we can expect to see ecommerce social messaging taking off in a big way in 2017. How could it help or improve your business’ customer service and conversion rate?
Direct social commerce
With around 93 percent of Millennials spending regular time on social networks, ecommerce is now spreading directly onto social media channels. As mobile browsing and purchasing becomes more normalised, it’s likely that this trend will continue to grow in 2017. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest already enable users to purchase products directly through their mobile apps, with Snapchat intending to follow suit very soon. Users trust their social media networks, and increasingly they are coming to these networks on the hunt for new, interesting content and potential purchases.
COMMENTS