In the ever-changing world of e-commerce, voice commerce, or v-commerce, is quickly emerging as a disruptive technology. This expert-focused blog digs into the potential of v-commerce in social media selling, examining how firms may use cutting-edge technology to improve customer interaction and generate sales.

Voice commerce is transforming the online purchasing experience by allowing users to complete transactions with a simple voice command. For example, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are powerful instances of virtual assistants that have infiltrated millions of households, easing purchasing procedures and changing customer behavior.

Voice Commerce Meets Social Media Selling

Social media platforms have become essential tools for businesses to engage with their target audience and promote their products. Integrating v-commerce into social media selling can open up new opportunities, improve the user experience, and increase conversions.

1. Seamless Product Discovery: By implementing voice commerce on social media platforms, businesses can enable customers to quickly discover products through voice searches. For instance, a customer can ask, “Hey, Alexa, show me trendy sunglasses from XYZ brand.” This direct access to products streamlines the shopping journey, encouraging immediate purchase decisions.
2. Personalized Recommendations: V-commerce can leverage AI algorithms to provide personalized product recommendations based on user preferences and past interactions. When a customer interacts with a social media post or ad, the virtual assistant can suggest complementary products, enhancing cross-selling opportunities.
3. Enhanced Customer Engagement: Voice interactions create a more human-like and conversational shopping experience. Integrating voice commerce into social media platforms enables businesses to engage customers in interactive conversations, answering inquiries, and providing real-time assistance.
4. Instant Purchasing: With v-commerce, customers can make purchases right from their social media feeds. For example, a user who sees a product they like on an Instagram post can simply say, “Buy now” or “Add to cart” through voice commands, streamlining the checkout process and reducing cart abandonment.
5. Accessible Shopping for All: Voice commerce makes e-commerce more accessible to individuals with disabilities, ensuring inclusivity in the shopping experience. As businesses embrace this technology, they demonstrate a commitment to diversity and social responsibility.

Voice commerce, or v-commerce, is transforming the e-commerce environment and creating new opportunities for social network sellers. The integration of v-commerce into social networking platforms allows businesses to provide seamless product discovery, personalized suggestions, and increased customer engagement.

As virtual assistants increase their accuracy and capabilities, they will play an important role in molding the future of social media selling. Staying ahead of this disruptive trend allows businesses to create a more intuitive and immersive shopping experience, acquire a competitive advantage, and maintain long-term client loyalty in the changing world of e-commerce. Embracing voice commerce on social media is the first step toward realizing the full potential of this game-changing technology.

How Does Social Commerce Work?

Online purchasing has changed dramatically in today’s connected society as a result of the rise of social media and eCommerce enterprises. Social commerce is a dynamic combination of social networking and online buying that has transformed the retail business, modified customer behaviour, and facilitated relationships. Below, we’ll look deeper into the concept of social commerce, how we purchase online, and the elements that have contributed to its rise in today’s digital scene.

Read Also: The Future of Voice Commerce: Emerging Trends and Technologies

Social commerce is a hybrid of social media and eCommerce in which social interactions, user-generated content, and online purchases merge smoothly. Social commerce takes advantage of the social character of various internet platforms to help with product discovery, decision-making, and purchasing. Unlike the traditional concept of isolating the full purchase experience on separate eCommerce websites, social commerce integrates the process directly into social media. Simply simply, users may purchase their preferred products directly from social networking networks.

Social commerce is an extension of eCommerce that provides a more convenient and engaging shopping experience. According to Statista, the worldwide value of social commerce will be approximately 2.9 trillion dollars by 2026.

Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram have implemented virtual storefronts such as Facebook Shop and Instagram Shop to facilitate the buying process and allow consumers to purchase the desired product on the spot. This approach eliminates friction and offers a seamless shopping experience. 

Because social media usage is booming, social commerce has more success than traditional social media marketing strategies. Datareportal underlines on their Global Social Media Statistics that 26% of the social media users are looking for products to purchase. 

On Instagram, for example, while scrolling, users can see their favourite products, tap on the Shop Now button, add the products to their shopping carts, and check out within the app. 

Social commerce and social selling are frequently mistaken for one another. Social selling involves establishing relationships to facilitate product sales, which can occur online and offline. However, it is more commonly practised on social media networks. On the other hand, social commerce is sometimes misconstrued with social selling, but they differ in that social commerce involves conducting sales directly through social media platforms after engaging customers with interactive content.

Why Social Commerce?

Based on a Statista study, social commerce has an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.6 per cent from 2023 to 2030. Therefore, we strongly recommend retail businesses leverage the power of this transformative approach to online shopping experiences. Let’s enumerate the main advantages of social commerce:

1. Increased User Engagement and Broader Target Audience

Social commerce encourages greater user participation than traditional eCommerce. Integrating online shopping into social channels allows marketers to capitalize on the interactive aspect of social media to stimulate likes, comments, shares, and debate about items and services. The participation results in improved visibility and awareness.

Furthermore, because technology cuts across geographical barriers, firms can reach a larger target audience. Your message can be modified to appeal to various demographics. Because social media sites are mostly accessed via mobile devices, your material may become viral and capture the attention of consumers who were previously unaware of your business. More than 4.5 billion individuals worldwide use social media.

2. Seamless Shopping Experience

Social commerce reduces the need for users to leave social platforms to make a purchase. Customers can now buy straight within their favorite social media applications thanks to in-app buying features and “Shop Now” CTAs (calls to action), which streamlines the shopping process and provides a frictionless experience. Furthermore, instant chat capabilities and “Buy” buttons have made purchasing products easier.

Using this strategy to increase sales allows you to remove superfluous processes, avoid losing consumers’ interest, and prevent them from abandoning their basket when they want to buy anything. Keeping shoppers within the app throughout the whole purchasing journey, from initial discovery to checkout, reduces the likelihood of them abandoning the purchase.

3. Influencer Marketing Opportunities 

Social commerce thrives on influencer marketing. Micro-influencers help brands to build an authentic connection with their audience. By collaborating with influencers, businesses can easily promote their products and services because it fosters trust.

Moreover, social proof is essential for online sales because people must trust a brand or business before purchasing. Social commerce provides social proof from the start through user-generated content, comments, likes and shares. When someone’s favourite influencer promotes a brand and vouches for the quality of the products, people are more likely to engage with that brand.  

4. Real-time Customer Interaction and Feedback

Social commerce facilitates real-time communication between businesses and potential buyers. Customers can ask questions, seek advice, and receive immediate responses from brands, leading to improved customer service and satisfaction. Moreover, you can get valuable insights and customer feedback and better understand their expectations, pain points, bottlenecks and preferences.

This will help you adapt and optimise your marketing strategies and offerings. People love sharing their opinions; when listened to, they feel valued and are more likely to become loyal customers. You can implement feedback features in your posts, such as polls, asking their opinion in the comments, or sending them instant messages.  

5. Make Informed Decisions Based on Customer Data 

Social media platforms offer customer insights that help you better understand your audience and make data-based decisions for future product development and marketing campaigns. You can use tools such as Instagram Insights to gather demographic and geographic data and Facebook Audience Insights to get more detailed data such as job titles, education levels, relationship statuses, hobbies and user interests.  

This data will help online retailers target ad campaigns better and get their products and services in front of relevant individuals. 

How to Create a Social Commerce Strategy

We’ll provide you some advice on how to develop a social commerce strategy. Keep in mind that there is no one way to curate a strategy; instead, you must test and change it based on what your people want and need.

• We advise you to start by defining your budget. Not every brand has the same resources or funds. Therefore, before starting selling on social media, make sure you know how much you can allocate to these efforts. We suggest allocating a budget where you include expenses such as content creation, influencer collaboration, paid ads, etc. After a complete budget is defined, it is easier to understand the ROI expectation from your strategy. 
• Second, we strongly advise you to set clear objectives and create a plan. Based on what your aim is, objectives and goals will guide your strategy. Your end goals can be increasing sales, expanding your customer base, improving brand awareness, enhancing customer engagement, etc. Ensure that your goals are measurable and your plan is aligned with them. Moreover, we strongly recommend you be flexible and keep up with the social commerce trends. Adapting and improving your strategy is mandatory to reach success.   
• The next step is to know your target audience and choose the right social media platforms. Understanding your target audience’s preferences, behaviours, and social media habits is critical for your strategy to work. Based on these elements, you should choose the social networks that cater to your audience. For example, if you target Gen Z, TikTok can be the best choice. Moreover, Instagram also caters to a younger crowd. The age group between 25 and 34 tend to spend more time on Facebook and Pinterest. We also advise you to check what your competitors are doing and where they are the most active with their social media content. Ensure you tailor your strategy based on the specifics of each platform and audience.     
• A crucial element is to have your social media business profile optimised on each platform you are active. Check and update your information, visuals, and links to your website or online store. Social buyers must resonate with your content. Ensure your brand identity is reflected in every piece of content you publish. We recommend using a mix of product images, videos, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes content and interactive posts to offer an engaging social commerce experience and humanise your brand. To produce high-quality content, focus on your audience by creating user-centric posts. Craft content that aids, informs, or captivates users, addressing their preferences, interests, and challenges. Tailor your messaging to cater to their needs and desires, demonstrating how your products offer value. As a result, you’ll notice increased interactions and conversions.
• One of the most important elements of social shopping is implementing shoppable content and a shoppable storefront. We recommend using shoppable posts and tags on Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shops to enable active users to purchase directly from your social media posts. You can enhance the shopping experience for your audience by seamlessly integrating content and commerce. Include product tags, links, or buttons in your social media posts to enable effortless shopping while consuming content. By incorporating shoppable elements, customers can easily explore products, understand pricing, and purchase without leaving the platform. This approach appeals to impulsive buyers and enhances their overall user experience. 
• To enhance your social commerce sales, we recommend incentivising your social media followers with exclusive discounts, limited-time offers, and special promotions to foster increased engagement and drive sales. Additionally, encourage customers to share feedback through reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content (UGC). Utilising content created by your customers not only builds trust in your brand but also persuades potential customers to make a purchase.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that social commerce is a continuous process of refinement and expansion. Achieving big outcomes may necessitate time and effort to fine-tune your plan. Continuous improvement requires patience, perseverance, and a willingness to learn from your experiences. Accept the iterative nature of social commerce and use every opportunity to improve your strategy, ultimately paving the path for more success in the long term.

Social media and the eCommerce scene are always evolving. We are here to help your company remain adaptable and productive as it explores new opportunities, embraces emerging trends, and aligns its social commerce strategy with the preferences of its target audience.