How to Grow Your
Online Business with
Social Commerce

01. Yotpo + Shopify Plus

Yotpo helps businesses maximize the marketing potential of user-generated content to drive traffic, build social proof and increase conversions.

Shopify Plus is a cloud-based, fully-hosted enterprise eCommerce platform for high-volume merchants.

Together we provide unique expertise on how to use social commerce to find new customers, improve their online shopping experience and grow online sales.

02. Introduction

Social media became part of the shopping experience by pushing brand content such as product pictures and advertisements into our line of site on a daily basis.

Now shopping is becoming part of the social media experience with posts that include detailed product information and actionable links that
drive traffic to online stores.

Social commerce is a way for online businesses to directly connect with customers and to improve their online presence.

In this report we take a look at why social commerce is an important extension of eCommerce, how it improves the online shopping experience, and how as a result it can increase retention and conversion rates for online businesses.

03. The New Online Shopping Experience

Today’s shoppers are:

Mobile – On average, mobile traffic to eCommerce sites is nearly equal to the non-mobile traffic.

Social – Social proof plays a significant role in which brands people are exposed to, and which ones they decide to connect with.

Multi-tasking – In our hyperconnected notification-filled world, getting the undivided attention of customers is becoming more and more challenging.

Mobile

48% of traffic to eCommerce sites comes from mobile, and the statistic is even higher for some industries such as fashion where it rises to 60%.

To keep up with the pace of on-the-go shoppers, your store’s site and every part of the buyer journey from product discovery to review request must be optimized for mobile.

The rise in mobile traffic is accompanied by a rise in mobile purchases.
As mobile buying has become easier, the percentage of purchases made on mobile devices has reached 46%.

Social

Marketers can harness the ubiquity of social media for brand recognition and community building.

Encourage customers to share content such as product photos and reviews. User-generated content on social media is the best way to build an authentic and organic community of customers who endorse your brand.

Social Proof

Customer reviews on product pages and on social media give shoppers immediate insight from past buyers’ experiences. The genuine reactions expressed in customer reviews give interested shoppers the reassurance they need to convert into buyers.

Breaking down barriers for customers to submit reviews increases the amount of reviews online businesses receive across all industries.

Multi-tasking

People are spending more time online but their attention span is decreasing.

On average people are spending 8-12 hours a day consuming online media, and have an attention span of 8 seconds.

This means that in order to convert online shoppers, relevant content like product photos, descriptions and reviews need to be clearly visible and the checkout experience must be quick and easy.

The Immediacy of Social Commerce

Instant communication and real-time information means that online shoppers are frequently interrupted.

Online retailers need to simplify the checkout process and minimize purchasing time in order to maximize conversion rates and lower the upward trend of cart abandonment rates.

In 2015, the global average for online cart abandonment rate rose above 65%.

04. How to Make Social Commerce Work for Your Business

Keep mobile in mind

Social media apps that are leading the social commerce movement are used mostly on mobile devices.

Create a Facebook Shop

Give your brand fans a quick and easy way to purchase your products directly on Facebook.

Useful Tips for Social Commerce via Facebook:

• • Have Facebook Shop exclusive flash sales:
    Hold regularly scheduled flash sales to consistently bring customers back to your Facebook Shop.

• • Sell seasonal inventory at a discount:
    Have extra holiday-themed inventory hanging around after New Year’s? Facebook Shop is a quick and easy way to offer discounted items to your most loyal customers.

• Customers who click on product reviews shared on Facebook are 40% more likely to convert vs. customers who click on a branded Facebook post.

Communicate with Facebook Messenger

Reach customers instantly with detailed messages about their orders.

Useful Tips for Social Commerce via Facebook Messenger:

• • Elevate the online shopping experience by having real-time conversations with your customers:
    Questions about product details and availability can be asked and answered on the spot, bringing a sense of excitement to the online shopping experience.

• • Organize the online shopping experience for both shoppers and merchants:
    Order status updates, confirmation numbers and tracking information can all be found in a single chat thread.

• Boost sales and customer confidence in your brand by helping shoppers make purchase decisions:
  Sometimes having a quick question answered is all someone needs to follow through with a purchase.

Make a Shoppable Instagram

Use a tool that can recreate your Instagram feed on-site and make it shoppable.

Turn Followers Into Buyers

Useful Tips for Social Commerce via Instagram:

• • Fill your on-site shoppable Instagram feed with aspirational pictures to express your brand’s values and evoke an emotional connection from the viewer:
    – Selling hiking gear? Share a shoppable photo of someone reaching the top of the mountain using your equipment.
    – Selling home decor? Share a shoppable photo of someone relaxing in their living room on a sunny morning.
    – This kind of content helps shoppers imagine themselves experiencing life with your products.
    

• • Test pre-launch product lines and ideas by featuring them for your Instagram following and gauging customer reactions:
    – Start a private Instagram account for your most devoted customers to draw inspiration from their feedback and build excitement for the release.

• • Run user-generated content campaigns encouraging followers to post pictures of their favorite products to understand how your customers use your products:
    – Challenge your customers with a contest and reward the winners. The insights you gain on customer preferences, pain points and real life experiences will be well worth it.

• Add reviews to your Instagram ads to tell a complete story of a positive customer experience:
  – Bring your positive customer reviews and user-generated photos together in attention-grabbing Instagram ads that provide shoppers with genuine product information from past buyers.

Use Customer Photos on Pinterest

Turn your user-generated content into Product Pins and Buyable Pins to increase product discovery and conversions.

CONNECT PINS TO PURCHASES

Useful Tips for Social Commerce via Pinterest:

• • Create Buyable Pins with your more expensive products:
    The Average Order Value (AOV) of sales coming from Pinterest is $50, which is higher than any other major social platform.
    

• • Expand your reach by tapping into the valuable resource of Pinterest users:
    An average of 2 million people per day pin products on Pinterest. That is 20x more than the average number of daily shoppers in the Mall of America.

• Buyable Pins are eligible for inclusion in Pinterest’s curated galleries such as Gifts for Mom, where people are likely to look for purchase ideas:
  If a particular product on your site is frequently purchased as a gift, create a Buyable Pin to increase your potential to be featured by Pinterest.

05. Conclusion

Social commerce is the next step in the evolution of eCommerce.

Today’s shoppers are more mobile and more distracted than ever.

Social commerce brings the immediacy of traditional retail to the online shopping experience and in so doing provides brands with the opportunity to directly connect with customers and express their unique personality.

eCommerce stores that communicate with customers, take advantage of product positioning and discovery tools built into social media platforms, and foster authentic customer endorsements via user-generated content see increased sales and retention rates.

What is shopify plus?

Shopify Plus makes enterprise eCommerce simple by providing high growth and high volume merchants with multi-channel eCommerce software. We empower merchants to sell in person and online, across social media sales channels i.e. Facebook as well as through marketplaces i.e. Amazon.

Engineered for scalability and reliability, Shopify Plus is disrupting the traditional enterprise eCommerce landscape by giving merchants the capability to grow and succeed without the added headache, cost, launch lead time and BS of competitor enterprise eCommerce platforms.

What is Yotpo?

Yotpo helps brands collect and leverage reviews and photos throughout the buyer journey to increase trust, social proof, and sales.

1. Ask intelligently 

Give your customers a voice — and a camera. Collect any type of customer content, or curate it from social. Get more reviews, photos, and Q&A with artificially intelligent requests that ensure you ask in the right way, at the right time, every time.

2. Social proof speaks for itself

Let your customers do the talking. Build trust and increase conversion by showcasing your happy customers front and center. Beautifully combine reviews and photos with customizable display options that enhance your brand.

3. Brand & product discovery

Be the talk of the town. Highlight customer content in your marketing campaigns to stand out on search and social and reach relevant shoppers wherever they discover your brand and products.