BUMP UP YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE BETTER WITH SOCIAL COMMERCE

Social media and e-commerce it sounds like a match made in online heaven. What could be more enticing to the socially plugged-in than shopping from a storefront right on Facebook?

But social commerce didnt draw in hordes of customers as the experts predicted. After a dismal 2012, many major brands shuttered their Facebook shops; indeed, IBMs Black Friday report indicated that less than 1 percent of holiday traffic came directly from Facebook. Ouch.

Is it the end of the story? For small businesses like yours it may not be. E-commerce expert, Sucharita Mulpuru, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, noted, very small businesses are the few that have some traction on Facebook. This a-ha moment confirmed what many analysts and business owners already knew: Social commerce may have been a bust for the big guys, but the door is still open for smaller e-commerce businesses.

Encouraging Numbers
Despite the grim oulook overall, social commerce numbers in the 4th quarter of 2012 told a different and more encouraging stort for small businesses. The numbers may look small, but theyre far from insignificant!

Ecwid-powered Facebook storefronts showed sales growing 65 percent over the previous quarter. In addition, merchants with websites and Facebook storefronts reported, on average, 10 percent of sales coming from Facebook, and clicks from Facebook to the website accounting for 8.5 percent of eventual holiday sales. Clearly, this is the ground floor for social commerce but signs show the trend is slowly but surely picking up steam.

That Personal Touch
So why are the little guys winning in this race? The answer may lie in the power of relationships.

The intensely personal nature of social commerce lends itself to the level of service found in small businesses. Conversations and inbox messages are second nature to small-business owners, who get that selling on social media platforms is a people-to-people business.

Merchants who have performed well on social commerce platforms report that their interactions on Facebook are every bit as important as they are with physical customers in traditional stores. In addition, these merchants pay attention to where the shoppers are. If they are mobile and spending time on Facebook, Pinterest and other social sites, they know they need storefronts straddling traditional websites and media.

What Do You Need to Do?
Its early in the game, but if you arent already paying attention to social commerce, nows the time to start.

  • Keep an eye on your colleagues and competition. Watch what small e-commerce businesses like yours are doing, particularly those run by younger owners who are very much in tune with trends in social media. If they have Facebook pages, like the sites so they show up in your own feed, but also make sure you visit their pages separately and read the public conversations between seller and buyers. Learn the approach and tone that invites communication and makes for strong bonds.

  • Make it easy for shoppers to shop from wherever theyre browsing. Think of it as Starbucks where youre never more than a few blocks away from your favorite latte! If your buyers are on Facebook, reduce the number of clicks it takes for them to hit buy with a Facebook storefront.

  • Recognize the many shades of social commerce. Sales dont have to be made on Facebook in order for social media to have influenced or closed the deal. Use the analytics available from Facebook and Google to track where and when your customers are visiting, especially in relation to sales.

Savvy business owners know to be on the cusp of innovations and trends. Give it a little time, and you may soon find that keeping a watchful eye and open mind on social commerce could bump up your business for the better.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1acb83U, this factual content has not been modified from the source. This content is syndicated news that should be used for your research, and we hope that it can help your productivity. This content is strictly for educational purposes and is not made for any kind of commercial purposes of this blog.
By: Anna Smith