Social Media Doesn’t Impact Sales in eCommerce, So How Does it Help?
Before you create online store mobile app, make sure you integrate these features well in advance so as to make the most out of your social media power.
Social media has been said to be the easiest access for a firm to its consumer base, interact with them and even convert those interactions into sales. Campaigning through social media appears to be far more cost effective and efficient as compared to a dedicated traditional advertising round. It hands a company over the access to a single largest potential customer base that can be found at one place. Thus, choosing social media as a cornerstone of your sales strategy naturally becomes obvious. But how just how significant is social media actually when it comes to sales and revenue contribution?
Social Media’s contribution has stalled
The answer is, not much. Surprising, isn’t it? But that’s what the recent report by Salesforce states.
In its quarterly compiled Shopping index that surveys over 500 million shoppers all around the globe, the firm stated that the contribution of social media websites in directing customers towards ecommerce portals stood at a measly 4.7 percent and also only contributed to about 2 percent of the total no. of the digital orders.
And this stall isn’t a recent phenomenon but has continued from the Shopping Index of Quarter 1 in 2017.
Not a recent phenomenon
Even as far back as 2012, during the annual Black Friday sales a study conducted by IBM comprising around 800 retailers found that the contribution of social media in ecommerce site visits came under a dismal 1 percent.
These findings echoed the results of a previous survey conducted by Practical Ecommerce in 2011 in which 77 percent of the surveyed merchants stated that the contribution of social media to their sales is under 5 percent.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the stagnation of social media contribution to ecommerce is the increasing weariness of the consumer with a news feed flooded with invasive ads and it might have forced them to scroll past or simply tune out all the shoppable ads.
On the other hand, contribution of ecommerce mobile apps has grown meteorically. Ecommerce mobile applications directed 60 percent of the total ecommerce traffic. Their sales conversion rate rose by 14 percent and they overall accounted for 40 percent of the total online sales.
So, if not sales and revenue, how does social media actually affect an ecommerce firm? The role of social media is more supplementary. Its job is more about influencing the consumer rather than directly making a sale.
A few of the channels via which social media can play a crucial role in an ecommerce set up
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Creating brand awareness
This is one of the things where social media is most effective at. With its presence being almost ubiquitous its potential for business exposure can never be ignored. A Wishpond survey found out that close to 89 percent of the surveyed agreed that a social media campaign generated more business exposure than any other comparable method. Owing to its characteristics like viral nature of quickly and easily spreading the word brands that regularly interact with their consumer base and followers should observe an increase in the number of their followers and simultaneously a rise in brand awareness.
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Provide marketing insights.
Linking your mobile app ecommerce portal with social media can get retailers not actively involved in social media interactions to listen to the consumer feedback. Word of mouth plays a huge role in the making and collapsing of a brand. Therefore, it is important for the retailer to take in the feedback and constructively integrate it in their periodic product and service inspection and update.
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Help overcome customer reluctance to purchase.
The marketing emails and push notifications on your ecommerce iphone app fare nowhere even close to the level of reliance that the word of mouth evokes in customers. This is particularly true if the feedback comes from friends and family who are the most trusted figures in a person’s life.
84 percent of the people surveyed by Nielsen Trust in Advertising Report stated that while making a purchase they take into the account the word of mouth first. Reviews and feedbacks on aggregating websites came in third with 64 percent of people choosing this method. Therefore, essentially ‘trust’ is the key factor in driving a customer to sale, social media with its prime emphasis on developing and building relationships can leverage that feature in convincing the consumer to make a purchase.
So, before you create online store mobile app, make sure you integrate these features well in advance so as to make the most out of your social media power.