3 Awesome social commerce examples

Social commerce is fast becoming the number one way for businesses to boost sales. This article will explore different types of social commerce examples, what works best, and how you can make the most of social commerce to build your brand and increase sales.

What is social commerce?

Social commerce (sometimes referred to as s-commerce) is a blend of social media experience and shopping. With more and more people starting their shopping journey online, it makes sense for brands to build awareness and promote sales through popular social media channels.

Companies have recently woken up to the fact that social media offers lots of opportunities to sell more products or services.

What does social commerce look like?

It can take many forms. Here’s a brief look at some social commerce examples.

Social media driven sales

This refers to a strategy that allows people to buy products from directly within the social media web page or app. For instance, Facebook offers “Shop” or “Buy now” tabs that direct customers to the seller’s purchase page.

Social shopping sites

Social shopping sites or apps are e-commerce sites that include social network elements or community features alongside their main shopping portal. For instance, sites like Motilo and Listia have chat features. Some e-commerce sites now offer full-blown private social network communities to complement their sales site, which is a powerful way to increase sales and get customer feedback.

Peer-to-peer platforms

These are platforms that allow users to buy and sell to each other. This includes community based sales platforms such as eBay, or additional features to existing social media networks such as Facebook Marketplace.

User-review forums

Also known as peer recommendation platforms, these are sites or apps that include user reviews or testimonials as a main driver of sales. Sites such as Amazon have been using this form of social commerce for a long time now.

Group buying communities

Group buying platforms such as Groupon rely on featured deals or daily offers to both create social and time pressure to buy products or services. They display how many people have already bought the offer and how many are left, or a countdown timer for the deal, which creates urgency and thus increases sales.

This is just a small selection of the main types of social commerce strategies, there are many more such as pick list sites, crowd-sourcing and participatory commerce.

Successful social commerce examples

Some individuals and companies are getting great success with their social commerce efforts these days. Here are a couple of social commerce examples that are absolutely nailing  it.

Kayla Itsines

Kayla is a fitness coach who has ascended to stardom by building an incredible 12.6 million strong following on Instagram. She has achieved this by promoting a focused health and fitness message on the site, with lots of photos of her body, workout routines, healthy eating program. This targeted social commerce approach has allowed her to sell millions of her programs and products to loyal followers.

MVMT Watches

MVMT ran an initial three month campaign of promoted pins on Pinterest which increased their following 12 times over and resulted in more than 10,000 extra sales. The attractive and professional product pictures on their Pinterest page direct customers straight to the checkout page where they can customise the watch to suit their needs.

ASOS Clothing #AsSeenOnMe

ASOS clothing brand hit gold when they launched their #AsSeenOnMe campaign. It tapped into people’s desire to post selfies and appear fashionable. The campaign encouraged customers to take post pictures of themselves wearing ASOS clothing items on Facebook and Instagram, using the hashtag. The inventive social commerce strategy included the company adding transaction buttons next to the pictures to increase sales of those items.

Final Words

Social commerce is a combination of social media and shopping experience. You get the excitement of finding and buying things from new brands, with the convenience of sitting in your own home, all in the familiar surroundings of a social media environment.

To make the most of social commerce, you can either link in with existing social networks, or create your own to engage and interact with customers, as well as promote and sell your products.