Social commerce has exploded in the past year, and those who use it know it’s an incredible opportunity to make money with your ecommerce business. In case you’re not familiar, social commerce is when a company features its products on social media, making it possible for consumers to purchase the products directly from the social media platform (sometimes also called “social selling”).
You may have seen examples of this through Instagram’s “Shop” feature or if you’ve clicked on an advertisement through Facebook and purchased a product without leaving the site, as seen below:
Social commerce is becoming increasingly popular among consumers partly because it is so convenient. It targets audiences who may not initially be planning to shop but get sucked into a store or advertisement while browsing social media. Insider Intelligence performed a study and found that 35.9% of US internet users will make at least one social selling purchase a year.
So how do you know if social selling is for you? Ideally, if you have a product and a social media account, you should be utilizing social selling. It is free, allows you to reach current and new consumers, and is an easy setup, so you have no excuse!
For more in-depth information on how utilizing social commerce through ecommerce can benefit your business, click here.
5 Social Commerce Examples to Give You Inspiration
In the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration, check out these five successful social commerce examples that hit it out of the park. Please note, we will focus on Instagram selling for these examples, although great examples exist on all the different social platforms.
1. Letterfolk | @letterfolk
Letterfolk is an ecommerce brand that sells modern home decor and gifts, one of which is a tiled doormat. This mat is unique because you can change the tiles and create almost any design you want, similar to a message board. You can also create small photos with the mat as well. Since they have started selling on Instagram, their sales, followers, and overall social engagement has skyrocketed. They often use customer photos to show their tile mat in action and apply the shop link right to the photo. This allows new consumers to see that others are using and loving the product, which helps them make purchase decisions.
2. Dollar Shave Club | @dollarshaveclub
Dollar Shave Club is a great ecommerce business to study if you are looking for tips on marketing, social selling, advertising, and more in general. Dollar Shave Club started in 2011 and now has around 4 million subscribers. Dollar Shave Club uses a light-hearted and humorous approach to their social selling – they often use funny photos and captions in their selling posts. DSC and Letterfolk have different target markets, which is easy to see from how they use their social media. For example, Letterfolk adds sale tags to most of their photos, while DSC spaces theirs out between 3-5+ photos.
That being said, it is important to understand your target audience and their needs. If you are just starting up with social selling, ask your consumers what they want to see when it comes to social selling. Some questions you can ask your consumers include; Would you make purchases through social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook? What products would you want to see sold on social media platforms? Do you want us to tag all photos with shopping tags? Or only use shopping tags every now and then?
3. Rebecca Minkoff | @rebeccaminkoff
Rebecca Minkoff is a fashion designer that has only one Rebecca Minkoff store located in Los Angeles. While you can often find Rebecca Minkoff products at other retailers, most sales come online. If you look at Rebecca’s Instagram (linked above), you will see that nearly every photo has a sale tag attached to it, which is evident by the little shopping bag icon. This shows that they use social media as a common shopping site for their consumers.
Rebecca Minkoff tends to show her bags and clothes out on the streets – this way, consumers can get an idea of what they might look like utilizing the bag in their everyday lives. Many fashion brands will use the technique of showing their products with models on the street, walking around, and/or running errands because it allows consumers to see what the product looks like out in the real world versus on a store shelf. Then you can easily see which products are featured in that particular photo.
4. Brilliant Earth | @brilliantearth
Brilliant Earth is an ethical jewelry brand that mainly focuses on engagement and wedding rings. Most people don’t usually consider purchasing such an essential item online simply because so many things are hard to get right without seeing it in person (think ring size, size of the gemstones, stone imperfections, etc.). These challenges make Brilliant Earth’s ecommerce success even more admirable. And in fact, some ring retailers have mentioned that their consumers state that they began their search for rings on Instagram.
Brilliant Earth tags nearly every photo they post with a sales tag that includes the type of gold used as well as the name of the ring itself. The labels make it easy for their consumers to see if they select the ring itself or an additional band. Brilliant Earth also uses real customer photos to show their products, which helps you understand what the ring’s size, shape, and overall appearance will look like, all essential qualities when purchasing a ring for a loved one.
5. Canon | @canonuse
Even tech companies like Canon have begun to utilize social selling to promote their products. However, one thing that is different about how Canon sells their products on Instagram is that they use a photo from the type of camera they’re marketing as the product photo on their social site.
Their approach is an excellent technique in that it grabs the user’s attention with the striking image and allows future consumers to see what quality they can get from the products they are considering purchasing. This unique take on marketing has made Canon one of the top photography ecommerce companies out there.
In Closing
These are just a few examples of successful social selling online, so if you have an online business and haven’t yet looked into social selling, hopefully, this gives you the inspiration you need! Request a free proposal today for more information on how to set up social selling on Instagram.
