As social platforms make it increasingly easier to manage financial transactions directly through their services, retailers are realizing they can use them for far more than marketing activities. In fact, social commerce represents a huge opportunity to convert and grow revenue.

To understand how to sell using social commerce, read on.

What is Social Shopping or Social Commerce?

For everyday consumers, social media continues to be a place they come to share photos and videos with their family and friends. While brands initially established their own accounts to advertise products and direct them back to their own eCommerce stores, social commerce means they are now using these platforms to provide a seamless digital shopping experience.

Social commerce sales are forecast to reach $8.5 trillion globally by 2030. Clothing is expected to be the fastest-growing category in this space, representing 18% of social commerce sales by 2025. In the U.S. alone, 77% pursue social shopping at least once per week.

The first step in developing a shoppable storefront on social media is to ensure you can easily connect your product catalog to social platforms where your customers are browsing. Product feed management makes this far easier to accomplish and scalable across multiple social services.

At the same time, you should become familiar with the unique requirements and social shopping opportunities each platform offers.

Top Social Commerce Platforms

Approaching social media as a brand is a lot different than what you might have experienced as a consumer. You’re not just sharing content broadly to the world but taking advantage of channels within each service that can maximize your social commerce sales.

These are some best practices specific to the most popular platforms.

Mastering Facebook Social Commerce

The volume of consumers shopping on Facebook is expected to reach more than 64.6 million in 2024, making it the largest social commerce platform. To reach that audience:

Leverage Facebook Shops

Facebook offers a shoppable storefront where retailers can create collections of their products based on a theme, such as seasonable apparel. Setting up a Facebook Shop allows you to display your brand’s name, logo, ratings and other details in addition to products. It’s also easy for users to discover Facebook Shops through their fields or via a dedicated tab and follow it and make purchases.

Use Dynamic Ads

No one has time to make thousands of individual ads to promote every product in their catalog. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads address this by allowing you to promote your entire catalog while also delivering relevant product recommendations to Facebook users based on their interests.

Engage with Facebook Live

Retailers have often used the power of a live in-store event to attract shoppers and give them a closeup look at their featured products. Facebook Live offers a way to do the exact same thing but on a global scale. Showcase items with live models, answer questions from potential buyers and offer the kind of authentic connection that consumers crave.

Optimize for Mobile

It may have started in the days when desktops were still the dominant device for browsing the web, but most consumers are probably scrolling the Facebook app on their smartphone. Make sure you don’t disappoint them by ensuring you’re offering fast page loads and adjusting text and images to display on smaller screens.

Feed integration: Facebook Shops and Dynamic Ads need to properly convey every important detail about the items you’re selling. This includes not only names but pricing, images, descriptions, SKUs and availability statuses. Automating Facebook product feed management will render everything consumers need to know in the right format, every time.

Instagram Social Shopping: Everything You Need to Know

Whether gazing at photos or watching Reels, Instagram also commands a sizable social shopping audience, with 46.8 million expected to make purchases there in 2024. Instagram is also well established as a home for highly engaging fashion and lifestyle content, making it an ideal digital destination for many eCommerce brands. There are plenty of ways to attract customers:

Utilize Instagram Shopping

There’s no shorter path to purchase than “see it, buy it,” which is exactly what Instagram Shopping was designed to offer U.S. retailers. Posts will include one-click access to view collections, detailed product pages or simply buy directly through the app. You’ll need to set up a business profile on Instagram and comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement to get approved. You’ll then be able to tag up to 20 products and shops in a photo feed post, 10 photos and videos in a carousel post.

Create Shoppable Posts

Consumers have come to recognize the little shopping bag icon that identifies Shoppable Posts on Instagram, which allow them to streamline the process of ordering a product they want. Bear in mind that they are likely looking at multiple brands on Instagram at any given moment, and Shoppable Posts let them stay in the app even as they make purchases. You can enhance your Shoppable Posts by not only creating enticing images, but adding important context such as sizing, fit or styling.

Leverage Influencers

Instagram is a great example of a platform where users are building up audiences that dwarf that of many brands. These creators are also called influencers because consumers pay close attention to products they recommend and endorse. Partnering with influencers can help draw more attention to your Shoppable Posts and other Instagram content to boost your social commerce sales.

Use Instagram Stories

Instagram may have originally been focused on photography, but today users can create Stories that blend images, video, text and special effects. Brands can do the same thing, illustrating how their products could be worn or used in a particular context or locale. Instagram Stories are also ideal for conveying the kind of key messages that were once reserved for expensive TV spots, while also offering a fast and easy way to take the next step and buy items.

Feed Integration: Developing a shoppable storefront on Instagram requires adding details to its Commerce Manager platform. This includes either connecting your existing catalog or creating a new one. That could be a laborious and error-prone job without a product feed management solution that instantly transmits the right data and accelerates Instagram’s review process.

Social Shopping on Pinterest: Your Secret Weapon

Whether you’re decorating your home or creating a board full of outfit ideas, Pinterest is the ultimate way to curate ideas and products that speak to your individual style. No wonder 85% of Pinterest users have made a purchase based on a pin. Make sure your brand is among those benefiting:

Optimize Product Pins

Every pin you promote as a brand should tell a story. This not only includes visual storytelling with images but metadata such as the keywords you use to describe them. Also make sure to tag across multiple categories where appropriate to maximize discoverability and form product groups with the same care you’d put complementary products on a table in a physical store.

Use Rich Pins

Pinterest recognizes that product information should never stay static. That’s why it offers Rich Pins, which automatically sync data from your website. This means you can have the latest ingredients in a Recipe Rich Pin, or updated pricing and availability for Product Rich Pins.

Create Themed Boards

Pinterest boards don’t have to be random assortments of products. Much like an in-store experience, you’ll provide a better experience for customers by organizing pins based on broader similarities, customer interests and needs. A good example might be a vacation-themed board that includes everything you should buy before setting off on your next getaway.

Engage with Visual Search

Shopping inspiration can come from anywhere, but the hard work comes when you need to track down something that appeals to you. Visual search technologies ease that journey by allowing consumers to simply point at an item and look it up online. Pinterest Lens, for instance, can drive more consumers to your pins when you have multiple optimized images of your products with accurate data.

Feed Integration: Pinterest allows brands to add 50 different data sources, but doing so manually requires many steps, and Pinterest requires data be updated every seven days. This could become a full-time job without an automated feed management solution that can handle this on a scheduled basis.

TikTok Social Commerce: Go Viral with Your Sales

Some come for the singing and dancing. Some come for the memes. There are also plenty of people who visit TikTok for both types of content – in addition to hunting for their next luxury item. More than 55 million U.S. consumers shopped on TikTok in 2023, either through links in the app or directly on the platform. Now is the time to meet your customers here as well. Here’s how:

Create Engaging Content

TikTok first became known for the extreme brevity of its content, as well as a sense of humor that tended to skew towards younger consumers. As the platform grows, its audience will inevitably become more diverse, but the same lighthearted and fun-loving spirit remains. Instead of a hard product pitch, try to develop clips that put what you sell into an unconventional environment, or answer some of the funniest questions you’ve ever been asked by existing customers. If you know some of your loyal customers well, see if they’ll be part of clips that are part of viral trends, such as posts with the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag.

Leverage TikTok Shopping

TikTok Shop incorporates many of the features of other social shopping platforms, including the ability to be featured on a Shop tab, in-feed and live shopping as well as product showcases. Of course you’ll have to adhere to TikTok’s community guidelines and TikTok Shop policies to set up this kind of shoppable storefront after signing up to its seller program.

Partner with Creators

Like Instagram, TikTok is filled with creators who have mastered the art of short-form video. Involve them anywhere from launch campaigns and unboxing opportunities to clips that let them explain to their followers why your products are essential items.

Use Hashtag Challenges

TikTok is perhaps the most “gamified” social media platform where brands can challenge users to compete with one another to create the best content. Examples here could include clips that demonstrate the best use of your products to bring your company’s slogan to life in a new way.

Feed Integration: TikTok suggest brands can create new catalogs, upload products from an online file or use a template. There’s actually another, better way: leverage the power of a proven product feed management solution to ensure every attribute is included and leave your

2024’s Trends in Social Commerce

Social commerce is an ever-moving target. As platforms continue to compete with each other for consumers’ attention, we’ll see them experiment with new technologies and introduce features to drive even more immersive engagement.

Given giants such as Meta not only own Facebook and Instagram but WhatsApp, for instance, expect to see further integration of social commerce within messaging apps that allow consumers to get their contacts’ opinions on their purchases. Evolving mobile device hardware could allow social commerce via augmented and virtual reality. Other areas, such as live shopping, are still nascent and poised for further expansion.

Integrating Suvae.org for Optimal Social Commerce

Regardless of how social commerce evolves, having a product feed management solution in place is a great strategy for future-proofing your brand.

Take Suvae.org, which not only allows brands to manage product catalogs on social platforms but create enriched feeds tailored to their needs. Flexible configurations means brands can also stay ahead of channel requirements as they change, and the platform allows performance monitoring and the ability to keep track of inventory statuses.

These kinds of capabilities all support a social shopping experience based on improved data accuracy and simplified, automated feed management.

Your shoppable storefront should be available everywhere. Contact Suvae.org to learn more about how we can help grow your social commerce sales.

The post Social Shopping 2024: Your Ultimate Guide & Best platforms appeared first on Suvae.org.

In its 2023 What’s Next Trend Report, TikTok provided its assessment of what keeps consumers coming back to its app for hours on end: the focus on relatable and uplifting has created a community that is ready to take action. Ads with a high entertainment value scored 15% higher for purchase intent.

Having a TikTok product feed is just as important as making an ad funny or heartwarming, though. Consumers need to see products with accurate, up-to-date details before they click a “buy” button. When it’s done right, however, selling on TikTok could be an important growth driver.

Benefits of selling on TikTok

Just consider the results of a survey published in early 2023 that showed 83% of consumers believe TikTok will become the home shopping network of our digital age. This has attracted big brands like Fenty Beauty, which got headlines for running contests and other marketing tactics on TikTok. Another study found clothing is a top spending priority for women using TikTok.

Is it worth selling on TikTok? Yes, because:

• It’s the third-largest social platform, with more than 800 million users (and still growing!).

Achieving reach within large consumer segments matters, especially when you’re selling luxury products across multiple geographies. Marketing on TikTok should be just as big a priority as being present on other popular channels, such as search engines or display advertising.

• Though it attracts users of all ages, the largest TikTok segment is between 18-34.

For brands in segments like fashion, this represents one of the most covetable demographics, based on disposable income and typically high levels of shopping and spending activity. It’s an audience where the marketing return on investment (ROI) may be higher.

• TikTok’s “For You” page is designed to help people discover people brands they don’t know.
  Other social platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, organize feeds primarily based on content from someone you’re following. That can make it more difficult to raise brand awareness among new prospects. TikTok’s approach has become so successful it is being replicated on other social platforms, including Twitter.

TikTok also provides brands flexibility in terms of creating effective marketing content to reach their business goals, such as driving more revenue, increasing share of wallet among existing customers, and increasing brand affinity. Marketers can create their TikToks using little more than a smartphone, for example, showcasing stylish products in a way that feels native to the platform. Brands can also partner with influencers and creators who already have large followings on TikTok that point them to their TikTok Shop.

Get the Details on How to Sell Products on TikTok

What Is TikTok Shop?

Initially available in locations such as Southeast Asia, TikTok has continued to roll out TikTok Shop, which allows merchants to display their products to its community, along with directly integrating e-commerce capabilities for shoppers for a smooth purchasing experience.

TikTok Shop also includes tools to manage campaigns, analytics to track marketing performance, and access to collaborate directly with creators.

Selling on TikTok via TikTok Shop isn’t limited to shopping ad campaigns but merchant-led live videos and in-stream videos. For many brands, however, the most natural starting point will be simply setting up a TikTok product feed to ensure their products are being featured where their customers are most likely to be browsing online. Before that, though, it’s important to understand how your ads will show up on the platform.

TikTok Shopping Ads Formats

There are also several options for formatting your TikTok ads. You might want to consider trying them all and doubling down on those that prove most successful after running a test for some time.

Live shopping ads, for instance, are probably best suited for a time-sensitive event, such as the launch or availability of a new product. They will be seen in real-time as people are scrolling through TikTok and can be a chance to answer questions and get a work-through of products in detail.

Video shopping ads appear on the “For You” page of the app, which means they might work well as a way to raise brand awareness among consumers who don’t yet know your brand very well. The good thing about these ads is that the videos are shoppable, meaning people can place orders directly if they like what they see.

Catalog listing ads are probably the most familiar format if you’ve run campaigns through channels such as Google. Setting up a TikTok product catalog allows you to curate the items you want to curate and highlight to the app’s discerning audience.

No matter which format you choose, you need to make sure your ads feature the most relevant items from your catalog, which is where a TikTok product feed comes in.

How To Create A TikTok Product Feed

Much like other social commerce platforms, you can begin setting up a TikTok product feed once you’ve created an account on the TikTok Business Center. This requires time and attention to detail.

1. Create your TikTok product feed catalog

With the “Catalog” area of the TikTok Business Center, choose “Add Catalog.” Enter details such as your catalog name and business center account as well as your:

• Location
• Default currency
• Targeting location
• Industry

Select “Create” to finish setting up your catalog.

2. Choose your product upload option

From there, you can begin to add items to your TikTok product feed in one of two ways:

• by entering detailed information about each product
• by working with a partner that offers a solution to automate your TikTok product feed. In this scenario, we’re walking through all the steps in manually adding products

Once you’ve created a catalog, navigate to the area called “Manage” and then “Products.” This will present you with a template to download.

In the same area, select “Add products” and click on “Manually add.” Click “Next” and then begin entering all the required product information. When you’re done, click on “Import.”

3. Enter product attributes

TikTok’s Catalog Manager requires nine different mandatory fields for every product you sell on its platform. This includes:

• Product images
• SKU ID
• Description
• Price
• Video URLs.

To maximize the potential of selling on TikTok, you probably want to consider the 27 optional fields as well.

4. Choose a storage format for product attribute data

Most brands have many different products to include in their feed. Make sure you store them as a CSV, XML, ZIP, or other appropriate format

5. Establish your feed schedule

Depending on how often products get updated within your catalog, you may want to schedule feeds on a daily or even hourly basis. Remember that consumers will be expecting all your catalog data to be accurate and error-free. If you’re choosing hourly, you’ll need to indicate the precise time the file updates should begin.

6. Choose a product update method

If you’ll be primarily adding or updating details to the items in your TikTok product feed, upload the file you need for each one. If you’re replacing your data feed, you’ll need to upload a new one where the existing one was located. Choose “Import” to complete this process.

7. Group products into sets

Find “Product Set” within the “Category area and choose “Create a product set.” From there, you can either manually select one product at a time by clicking on “Manually Select Products” or “Use Filters” to make it easier to create product campaigns. Click “Confirm” when you’re done.

8. Add new product sources

Although you need to choose an initial source when you’re first setting up your TikTok product feed, you can introduce others later on. This is done simply by choosing “Add Products” after selecting “Product Sources” in the “Configure” area. Remember that TikTok needs to review all the ads that run on its platform – it suggests only having one data feed per catalog to expedite this process.

9. Edit and add products

There is still plenty of opportunity to make changes to your product information after they’ve been added to your catalog. You’ll find the edit button by hovering over the product name, which will allow you to make changes in each field. The product SKU ID has to remain the same, however. If you need to delete a product because it has been discontinued or your brand is no longer carrying it, click a checkmark next to the product and choose “Disable” from a nearby drop-down menu.

10. Establish TikTok product catalog rules

Sometimes you’ll want to make minor changes to your product information, and TikTok offers a rules-based mechanism for doing so. Just choose “Product Sources” within your catalog, click on the source name, and select “Add Rules” under the settings tab.

You’ll have several options here. You can opt for “Value Replacement” to swap one value in a product with another, set “Default Value” or even “Mapping” to map a value from your file into a TikTok-supported column. “Regex Replace” is a way of substituting inventory details in your TikTok product feed file with a new value.

TikTok’s Business help center offers even more details on every step in this process.

It’s important to remember that manually adding products isn’t a one-time exercise. Pricing, for instance, will only be displayed in the currency you chose when your product was created. If you use TikTok to sell into new markets, it will have to be updated. The same goes for changes to product descriptions, SKU IDs, and more.

Why you should use a product feed management platform for selling on TikTok

Automating product feed management takes away the hours otherwise spent adding and updating items to your catalog, while also improving the accuracy of all the data your customers will see.

With Suvae.org’s Social Commerce service, for example, everything from feed configuration to product data optimization and synchronization is managed for you. Flexible configurations allow you to keep on top of changing channel requirements, and you can connect your analytics platform to track the performance of products you’re selling on TikTok.

Though it’s just one of many possible channels you can turn into a shoppable storefront, TikTok’s popularity is impossible to ignore.

Connect with us to start synchronizing your product feeds on TikTok and learn more about how Suvae.org can ignite your social commerce sales.

The post Use TikTok Product Feeds for stronger eCommerce appeared first on Suvae.org.

As Google’s research has shown, for example, 70% of viewers say they have bought a product after viewing YouTube ads about it.

Part of this success can be attributed to the reach and immersive nature of the platform. Just over 27% of consumers admit they watch more than 10 hours of YouTube video content each week. The rise of smartphones and tablets, meanwhile, means retailers investing in YouTube ads can reach their audience from any location. This could be why research has shown that paid YouTube advertising is 84% more likely to capture viewers’ attention than TV.

This means brands have an opportunity to treat online video as more than an extension of their sales and marketing strategy. Instead, they can begin selling on YouTube by managing it as a virtual storefront in its own right.

Secrets of Selling on YouTube

Creating YouTube video ads doesn’t necessarily depend on hiring an agency or aiming for the kind of production values we associate with movies and TV shows. A simple clip created on a smartphone can work, provided it tells a compelling story about your audience and how your product aligns with their wants and needs.

Once you’ve developed video content you’re ready to market via YouTube, make sure you’ve addressed the areas below:

1. Apply SEO Best Practices To Boost Organic Visibility

When people type queries into Google today, a YouTube clip is as likely to pop up in the results as a link to a page of text. Make sure you haven’t overlooked any opportunities to be on the first page of search results by optimizing your content accordingly.

People aren’t just watching content on YouTube, for example. They’re also often reading the description below the video for more context and to find out more about who created it. This is where you can embed popular keyword phrases and links back to your site and even direct them to specific product pages or e-commerce URLs.

Remember to focus on the common aspirations or problems your target customers face as you write these titles and descriptions. “Best,” “ultimate” or “top” may reflect the kind of goods luxury shoppers are seeing. “Why,” “How” and “Where” might address difficulties they’re having finding a specific kind of product.

2. Leverage In-Feed Video Ads To Drive Discovery

You might be trying to drive awareness of your brand and its products. Maybe you’re trying to boost consideration of your products over the competition or have specific revenue targets to meet. Regardless of your eCommerce marketing objective, in-feed ads offer a highly effective means of achieving it.

Formerly known as video discovery ads, in-feed ads on YouTube maximize your exposure to potential customers in places they’re most likely to notice your brand. This not only includes the YouTube home feed but in search results when people are browsing for specific video content. In-feed ads can also make your video the “Watch Next” clip YouTube recommends, allowing viewers to continue an experience they’re already begun by exploring your brand and its products.

Rather than content that is simply a hard sell, make sure videos served through in-feed ads provide high value to YouTube’s audience. This could include a tutorial about how to address a common problem, answers to frequently asked questions, or review-style walkthroughs that showcase the details about a product.

3. Save Viewers Time and Drive Interactive Engagement with Shoppable Ads

Brands understandably want to drive people directly to their site as often as possible, but that’s not where most people want to spend the majority of their time. A better customer journey would be to let them stay on YouTube – or social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest – and make purchases directly. In this sense, social media platforms are also channels for social commerce. This is the core value shoppable ads offer eCommerce merchants.

Though they vary depending on where they’re featured, shoppable ads on YouTube (also known as Video Action Campaigns) streamline the process of viewers taking the next step after a clip has sparked their intention to buy. By bringing product feed management into YouTube ads, for instance, prospects can instantly view your inventory and click to purchase without leaving YouTube.

TrueView for Shopping is similar in that it allows retailers to directly connect a Google Merchant Center (GMC) account to their product feed, developing a more sophisticated call to action (CTA) for selling on YouTube, where the content can expand into a series of links to your inventory.

Getting Started With YouTube Video Ads

Treating YouTube as a virtual storefront offers plenty of room for creativity and a variety of approaches in marketing your products to a highly engaged audience. That makes it easier to experiment and measure the results of selling on YouTube and to continuously optimize your approach.

Suvae.org has already helped our clients realize the potential of YouTube for brands in fashion, consumer electronics, and many other categories. Talk to us about how to simplify connecting GMC and product feed listings to YouTube ads so you can focus on enhancing customer relationships and boosting eCommerce sales. Get in touch with our team to get started.

The post 3 Tips to turn YouTube Video Ads into a virtual storefront appeared first on Suvae.org.

So why would you start selling on TikTok in addition to the other social channels you’ve integrated with? The simple answer is massive reach and high engagement rates.

Hootsuite reported that as of January 2022, TikTok is the most engaging social media app by far, with an average user session of 10.85 minutes. They have over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide and their ads reach 17.9% of all internet users age 18+.

Contrary to popular belief, advertising on this platform is no longer an experiment for retailers. TikTok’s annual revenue skyrocketed to 4.6 billion in 2021 and it came in fifth for app lifetime consumer spending worldwide against big players like YouTube.

So, how did TikTok increase its revenue so dramatically in such a short time period? Simply put, revenue from advertisers.

In August of 2021, they partnered with Shopify to launch TikTok Shopping, a feature where users can shop while scrolling through videos or click on a business’s profile and explore products in the Shopping Tab.
Later on, they launched Dynamic Showcase Ads to make it even easier for users to buy and retailers to advertise their products.

Keep reading to find out more about:

• Is it worth selling on TikTok?
• How do brands go viral on TikTok
• How to sell products on TikTok
• How to engage customers to sell more on TikTok
• Why using an optimized TikTok data feed helps you increase product visibility & better campaign performance

Is it worth selling on TikTok?

The answer is yes. In recent years TikTok has expanded its audience beyond the under-20 crowds. During the COVID pandemic topics like DIY hacks, recipes, travel, health, beauty, and fashion began trending, which attracted a new demographic to the platform. Brands and retailers are now capitalizing on the opportunity to engage with this broader audience by coming up with a separate TikTok marketing strategy focused on the types of videos their audience likes to watch. Not to mention the new social commerce experience that brings in-app shopping and streamlined product discovery to the platform, allowing users to directly shop on TikTok without leaving the app.

Some of the major benefits of selling on TikTok include:

• Drive more brand awareness by developing a new and highly engaged audience
• Sell more products by showcasing them in organic posts and ads
• Stay relevant with your customers by participating in trends
• Create better content that leads to results by tracking your performance

Check out these 10 fashion brands to see how they master selling on TikTok:

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Amazon Fashion
• UGG
• Aritzia
• Levi’s
• Target
• Skims
• Lululemon
• Zara
• Nike

How do brands go viral on TikTok?

The options are endless when it comes to developing viral-worthy content but the key is being consistent and creative with your content. Creating a viral video isn’t a perfect science but some of the types of videos that have gone viral fit into these categories.

1. Tutorials
2. Dance Challenges
3. Comedic Skits
4. User-Generated Content
5. Putting your spin on a trend

Ocean Spray is a prime example of a brand gaining recognition through user-generated content on TikTok, without even trying! In 2020 Idaho native, Nathan Apodaca (a laborer at a potato warehouse in Idaho) filmed himself skateboarding while drinking a carton of Cran-Raspberry Ocean Spray. Since then many versions of the video have been posted. Even Ocean Spray’s chief exec Tom Hayes got on his skateboard and recorded a version as part of their content strategy.

@420doggface208 22secs of Vibes 1yr ago today thx you all for what has come from this video the love, support, smiles, and strength it brought out in others #thanks #tiktok ♬ Dreams (2004 Remaster) – Fleetwood Mac

Tutorial Style Content from Brands

Beauty brands have a unique opportunity to capitalize on TikTok’s tutorial-style content. Fenty Beauty has mastered this content type with help from Rihanna herself. Her tutorial showcasing a concealer hack has received over 1 million views and counting.

@fentybeauty Mama likes it MILKY, SILKY 🥛get into @rihanna’s fave ✨Precision Concealer Brush✨Have y’all tried her yet? #fentybeauty #rihanna #makeup #concealerhack ♬ original sound – Fenty Beauty

How to sell products on TikTok

Selling products on TikTok is unique compared to other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. These platforms have the advantage of a proven track record of driving sales through their platforms.

On the other hand, TikTok is adding more social commerce features and advertising options to compete for marketing dollars.

Options for selling products on TikTok:

1. TikTok Creator Marketplace: This self-serve portal makes it easy for brands to find a diverse variety of creators that best aligns with their interests.
2. TikTok Creator Marketplace API: This API enables access to our first-party marketplace data for creator marketing experts including Captiv8, Influential, and Whalar to provide brands with white-glove services to help manage the entire end-to-end process of creator marketing on TikTok.
3. Open Application Campaigns: Brands can post campaign briefs to creators across TikTok Creator Marketplace so that they can self-apply and participate.
4. Branded Content Toggle: This tool allows creators to mark videos and disclose commercial content without disrupting their creative flow.
5. Customized Instant Page: Brands can create landing pages that load in seconds – 11x faster than standard mobile pages – to let users dive deeper into a brand’s message by watching videos or swiping through different content similar to promoting your products and brand on other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. It involves creating content that appeals to your fans.

Other options for advertisers to sell products on TikTok include:

• In-Feed Ads
• Brand Takeover Ads
• Top View Ads
• Branded Hashtag Ads
• Branded Effects Ads
• Dynamic Showcase Ads

Find out more about each Ad option

How to engage customers to sell more on TikTok

Now that you know the options to sell products on TikTok, you need to know how to engage your audience to buy more of your products.

Get familiar with what kind of videos your audience is posting and watching. Fans aren’t interested in a commercial for your product. They’re looking for authenticity, creativity, and a more personal side to your brand.

The platform is extremely interactive so the more you interact with fans by creating or joining challenges or creating inspirational content, the more your target audience will remember what you’re promoting and be motivated to make a purchase.

About TikTok Dynamic Showcase Ads

Reach a Highly Engaged Audience

In September of 2021, TikTok released Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSAs) to help eCommerce merchants drive awareness of their products and increase purchase intent.
By connecting your product catalog to the platform’s video templates, you can dynamically generate a massive number of personalized product video ads on TikTok.

There are two ways to use Dynamic Product Ads on TikTok:

• Prospect to new customers
  TikTok makes personalized recommendations from your product catalog to help drive installs, user acquisition, and sales.
• Retarget existing customers/leads
  TikTok will automatically show ads about relevant products to people who have expressed interest in them on your website or app.

Before getting started: Only available for managed accounts based in launched markets can create Dynamic Showcase Ads.

How TikTok Dynamic Showcase Ads work

1. Create a catalog on TikTok Ads Manager.
2. ​Upload products to your catalog.
   • Manually Add: Fill out a form for each product.
   • Data Feed Schedule: Automatically import your products from an online file.
   • Upload File: Upload products from a template.
3. Generate videos for the products in your catalog.
4. ​Integrate events between your catalog and measurement partner or TikTok Pixel.
5. Publish a campaign using the products in your catalog.

Get In-depth information on each of these steps

How to create successful TikTok Dynamic Showcase Ad (DSA) Campaigns

Just like a plumber needs the right tools, experience, and set up in place to get the best results, the same goes for running Dynamic Showcase Ads on TikTok that convert to sales.

As an eCommerce marketer, the next step of the Ad creation process is where you need to understand what’s involved with uploading your products from a data feed schedule. The more you know about this step the better your ads will perform.

Automatically importing your products from an online file involves generating a product feed for TikTok.

Creating and managing a product feed that increases product ad conversions demands technical expertise in things like:

• Integrating various data sources to create a complete feed
• Changing product titles and descriptions from how they’re written in your catalog to fit TikTok’s ad structure
• Synchronizing product data changes from your eCommerce catalog to TikTok for up-to-date product prices and other information

Enhance your TikTok Ads with a Product Feed Management Partner

If you do not have the right technical expertise and in-house resources to create and manage high-quality feeds, relying on a product feed management partner might be the best approach.
Suvae.org platform can help you:

• Boost conversions: Creating TikTok ads that attract the right audience can involve integrating multiple data sources into one feed, optimizing your data sources to add missing information, and keeping your product details up-to-date with real-time feed synchronization. Suvae.org has the technical expertise and platform to transform your product information into a sales tool for all of your marketing channels.
• Save time: Your time is an asset that should be used on marketing instead offered management tasks. Our managed service takes care of the day-to-day duties of managing your feeds so you can free up your time and get your work done.
• Deliver value: You’re under pressure to prove results from investing in marketing tools that help you reach your goals. Our customer support and account management teams deliver value by proactively communicating how to improve your ROI from our solution and address requests quickly to make changes or answer questions that improve your marketing results.
  

With the right support and partner, you can reach your audience in new creative ways by producing compelling videos that showcase your products, leading to more sales.
Grow your presence on Tiktok alongside your other social media channels. Contact Suvae.org to strengthen your social media strategy and get started.

The post Reasons you should start selling On TikTok appeared first on Suvae.org.

But what exactly is an Instagram Shop? How do you set it up and how is an Instagram shop different from a Facebook shop? Let’s dive deeper and find out.

What is an Instagram Shop?

Instagram Shops allows businesses to create an in-app storefront to build their brand and drive product feeds. The shop can be accessed through a business’s Instagram profile, posts, or stories. Once in the storefront, your visitors can browse products, and collections and make purchases directly from your storefront thanks to Instagram’s checkout.

Instagram Shop helps streamline the process of posting posts and stories, encouraging viewers to visit your website or brick-and-mortar store.

Users can use Instagram Shop to browse products based on categories, such as beauty or home decor. Later this year, Instagram promised the reveal a shop tab in the navigation bar.

What’s the difference between Facebook and Instagram Shops?

The difference between the two is minimal.

Facebook Shops allows you to create a dedicated “shop” section on your Facebook page where products can be purchased, saved, or shared by users. Shops are extremely customizable – businesses can choose which products they would like to feature, set a cover image, and accent colors that can best showcase their brand.

Additionally, Facebook Shops are integrated into Facebook’s apps – so you can make it available from your shop’s Instagram, and can be shared on your stories and ads. They make it easier for visitors to ask questions, as they’ll be able to message your business through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct.

How to add products to your Instagram shop

The opportunities to increase sales through Instagram are huge, with 70% of shopping enthusiasts turning to this social platform for product discovery. With a few simple steps, your shop will provide a simple, and seamless shopping experience for your customers.

Step 1: Check that your business meets the requirements

Before getting started you must ensure the following:

• You’re based in a country where Instagram Shops are available. Here is the list to confirm.
• Your Instagram has a business or creator profile on Instagram. View these simple instructions on how to change your settings.
• You’ve connected Instagram to your shop’s Facebook page. This will allow you to connect your Facebook Shop’s product catalog.

Step 2: Upload your product catalog

There are two ways to upload your catalog:

• Facebook catalog manager. More details can be found here.
• eCommerce integration. This integration can be done through partners such as Shopify, and Bigcommerce.

Step 3: Get your Instagram Shop approved

Now that you’ve ensured that your shop fulfills the requirements and your product catalog is complete, you can submit your account for approval.

• This can be done by going to “Settings”:
• And then “Sign up for Instagram Shopping”
• Follow the prompted steps and then hit “Submit”

Allow for a couple of business days for your request to be approved. You can check your status by going to “Shopping” located in your “Settings”.

Step 4: Turn on the shopping

Yay, you’ve been approved! It’s time to turn on the shopping

• Click on “Settings”
• Tap “Business” then “Shopping”
• Select the product catalog you would like to connect  your shop to

Note: If you have not been approved, you will not see the “Shopping” option under “Settings”.

Step 5: Publish your first shoppable Instagram post!

You are now ready to start making sales directly from Instagram: upload a photo, and tap to tag. You can tag 5 products per post.

With over 5 million people using Instagram Stories each day,  ensure you are making the most of this platform. The process for posting on your story is similar, but you can only tag one product per Instagram story.
Once you upload your story, hit the sticker icon on the top-right corner and select “Product”. Then select a product in your catalog.

To take advantage of the billion active Instagram users, ensure that you start tagging your products with a well-constructed Instagram Product Feed, and better market your products to your audience.
Discover how Instagram Shops can help your eCommerce business increase the visibility of your products. Schedule a free consultation with the Highstreet Team and start creating successful Instagram product feeds for better ads.

Related Articles

• A step-by-step guide on building an Instagram Product Feed
• Improve your FB Shops through Facebook Enhanced Catalogs
• How to Set Up Multiple Facebook Product Catalogs with Product Feeds

The post How to add products to Instagram Shop & get more sales appeared first on Suvae.org.

New, emerging solutions, like Facebook Shops, now have enhanced catalog criteria that you’ll need to adhere to if you want to stay ahead and significantly expand your reach across multiple Facebook commerce solutions.

Currently, the data that is available to you in your eCommerce platform is not substantial enough to truly differentiate your products. And with insufficient product information, the whole process of creating product catalogs for marketplaces can be quite challenging and time-consuming. But there’s a solution

Let’s take a look at how Facebook Shops have updated its catalog criteria, and what that means for your business.

How to work with Facebook-enhanced catalogs

Facebook Enhanced Catalogs enable you to place your products at the forefront of your audience’s social feeds with a far more personalized user experience.
You can effectively reach your target groups through your preferred social channels, by strategically placing highly relevant products for the end user based on more detailed criteria.

The importance of rich data and how it improves shopping experiences

The more detailed information you include in the Facebook Shops enhanced catalog, the better chance of your products being discovered. With the new enhanced catalog, you can expand your criteria from core basics to specifics.

Generic Product Catalog:

• Product title
• Product description
• Product images
• Product status
• Specific product brand

Facebook Shops Enhanced Catalog:
With the new criteria, Facebook Shops expands on the generic catalog criteria by adding:

• Title
• Description
• Availability
• Gender
• Color
• Intended audience for product usage
• Material(s) used
• Product size
• Other physical attributes such as product pattern
• Link
• Brand
• Price
• Sale price
• Sale price effective date
• Size
• Custom Label
• Short Description
• Additional variant attribute

Facebook Shop’s Full List of Enhanced Criteria

Facebook Shop’s Apparel-Specific Criteria

Accessing additional product data can be quite difficult, especially when it is spread out across various data sources. In some cases, you may have to undergo a manual process of retrieving and consolidating the additional product data to create your Facebook Shop catalog.

Of course, being able to automate the entire process of merging different data from multiple sources would ultimately mean quicker and more accurate product catalogs. These are compatible with the new Facebook Shops criteria, which can then easily be submitted through the built-in catalog manager.

Improve your product’s discoverability on Facebook Shops

To lead in Social Commerce means to adopt and master new emerging social platforms, as well as stay on top of innovations like the enhanced catalogs from Facebook Shops.
It is in your best interest to always know where your data is stored, be it in your existing eCommerce solution, your Product Information Management System (PIM), or through the process of Master Data Management (MDM).
Working with a knowledgeable technical partner on bringing these sources together and effectively merging them into a compatible and compliant feed for Facebook Shops can help you increase your product visibility across Facebook.

Suvae.org platform helps you by pulling information from multiple data sources and optimizing them into a consolidated feed that works for Facebook Shops, saving you time. by removing the hassle of manual optimization.
Using the platform gives you a leg up by being the first to create detailed, high-quality product feeds for your digital storefronts, so you can better promote your products across all Facebook commerce options.

Increase your product discoverability and improve conversion rates through Product Feed Optimization.

Book Your Free Consultation Today!

The post Improve your Facebook Shops through Enhanced Catalogs appeared first on Suvae.org.

Facebook Product Catalogs Set Up

Describing how to set up Facebook Product Catalogs is easy. Facebook Business Manager states “A catalog is a container that holds information about the items in your inventory”.

The catalog is connected to your product sets used for ads. Because Catalogs, Product Feeds (data sources), and Product Sets are all tied together, we’re going to review all 3 topics so you can feel confident your ads will contain the RIGHT products. Let’s go through this process, step-by-step.

Step 1 – Get Started with Marketing Objectives

Catalog setup starts when you create an Ad campaign in Facebook Ad Manager. A pop-up screen appears where you choose your campaign’s purpose under “Conversion”.
Choose the Conversion Type “Catalog Sales”.

Step 2 – Create your Campaign

The second step is to create a campaign name and decide which catalog to use as a data source for your ads.

If the catalog field is NOT already pre-populated in the drop-down menu, you need to add one in Catalog Manager

Click “Create new catalog” at the bottom of your catalog list. If there are no catalogs, Facebook will prompt you to create one.

Step 3 – Create a Catalog

First, select “E-commerce” as the business category.

Select “Upload Product Info” to upload a product feed. We’re going to focus on companies that are using feeds and not connecting directly to an eCommerce Platform.

Your business name should appear in the business dropdown and this is where you name your Catalog. The catalog is just a container with various data sources.
The best practice is to use a naming convention such as “brand-market”. This naming convention easily conveys which data source should be assigned to a campaign.

Once you hit next, your catalog container has been created and is displayed in the top left of the screen under “Current Catalog”. Now you need to fill it with products.

Go to “Product Data Sources” in the left navigation and click the blue “Add Products” button.

This part is where many people get confused. Keep reading to get more details and answers.

Step 4 – Configure your Product Data Source

There are two options to configure the data source.

1. Upload your data source manually 
2. Set an automatic file upload schedule (this is the one we use with our clients)

Set Automatic File Upload Schedule

When you select this option more fields appear below. Use a product feed as your data source. How do you do this?
Add the URLs and passwords for your product feeds. If you don’t have your URLs and passwords and you are using a feed provider, request this information for each of your feeds.

If you need your feed provider to be able to attach the feeds to your catalogs, you might be asking yourself the following questions:

• “How do I grant my feed provider access to my Facebook Ads Manager?”
  Answer: Provide access to your feed partner in your Facebook Ads Manager settings by following these steps.

1. Go to the “Assign Partner” tab and grant access to the company
2. That company can provide access to the appropriate individuals by clicking on “Add People”
3. All the feed partner needs is the list of catalogs they can attach their correlating feed to
4. If you’re not able to provide the feed company access, source the URL, Username & Password from them to add the feed yourself

• How do I attach the Data Sources (Feeds) myself to a Catalog?
  Answer: As a representative of your company, you can add data sources (feeds) to the catalogs you’ve set up.

1. Go to the appropriate catalog and follow Facebook’s instructions.
2. Every catalog needs to have a feed URL with a username and password to access the feed from the provider.
3. The best practice is to have 1 catalog per market. For example, you would have a separate catalog and corresponding feed for each country.

Step 5 – Configure your Product Sets

Now it’s time to create your product sets to determine the products that will be used in your Facebook Dynamic Product Ads.

You need to name your Product Set and then define your rules according to various parameters in a drop-down list. Once you’ve defined the type of parameter then you can tell Facebook what to do with it in the example below.

You can add multiple product sets in this section.

The rest of the campaign setup is specific to your marketing goals. We’ll leave this to the marketing experts!

What Next?

This is where you create your Ads and Product Sets associated with a catalog. We’ll leave it up to your marketing department or agency to create the campaigns. As a product feed provider, the Suvae.org platform customizes each Facebook feed for each of your markets. If you are looking for a way to boost your Facebook product advertising, reach out to our team to set up a demo.

The post How to set-up multiple Facebook Product Catalogs appeared first on Suvae.org.

Consumers can take photos or “snaps” that they send to friends or post on their profile, for instance, but they can also use the chat function. They can experiment with augmented reality (AR) lenses to make photos and videos to upload as an Instagram story, and they can also tap into a range of popular creators via its Discover service.

Brands can use a Snapchat product feed to show up at any time during the journey consumers take with the app. In doing so they may get more attention from their target audience, given most of the other content on Snapchat is designed to disappear or can remain private to a select few.

This could explain why, as of 2023,, Snapchat had more than 600 million active monthly users worldwide, and is expected to reach over 1 billion in next 3 years

The advantages of generating a Snapchat product feed or exploring other Snapchat products, therefore, include:

• An opportunity to reach younger demographics: Snapchat’s user base is predominantly made up of Gen Z and millennial consumers. These tend to be consumers who have fewever financial obligations, more disposable income and an interest in fashion and other luxury items..
• Creative options to showcase your brand: As a primarily visual platform, retailers can choose between using images, videos, and interactive features like AR lenses and filters, to make their products more appealing on Snapchat and increase their visibility.
• Native storytelling venues: Snapchat’s Stories and Discover section aren’t limited to consumers. Retailers can weave their products directly into these content formats to  reach a large audience and increase brand awareness.
• Interactive advertising alternatives: With Snap Ads, AR filters and other dynamic product ad products, Snapchat gives its brand partners several ways to boost user engagement and achieve more conversions that drive revenue. .

As enticing as these advantages are, success on Snapchat depends upon finding a way to advertise your products effectively and without your team getting bogged down with time-consuming tasks. Automating the process of generating a Snapchat product data feed is the best way to do that.

First thing first though, let’s quickly go through the steps to sell on Snapchat and different ad formats.

How to sell products on Snapchat in 10 easy steps

If you’re ready to take the next step, the obvious first question is, “how to sell products on snapchat?

First of all, you need to Set Up Snapchat for Business. If you haven’t already, create a Snapchat Business account.You can access Snapchat for Business at business.snapchat.com.

1. Install Snapchat Pixel: The Snapchat Pixel is a tracking code that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. Install the pixel on your website to track user interactions and conversions.

2. Set Up Your Catalog: Prepare a product catalog containing the details of the products you want to advertise. The catalog should include essential information like product name, description, images, price, and availability.

3. Create a Product Catalog Feed: Format your product catalog into an XML, CSV, or TXT file. This feed acts as a bridge between your product catalog and Snapchat’s advertising platform.

4. Choose an Ad Objective: Determine your advertising objective. It could be driving website visits, increasing app installs, or boosting conversions.

5. Access Snapchat Ads Manager: Log in to your Snapchat Ads Manager account at ads.snapchat.com. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to sign up for one.

6. Set Up Your Campaign: Create a new campaign and select the appropriate ad objective based on your goal.

7. Create an Ad Set: In the ad set, you will define your target audience, budget, ad placement, and schedule.

8. Upload Your Product Feed: During the ad creation process, you’ll have the option to upload your product feed. Snapchat will use this information to showcase your products in the ads.

9. Design Your Ad Creative: Create engaging ad creative that highlights your products and captures the attention of Snapchat users.

10. Review and Launch: Double-check all your settings and make sure everything is accurate. Once you’re satisfied, launch your campaign.

11. Monitor and Optimize: Keep a close eye on your campaign’s performance and make necessary adjustments to improve its effectiveness

Types of Snapchat ads and formats

To best connect with people through imagery and information about your brand and products, use these versatile formats for any of your business objective. Based on your ultimate goal, Snapchat ad products can help streamline the customer journey from awareness to purchase.

Some of the formats and dynamic product ads Snapchat offers include:

Snap Ads

Snap Ads provide brands with a powerful way to engage with Snapchat’s young and active user base, driving brand awareness, app installs, website visits, and other marketing objectives. By utilizing the platform’s creative capabilities and targeting options effectively, advertisers can deliver compelling, relevant ads that resonate with Snapchat’s audience, making Snap Ads an essential component of many brands’ social media advertising strategies.

Snap Ads are vertical, full-screen video ads that appear between user-generated Stories or within the Discover section of the app. They are typically non-skippable and can be up to 3 minutes long. Snap Ads include a “Swipe Up” call-to-action that allows users to visit a website, install an app, or view additional content.

Sponsored Lenses

Sponsored Lenses are augmented reality (AR) filters that brands can leverage to create branded AR experiences that incorporate their products, logos, or messaging into the interactive filters, to promote their products or enhance user engagement.

Sponsored Lenses are highly interactive and shareable, making them an effective way to connect with Snapchat’s massive user base. Use this format to make a big impression on a big scale.

Collection Ads

Collection Ads allow advertisers to showcase a series of products in a single ad unit. When users tap on the ad, they are presented with a catalog of products they can browse and interact with.

This type of ad is particularly useful for e-commerce brands looking to promote multiple products in one ad. Use this format to  giving Snapchatters a frictionless way to browse and buy, while creating a smooth shopping experience that helps you bring in more buyers.

Story Ads

Reach people with a series of up to 20 Single Image or Video Ads. You can use this format to connect with consumers in between the Stories they see or through a branded tile appearing in Snapchat’s Discover section.

Use these full-screen ads to provide an immersive and engaging experience for users.

Dynamic Product Ads

Snapchat Dynamic Product Ads enable advertisers to automatically promote relevant products to individual users based on their browsing behavior and interests. These ads are highly personalized and tailored to the user’s preferences.

Dynamic product ads help reach users in two distinct ways:

1. Show Snapchatters ads, built directly from your product catalog, that are tailored to them based on their actions taken on your site or in your app.
2. Cast a wider net on Snapchat and find prospective customers by serving them relevant products built directly from your product catalog.

Find more on Snapchat Ads Format 

Snapchat ad content restrictions: What you need to know

Although the geographical targets for using a Snapchat Product Data Feed have expanded worldwide, the content within Snapchat ads is subject to certain geographical restrictions depending on the country you want to target.
Note: These content restrictions do not affect Clothing & Apparel product ads.

Creating a Snapchat Product Feed: The fundamentals

To leverage Snapchat ad products and better promote your products to its audience, you need to first decide:

1. How you want to structure your Snapchat Product Feed
2. How to Upload your library of products, either manually or automatically

Manually, which means you enter your product information into a spreadsheet according to Snapchat’s specifications.

Automatically, which means using an extension, plugin, app, or service that pulls data from your site and formats it for you. You can use the data from your product feed to automatically create Product Ads, Story Ads, and Snap Ads, and the new Collection Ads with templates in Snapchat’s Ads Manager.

If you have a large inventory to promote, you’ll likely want to go the automated route. Find out how to create a product feed from your existing catalog.

3 reasons your Snapchat Product Feed Set-up needs to be done with care

Setting up your product data feed properly is important for 3 main reasons:

• To display accurate product information
• To earn clicks from prospective buyers
• To make optimization and management easier

Keep in mind that automation doesn’t mean hands-off. You still need to ensure your current product titles, descriptions, images, and other attributes are optimized. Otherwise, your automated feed won’t deliver as it should.

By following the same format and structure as you would use for a Google Shopping product data feed, your product information will display well in Snapchat Shoppable Ads. Use these same guidelines to get your Snapchat Product Feed up and running.

Improve Your Ad Performance on Snapchat with expert help

Snapchat is obviously a valuable marketing tool to promote your products and drive sales.

Now that you know how to sell your products on Snapchat, it’s time to take advantage of the dynamic product ads Snapchat offers.

This is where  a product feed management platform like Suvae.org can help. Our platform handles all of your product feed needs by optimizing your product data for better listings on Snapchat, and any social or marketing channel you want to advertise on.

Suvae.org not only offers solutions optimized for working with Snapchat product ads, but we have years of experience working with brands that want to boost their performance across social media, online marketplaces and many other digital channels.

Get more details on how to better optimize your Snapchat product feeds for better sales. Contact Hightstreet.io today get you Snapchat Ads rolling.

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