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.

The rise of digital marketplaces, social media shopping, and eCommerce continues to drive increased demand for popular brands to make their products available through social media marketplaces.
This exact reason led Facebook to create a Facebook Shop for eCommerce businesses looking to create online storefronts through Facebook and Instagram. With mobile eCommerce expected to reach a $3.56 trillion value in 2021, it’s clear why this is the focus today. Facebook Shop is free to use, allowing companies to add their products to the most popular social networks available.

Let’s dive into the benefits of a Facebook Shop for your international brand,  how a Facebook Shop differs from an Instagram Shop, and examples of both in practice.

Facebook Shop Benefits: The 6 Cs

Launching your storefront with Shops is one of the best steps you can take to boost your chance of success. Why? The platform offers several features that brands and retailers will be interested in.

1. Complete Customization

You have complete control over what your storefront will look like online. Tweak the colors, graphics, typefaces, buttons, and general layout to match how you want your brand image to look.
Best of all, even marketers with little design or technical experience can take advantage of the platform’s easy-to-use tools. You even get a mobile preview on the side for instant feedback.

2. Collections

Easily manage what products you want to show off the most. No matter how many different items you need to juggle, keep them organized through Collections, a feature for effectively cataloging your products.

Just head to the Shops customization page, go to “layout,” and click “add collection” to get started. Collections work best when you have a lineup of related products released together, such as a summer collection or a “back to school” sale.
Collections themselves just look pretty and can catch the eyes of passing visitors with their beautiful imagery and design.

3. Convenient Communication

4. Custom Audiences

5. Compatibility with eCommerce Tools

6. Collecting Insights and Analytics

Facebook Shop vs Marketplace

Facebook Shop and Facebook Marketplace are indeed distinct features provided by Facebook, and they serve different purposes with their unique functionalities.
Here’s a brief comparison:

Facebook Shop:

1. Purpose: Facebook Shop is a feature designed for businesses and brands to set up an online storefront on their Facebook Page or Instagram profile. It allows businesses to showcase their products and services in a more organized and branded way.
2. E-commerce: It enables businesses to list products, provide product details, and pricing, and link directly to their website for purchasing.
3. Customization: You can customize the look and feel of your shop to align with your brand’s identity.
4. Payments: Customers can make purchases through integrated payment systems, and you can manage orders within Facebook.
5. Business Insights: Provides access to business insights and analytics to help track the performance of your shop.

Facebook Marketplace:

1. Purpose: Facebook Marketplace is designed for individuals to buy and sell products locally within their community. It’s a platform for users to list items for sale or browse items for purchase.
2. Local Transactions: It focuses on local transactions, and you can filter listings based on location and category.
3. User-to-User Sales: Typically used for peer-to-peer sales, such as selling used items, furniture, electronics, and more.
4. No E-commerce Integration: Unlike Facebook Shop, Marketplace doesn’t provide a platform for businesses to create a branded storefront or integrate e-commerce functionalities.
5. Communication: Buyers and sellers can communicate through Facebook Messenger to arrange transactions and meetings.

Facebook Shop is more suitable for businesses and brands looking to establish an online store presence, while Facebook Marketplace is oriented toward local, person-to-person transactions. The choice between the two depends on your goals and whether you are an individual looking to buy or sell used items locally or a business looking to showcase and sell products to a broader online audience.

Facebook Shop vs Instagram Shop

Setting Up a Facebook Shop

Creating a Facebook Shop involves several steps. Follow this guide on how to set up your Facebook Shop:

1. Meet the Requirements:
   • Ensure you have a Facebook Page for your business. You can’t set up a Facebook Shop on a personal profile.
   • Ensure your business and products comply with Facebook’s Commerce Policies.
2. Access Commerce Manager:
   • Go to your Facebook Page and click on “More” in the left-hand menu.
   • Find and click on “Commerce Manager” (if you don’t see it, click “See More” and look for it there).
   • Follow the prompts to get started with Commerce Manager.
3. Set Up Your Shop:
   • In Commerce Manager, you’ll see a prompt to “Get Started with Shops.” Click on this option to begin the setup process.
4. Choose Your Shop Type:
   • You can select between two types of shops: a Facebook Shop or an Instagram Shop. Choose “Facebook Shop” to get started.
5. Agree to Merchant Terms:
   • Review and agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies to set up your shop.
6. Configure Your Shop:
   • Follow the prompts to configure your shop settings. This includes selecting the currency and payment methods you’ll accept.
7. Add Products:
   • You’ll need to add products to your shop. You can either create a new product catalog or connect an existing catalog from your e-commerce platform. Provide details for each product, including images, descriptions, prices, and availability.
8. Customize Your Shop:
   • Customize your shop’s appearance by adding a cover image and organizing your products into collections.
9. Review and Publish:
   • Review all the details of your shop and products to ensure accuracy. Once everything looks good, you can publish your shop.
10. Complete Your Shop:
    • Follow any additional steps or prompts to finalize your shop setup. This may include setting up shipping options and integrating payment methods.
11. Promote Your Shop:
    • After setting up your Facebook Shop, you can use Facebook’s advertising tools to promote your products and reach a wider audience.
12. Sync with Instagram Shop (Optional):
    • If you also have an Instagram account for your business, you can sync your product catalog and use the same products in your Instagram Shop, allowing you to tag products in your Instagram posts.

Once your Facebook Shop is set up, customers can browse your products and make purchases directly on Facebook. It’s essential to regularly update your product catalog, respond to customer inquiries, and manage orders through Commerce Manager.

Why Use Product Feeds for Selling on Facebook & Instagram Shop

To sell your products directly to Facebook and Instagram users, you can create a product catalog and use product feeds to populate your shop with information about the products you want to sell. Here’s an overview of the Facebook Shop product feed:

A Facebook Shop Product Feed contains detailed information about your products. The product feed is formatted in a way that Facebook’s systems can understand, and it is used to update the products in your shop automatically. To create a product feed, you need to adhere to Facebook’s data requirements. This includes providing specific product details, such as product ID, title, description, availability, condition, price, currency, and link to the product’s image. Facebook Shop supports categorizing products into different categories, which helps customers browse and find products more easily. so you should assign appropriate categories to your products in your feed.

Facebook Shop product feeds are a crucial component of your online store’s success on the platform. By providing accurate and well-organized product data, you can enhance the shopping experience for Facebook and Instagram users, ultimately driving more sales for your business.

Closing Thoughts

The past few years have presented numerous challenges for global retailers and brands. It’s becoming increasingly evident that ensuring your products are accessible through online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is imperative for maintaining competitiveness.
This is why has become crucial to keep your product feed consistently updated. Regularly refreshing your feed to reflect alterations in product availability, pricing, and descriptions is vital to ensure that customers see accurate information when browsing your shop.

To boost your chances of successfully integrating and increasing your product visibility on Facebook Shop and Instagram, take advantage of its partnerships with eCommerce tools like Suvae.org’s marketplace integration service. Contact our team to schedule a free consultation

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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

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