5 Winning Social Commerce Strategies for E-commerce

Take your e-commerce business to new heights with social commerce, the trend that is revolutionizing online sales.

With social commerce, your customers can make purchases with just a click, and your entire product catalog can be integrated into social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Social commerce is selling products through social media channels using built-in checkouts. This approach streamlines the buying process for customers and offers unique opportunities for social engagement and social proof.

With social commerce, customers can share and discuss products, generating organic social proof and driving conversions. Plus, social media platforms gather vast amounts of user data, so you can use analytics tools to target ads and improve discoverability.

If you're looking to increase conversions and reduce friction for customers, social commerce is the answer. Say goodbye to complicated checkouts and hello to a future of seamless, engaging, and social shopping.

To see how social commerce can work for your business, check out our list of successful e-commerce brands using this strategy. Get inspired and take your business to new heights with social commerce.m

CLUSE

One brand that has harnessed the power of social media and user-generated content to drive ecommerce success is CLUSE. The fashion brand, known for its modern watches and jewelry, launched a global ecommerce operation in 2014 and used Instagram as a key tool to grow its audience.

CLUSE's Instagram storefront features hundreds of products and a seamless shopping experience, where visitors can tap on a product to view its description, message CLUSE with any questions, and buy it directly on the website. CLUSE's Instagram feed is like a fashion magazine, combining closeups of jewelry and watches with photos of people wearing them. Many of the people on the feed are CLUSE customers, ambassadors, and influencers. These groups played a significant role in the brand's rise to e-commerce success.

Moreover, CLUSE focuses on user-generated content by featuring customer images on its Lookbook page, where visitors can click on an image they like and purchase products directly from there. This strategy brought CLUSE a 19% overall conversion rate increase, according to Photoslurp. By using real customer photos and customer reviews, the brand provides an authentic picture of how its products look and can be combined with other apparel and jewelry, improving the customer experience.

CLUSE encourages people to use the hashtags #CLUSE and #CLUSEclub on Instagram, blending the website and social media experiences together. The brand fosters a sense of community engagement by bringing attention to its ambassadors on a dedicated page on its website, and encourages customers to engage with the brand.

As the world becomes more digital, brands that can incorporate social media and user-generated content into their ecommerce strategies will have a significant advantage. The success of CLUSE is evidence that social commerce and live shopping can help brands connect with customers and increase sales.

CAIA Cosmetics

Swedish makeup brand CAIA Cosmetics is a prime example of a brand that has successfully harnessed the power of live shopping. CAIA Cosmetics launched its first-ever live stream in October 2019, and founder Bianca Ingrosso's live tutorials have since become a hit among customers.

According to mobile streaming software company Bambuser, CAIA's live tutorials have an average viewing time of 11 minutes, with 60 percent of viewers "liking" the content and 17 percent interacting with the live chat. What's even more impressive is that the brand's first-ever live stream saw a conversion rate of five percent, higher than its average website conversions.

For CAIA, the name of the game is conversions, and by monitoring the data, the brand can be confident that its live stream shopping strategy is resonating with customers. Do not hesitate to use tools like TikTok Video Insights to manage your data and track the performance of your live videos.

By leveraging the power of live shopping, CAIA has been able to create a unique and interactive shopping experience that encourages customers to engage with the brand and make purchases in real-time.

As social commerce and live shopping continue to gain traction, brands that can effectively leverage these strategies will be able to stay ahead of the curve and build deeper connections with customers. With its successful foray into live streaming, CAIA Cosmetics has shown that live shopping can be a powerful tool for driving conversions and building brand loyalty.

Mallows Beauty

Mallows Beauty, a small skincare brand that was founded in 2020, has experienced rapid growth in a short space of time, largely due to its social-first approach to content creation. In recent months, the brand has capitalized on new social commerce features, including TikTok's partnership with Shopify and its live shopping feature.

By leveraging TikTok's partnership with Shopify, Mallows Beauty has been able to create a mini-storefront on TikTok, allowing it to reach a wider audience and drive more sales. The brand has also been using TikTok's live shopping feature to engage with viewers and discuss featured products in real-time. According to founder Laura Mallows, the brand typically generates more revenue through one live shopping event than its flagship Cardiff store does in a week.

Mallows Beauty's success is a testament to the power of social commerce and live shopping. By leveraging these new features, the brand has been able to create an immersive shopping experience that encourages viewers to engage with the brand and make purchases in real-time. With social commerce and live shopping set to become even more prevalent in the coming years, brands that can effectively leverage these strategies will be well-positioned to succeed in the highly competitive world of e-commerce.

Clinique

Clinique has proven to be one of the most successful brands in adopting social online shopping, leveraging its presence across Facebook's ecosystem to drive purchases.

Through product tags and captivating imagery, Clinique has created an immersive shopping experience on Facebook Shop and Instagram. The brand was also quick to adopt Instagram's live shopping feature, launching a show in 2021 to promote its sold-out Black Honey lipstick. The 20-minute event was a hit, with 85% of the product set orders coming from Instagram and Facebook from September 14th to 25th 2021. The event also resulted in a 7x faster product launch activation, demonstrating the power of live shopping to drive sales and create buzz.

💙 Bigblue Tips

Use Instagram's best practices to create amazing live videos and drive more sales!

Snug

Snug is a London-based sofa-in-a-box company. Snug offers fast delivery and a 100-day trial, and drove much of its £31.6 million (about $41.4 million) 2021 revenue through social media.

Rob Bridgman, Snug’s founder and CEO, told Econsultancy that “people spend more time researching which sofa to buy than which house.” It’s why the brand doubles down on making such a big purchase simple and accessible—and uses social media like Instagram and Pinterest to reach potential buyers looking for inspiration and ideas.

Snug uses live shopping to create buzz around its products. In November 2021, the brand had a record hour of revenue during a live social selling event on Instagram with comedian Katherine Ryan. This event saw a 450% uplift in sales compared to a similar event in March 2021.

Home décor is a huge category on Pinterest, and Snug built a strong Pinterest presence to take advantage of this. Snug is a Verified Merchant and reaches more than nine million people on Pinterest each month.

Its Pinterest boards are categorized by terms Pinterest users often search for, like “sofas for small spaces” and “stylish sofas.” Snug’s product-focused pins showcase sofas in real-life settings, along with product tags and names. Clicking on a product takes pinners to a product pin with a description and a button that leads to the website and easy checkout.