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The Rise of Social Media Shopping During COVID

COVID has us all scrolling more than usual doesn’t it?

Depending on where you are now, there literally might be precious little to do other than browse social media. Our usage stats for Facebook, Instagram, Snap, etc. have been through the roof in these tough times.

And you know who’s noticed that? Facebook, Instagram, Snap, etc.

Given that, we’re now seeing the meteoric rise of social media shopping. It was already a thing before but the pandemic has turbocharged the growth of what’s known as social commerce. At this point, 1 in 4 businesses are selling through Facebook. We’re not talking about running ads, we’re talking literally selling through the platform.

It’s big business and it’s something you need to be seriously looking into in order to stay relevant and competitive.

What Is Social Media Shopping?

Social media shopping aka social commerce is as easy to define as this: selling your products on social media platforms.

Very cut and dry.

On Facebook you have Shops while IG calls it Shopping, for example, and if you’re on either app you’ve no doubt seen these new features in your feeds or even in your stories. Yea, it’s possible to sell products in your story. Wild.

But does it work?

Well, yea. According to Big Commerce, “30% of online shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase from a social media network like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat”. With 72% of American adults using at least one social media platform, you’re talking about a giant population that is already likely to make purchases via social media, which means we’re sort of just at the beginning of the boom.

Social media, at this very moment, is doing heavy lifting with 87% of people saying it helps them make purchase decisions. It’s only logical that these platforms become the point of sale too. Streamline the process and make it as effortless as possible for someone to get the products they need and want.

How COVID Has Affected the Way We Shop

Shopping online was obviously already immensely popular with 1.8 billion people making purchases online in 2018 and it was really a matter of ease and expediency that drove its growth. Convenience for the sake of convenience was the mantra. Like, did people have to shop online? Not necessarily but it was convenient.

With COVID…well that has changed. What was once a convenience has in some ways turned into a necessity. Regulations spurred by the concerns for public safety have led to less than ideal circumstances for traditional brick and mortars. Some stores are flat out closed for shopping, others have limited capacity and all, for the most part, require masks. Not surprisingly, these things have dramatically altered the shopping landscape.

Data from Statista shows that “retail platforms have undergone an unprecedented global traffic increase between January 2019 and June 2020, surpassing even holiday season traffic peaks. Overall, retail websites generated almost 22 billion visits in June 2020, up from 16.07 billion global visits in January 2020”.

As the pandemic rages, people are also spending more carefully than ever before with 1/3rd of Americans reporting a decrease in their household income during this time.

Looking for Digital Marketing? The Snow Agency Got You

With the shift to digital, and the tidal wave to digital in full effect, it’s crucial that your business keeps up and pivots along with the consumer. Both with where they want to buy and the way in which they want to shop. More and more that’s via social commerce.

If you have yet to dip your toes in the social media shopping pool, reach out to us at The Snow Agency and we’d be happy to walk you through what it takes and how it can benefit you.