A deep dive research on social network has shown that how and why do the participants use the social sites as a part of their purchasing process. They put specific emphasis for discovering the similarities and the differences across the various product categories. The study has also reflected that how social media have been used heavily for the discovery of products and services as well as for decision making. Although the use of the social media and participation is at critical mass, but it is believed that this trend will also continue in the years to come. All the brands must understand the role of social media for those to whom they try to sell the products.
Research conducted by one of the leading market research company has shown the percentage of the population (among 3,000 respondents) who uses social network in three categories in the second quarter of the year 2012.
Educational sector:
71% of the people purchase educational products and discuss them on the social sites. The rest 29% purchase an educational institution on the basis of the content posted on different social network.
Electronics sector:
63% of the electronic product purchaser discuss them on the social sites. 22% make a decision of buying electronic products as a result of seeing something posted on a social networking site.
Apparel sector:
Around 43% of the population purchase apparel and discuss them on social network sites.
The social media marketing is the excellent tools for the eCommerce sites. Its immense influence in the eCommerce industry cannot be overlooked. Promoting new products and services on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are a great way to drive consumers and sales. The social media outlets are the best tools for link building as well. Therefore, posting URL that is linked to your site can increase traffic to the sites and upsurge the sale of your products. There are a few ways to use your social media efforts on the eCommerce web sites without ignoring the buyers.
First things first:
Are you figuring out where the site visitors are sharing your products. Well, if not then hurry! This information helps you to channelize your social media energies. Tools like AddThis offers data on the social sharing trends which can be used to make generalizations regarding social sharing. Certain other tools like 'Share This' Button on Facebook on the product pages is quite helpful. The benefits of the tools like AddThis and ShareThis can be the sharing analytics they offer. This helps you to figure out where exactly the visitors are sharing the products. You can also make use of Google Analytics with their goal and click tracking . You can also track the Twitter conversation with the help of Twitip. Once you are aware of where your shared traffic is going and accepted, you can easily modify your site's design to highlight the important services.
Set up Twitter and Facebook profile:
Hopefully, your site has a Facebook and a twitter account , right? These two services are the best places to start .
Search for places for sharing buttons:
Stop making your site looks boring immediately.Try to put sharing features in different prominent places in the site's design. For instance, if a customer provides a review about a product, give them the easiest way to share his review with the Facebook friends or with the Twitter followers. The best places on your sites to put the sharing links are
Mailing list or email templates
The thank you page post making the orders and
The sale confirmation email
Add product videos:
People love to see any products in action. So are you! Therefore, videos are an important way to improve sales. Even adding product videos on the YouTube or other video sharing sites can augment another social factor. Videos are the ultimate method to add the viral factor to your product pages.
Engage your customers:
Is your site captivating enough?Creating a Facebook or Twitter account is not the only responsibility. The most important thing is to engage the followers. You should be actively involved to interact with your followers in order to achieve success. So, are you still waiting for their initiative...? You need to figure out who is your followers and who is your competitors. Social media help to get people to your site.
Don't stay in the 'sale mode:
Get crazy ideas for your followers. It is definite that if you try to sell things on the social media profiles will never benefit your followers. The mass wants something more than just the sales pitches. Therefore use the social media profiles to tell your customers news, stories or other things directly related to your business.
Assimilate the customer service strategy with your social media strategy:
Wow! The majority of the people is talking about your brand on the social networks. Hence try to reach out your customer instead of waiting for them to call you or email you. There are even millions of success stories of the major brands reaching out to the dissatisfied customers as well. So, are you thinking of the strategies to help your dissatisfied customers.
Track what exactly the people click on the social media sites:
An excellent click analytics will be the URL shorteners such as bit. ly. When you share any links on the social networks, it helps you to track and see the percentage of people who are actually clicking the link . If you are aware what makes people actually click a link can help you to tailor messages to get the most from the social media efforts. For instance you may find that your Facebook followers often like to click on coupon links to product updates. In short, the more you provide your followers with something they like, the more valuable you can be to them.
Reciprocate:
Reciprocation can build trust. This is vital for your brand. Get ideas to be famous and useful among your followers. Share tips and latest updates which they will find helpful. You can ask for their opinion, give them coupons and interact with them. If you are trying to be helpful to them, they become more loyal to your brand.
What can be expected from the eCommerce websites in 2013?
The eCommerce companies would focus more on the loyalty programmes, better customer service and much more personalised offers. The companies would also focus on to offer a richer and more pertinent online experience for the users.
An innovation that will revolutionise the eCommerce development is the cost optimization through logistic management and through warehouses. This enables the companies to continue with profitable business.