Retailers on Main Street have been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic, which has had a profound effect on our culture and way of life. Small businesses that did not have an internet shop have suffered greatly due to state and local shelter-at-home requirements and consumers’ general reluctance to venture out. Facebook sped up the rollout of Facebook Shops, a new platform for small companies to easily bring their items online and make them shoppable within the social network, in reaction to the pandemic’s disastrous impact on stores.
In this piece, we’ll talk about the chance given by Facebook Shops, how repurposing user-generated content may boost sales in social ecommerce on Facebook and beyond, and why protecting user-generated content is crucial.
With Facebook Stores, anybody can open an online shop.
Facebook’s ability to facilitate online purchases is not brand new. Connecting an online store’s digital product catalogue to a social network is nothing new. Images, videos, and posts in your social stream may occasionally be labelled with a product symbol, which, when clicked, takes you to a shoppable “hotspot” with further details. A year ago, with the introduction of Instagram Checkout, customers could make purchases without ever leaving the app.
Highlighting User-Generated Content
The usefulness of Facebook Shops lies in the fact that online transactions may take place inside the same social context in which buyers and sellers are already engaged in conversation. True believers frequently share UGC (user-generated content) on social media, such as photographs using the brand’s items. The option to make user-generated content (UGC) shoppable through Facebook Shops is now available to companies of all sizes. Before, stores could engage with UGC by like, commenting, and resharing it to their brand’s channel.
Many strategies exist for retailers to incorporate UGC into their online operations. To start, they might incorporate it into their Facebook Shops page as supplementary visuals. Impact found that the average millennial spends 5.4 hours per day consuming material made by their generation. Customers want to know how a product performs in actual use, and user-generated content (UGC) is a great way to provide that kind of reassurance.
Second, a business can quickly make an image shoppable by reposting it and adding a product tag from their Facebook Shops inventory. Social Media Week found that 90% of customers believe UGC impacts purchase decisions, therefore showcasing how someone really uses a product might help turn browsers into buyers.
TINT Widens the Scope of Social E-Commerce
Facebook and Instagram’s addition of a “shop” button for user-generated content is only the beginning of the ways in which businesses may use word-of-mouth advertising. With an omnichannel social commerce approach, brands can expand their reach outside Facebook’s ecosystem. When it comes to social e-commerce, TINT truly comes into its own.
The TINT platform makes it easy to curate stunning product galleries using genuine user-generated content from any social media platform. With a few lines of code, you can add these galleries to your site, giving visitors further confidence in your business. You may also tag user-generated content (UGC) with product hotspots, much like you do in Facebook Shops, so that a potential customer can easily go from browsing to purchasing by clicking on the image.
Loyalty Programs Inside the Application
With Facebook Shops, customer loyalty programme points and prizes may now be tracked digitally, perhaps ending the era of “paper” schemes. You’ll soon be able to keep track of your points and progress without ever having to dig out a card from your keychain or wallet again.
Facebook is currently exploring integrations with loyalty programmes but is being tight-lipped about the specifics. The tool would probably keep tabs on both in-person and online transactions, such as when you check in to a café and then buy something with your linked credit card.
The most devoted customers are generally the ones that make social media content about your products, so it seems sense that UGC and brand loyalty would go hand in hand. Taking ideas from the hotel sector, brands may encourage their most devoted consumers to share positive feedback online, increasing not only brand loyalty but also brand recognition.
TINT is here to assist your company in navigating social ecommerce through UGC curation, repurposing, gaining UGC rights, and the production of shoppable galleries in light of Facebook’s exciting announcement of Facebook Shops. Interested parties are encouraged to schedule a demonstration immediately.