Creating and financing a social commerce strategy for your eCommerce business

Social commerce has emerged as a powerful driver for new customer acquisition, allowing your brand to connect with consumers in more engaging and interactive ways.

Understanding the details of social commerce is crucial for sustaining growth.

In this blog, we’ll focus on the details on why social commerce can boost your brands presence, increase sales and become an eCom giant:

• Strategies for setting up a successful social commerce venture
• Essential tools and platforms that can propel your business forward
• Financial strategies, including revenue-based finance, that can support and accelerate your social commerce strategy. 

By mastering these elements, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the landscape of social commerce and unlock new opportunities for your business.

Get access to the capital you need to build a compelling social commerce strategy with our revenue-based finance services.

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Assessing financial needs for a social commerce strategy 

Before getting started, it’s important to evaluate your financing needs. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending unnecessarily, using tools that your business has little use for. 

A robust social commerce strategy should involve several key investments:

Platform fees: costs associated with using social media platforms’ shopping features, such as TikTok or Instagram. The trick is to analyze which platform fees are worth the cost and not just an expensive gimmick.

Marketing: budget for social media advertising, influencer partnerships, and promotional campaigns. Typically marketing budgets range between 6-20% of a company’s gross revenue, although this depends on how aggressively you want market your products.

Content creation: depending on your brand, you could need to invest in high-quality visuals, videos, and interactive content that captivates. For instance, interactive content, which is content that requires a user to take action is twice as likely to generate conversions than passive content. 

Technology investments: tools for customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, and eCommerce integration to streamline operations and track performance.

Setting up a social commerce strategy

Making your social commerce venture as user-friendly as possible is vital.

There are four actions you can take to create a great experience for consumers visiting your virtual store – and persuade them to purchase.

1. Know your audience

You’ll likely have scoped out the size and profile of your target market at a very early stage of creating your business. But how will you be able to reach them online?

Take some time to consider where to place your bets in the social commerce arena. It might sound painstaking, but taking each of the platforms in turn is a logical and effective approach.

Platforms like Pinterest and TikTok include detailed sections for just this purpose. It’s vital to check out this information, matching services against the needs of your business strategy.

To narrow down your choice of social commerce platforms you should consider the following:

• Does the platform’s stated audience profile resemble your target market?
• Do they offer the capability to target specific sections of the audience with your marketing campaigns?
• Are ‘success rates’ available for you to check effectiveness?
• Can you see other businesses – preferably in your space – promoting their products and services?
• Is information available to show how your target audiences will discover your products?

No doubt you’ll have many more questions. Remember, social commerce providers want to help successful businesses because it means more traffic passing through their platforms, and a greater share of the overall market for them. They’ll be ready to help if you need to get in touch with queries.

2. Boost your profile

No one ever sold anything without making people aware it was available. Which is to say, promoting your products, and your business as a whole is a crucial part of setting up for success.

Social media naturally plays an important role in social commerce marketing. In fact, almost two-thirds (63%) of consumers aged from 18 to 25 have been influenced to buy a product after seeing a brand on a social media site. The impact stays strong among older generations.

Here are four tips to help you stand out from the crowd:

Narrow Your Field

Since you've already identified the social platforms frequented by your target audience, concentrate your profile-raising efforts on these platforms. This focused approach reduces wasted effort and maximizes impact.

Investment Tip: allocate a portion of your budget to research and utilize tools that provide insights into these platforms' algorithms and user behaviors. Testing various strategies will help refine your approach and ensure your efforts are effective.

Track and Tally

Set realistic, achievable goals for growing your brand's following. Regularly monitor your progress to ensure you’re on track. Use analytics tools to gather data and adjust your strategy as needed.

Investment Tip: invest in advanced analytics software to gain deeper insights into your audience's preferences and engagement patterns. Stenn’s revenue-based financing can support these investments, ensuring you have the financial flexibility to adapt and grow.

Interact with People

Engaging with your audience is crucial. Create clever, regular posts to boost your brand's presence and foster interaction. Authentic engagement builds trust and loyalty.

Investment Tip: consider investing in professional content creation services to ensure high-quality, engaging posts. Leveraging Stenn’s financing can help you manage these upfront costs while driving long-term growth through enhanced interaction.

Be Patient!

Success on social media requires time and consistent effort. Build your profile methodically and adhere to your strategic plan. Over time, you’ll see the benefits of your hard work.

Investment Tip: cevelop a long-term investment plan for your social media strategy. Use Stenn’s revenue-based financing to maintain a steady cash flow, allowing you to stay committed to your plan without financial strain.

3. Be Consistent

Consistent branding across social media platforms is crucial. Wherever you show up, your customer should know what to expect from you.

Among other benefits of brand consistency:

• Drives recognition
• Builds trust
• Boosts loyalty
• Creates clarity of your offer.

Take some time to consider how you’ll achieve brand consistency. This means creating your brand guidelines (or having an external expert do it for you). It means being distinct and recognisable as a brand and having a relevant and relatable tone of voice that helps your target market remember and trust your brand.

It’s so important: 67% of customers say they’ll only buy from a brand multiple times if they trust it. 

4. Create great content

Today’s consumer is bombarded and often baffled by an endless stream of brand communications. That’s why it’s vital to ensure your business can be heard above the noise, and sticks in the memory of your target audience.

The social platforms offer a wide range of ways to get in front of your customers. These are just a few of the formats worth considering:

• Videos – short clips or longer product focuses
• Images – product images that catch the eye
• Stories – information packaged in a memorable way
• User-generated content – let your fans promote you!

As with so many aspects of social commerce success, your content’s effectiveness comes down to planning.

Step back and think about the themes you want to cover and the types of content you’ll use to achieve that.

Plan your campaigns to align with key sales periods, like seasonal promotions. Creating a content calendar helps you organize and distribute your content effectively.

With 46% of back-to-school shoppers buying directly from social media content they engage with, it’s clear to see this method works.

Lay the groundwork for your social commerce strategy with our revenue-based finance support. Access the funds you need to thrive.

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Tools to use in your social commerce strategy

After picking the social commerce platforms that best suit your business, the next step is to connect with your target audiences: 

• What features are built-in that can boost your promotional activity?
• Which tools can help drive sales success?
• Can you work out how to get a competitive advantage over your rivals?

Highlighting the most popular tools and features of each platform would make this guide as long as Route 66 – it’s a case of spending time exploring each one.  

As a starting point, here’s Stenn’s pick of the top tactics that can swing social users’ attention your way: 

• Facebook Marketplace – lets users buy and sell products through the Facebook ecosystem, you can create shops on your business page.
• Pinterest Shops – integrates ‘buyable pins’ for products and shopping catalogs into the platform.
• Instagram Shops – have a dedicated storefront, add shoppable posts and tag product images, so users can buy without leaving the app.
• Snapchat Spotlight – aggregates user-generated content and allows users to buy directly from the app.
• TikTok Shop – upload videos and alert users to shop directly from them via product links. 
• WhatsApp Business – communicate directly with customers: perfect for that personal touch.

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The rise of third-party tools

Third-party apps are essential for integrating sales with your back office. They speed up setup, handle payments, provide sales analytics, and manage customer reviews. Use them as eCommerce tools on your site.

Here are some top options:

One-click payment

Studies show more than one in 10 shoppers drop out at the checkout. Bad user experience is your enemy, especially when precious purchases go out the window. Try a tool like Stripe’s Link, which vastly improves conversions and is easy to set up.

Multi-payment options

Afterpay, Klarna, Zip Co, and others allow shoppers to ‘buy now, pay later’ over an agreed period. This can boost your sales by providing choices when someone is keen to buy but wants more flexibility on payment terms; it’s especially useful for more expensive items and bulk buying.

Managing reviews

Positive reviews can have a hugely beneficial effect on your bottom line. If handled well, filtering out or maybe even responding to negative feedback, and upweighting shining reviews, tools like Bazaar Voice can increase conversion and drive sales.

Appealing analytics

With so much data created by shoppers visiting your store and product pages, it would be a shame to let the information go to waste. Thankfully there’s an array of third-party analytics tools – from Google Analytics to Hotjar – so you can use data to make decisions that will further boost your brand’s presence and power.

Support your social commerce strategy with Stenn’s revenue-based finance services

If you’re the owner or manager of an ambitious eCommerce business with aspirations of starting a social commerce strategy, revenue-based finance is an ideal option.

In research completed in collaboration with Hootology, 87% of US business leaders surveyed said they were aware of RBF as a financing option. 93% believe RBF is tailored to the needs of eCommerce firms, whilst 90% think RBF is a perfect fit for their business.

Solving the stress of sales peaks and troughs; helping you stock up for your busiest periods; allowing you to retain full equity and control of your business; and fueling expansion and exploration into untapped markets; RBF is the innovative financing option you need.

The power of revenue-based finance lies in the model’s adaptability. Repayments align with weekly revenues over the agreed period. This relieves the pressure of fixed payments to give you breathing space at times when your sales are slower. Then, in stronger sales periods, you can pay off a greater share of your finance agreement.

You only pay what you can afford. The size of payment is calculated each week based on sales performance: no sales, no payment.

Typically, the sum is repaid within six months based on stable revenue models. And after that, you’re free to apply for new RBF funds.

Get in touch with us today and get the finance you need to begin your social commerce strategy.

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