Top social media eCommerce trends for 2022

Social media can be an incredible accelerator for success within eCommerce. Make sure you gain traction by being aware of the trends. Take advantage of each to go forward in 2022, setting up your business as part of the forefront. Staying ahead of trends on the platforms is crucial to grow your venture, so learn which to master to make this a year to remember.

Highlighting the 2022’s top social media e-commerce trends, this guide covers:

• Changing habits
• Seamless shopping
• Content worth sharing
• Micro-influencers
• Interactivity

Every year since the beginning of COVID-19, the rate of change for consumer shopping habits has shifted more rapidly. Both social media and e-commerce, held strong growth pre-pandemic. Since going through lockdowns though, both have become a bigger part of many peoples lives. Customers are less willing to visit physical stores, and nowadays, people are open to buying from new businesses online.

For your e-commerce, this could mean more people to reach than before. But this change also leads to more brands choosing to target other regions, so this could be a possibility for yours too. By having the opportunity to try and break into different markets, you have the chance to discover what works best for your business. Social media platforms like Facebook allow you to easily target your advertising to locations anywhere in the world.

For example, suppose you sell women’s clothing and find it difficult to get orders within the UK. In that case, targeting other European countries might mean you find an audience that suits you more with different cultural preferences.

Another key trend emerging is how users use social media platforms and what they expect from shopping experiences. As more people engage with consistent content on the platforms through videos and photos, they often don’t appreciate being taken away from that enjoyable experience.

So many businesses have started to make purchasing their products as easy as possible, so the user can get straight back to the platform when the transaction is over. This might mean simplifying your website, and direct people to it from your social media channels.

Another way to do this that has become more and more popular is allowing customers to purchase through the platforms themselves. Currently, Facebook and Instagram enable customers to buy your products through the platform. This means their experience of entertaining content is only minimally interrupted by buying your product.

With the emerging popularity of TikTok, it is clear that social media has shifted its use for many people. Instead of direct communication, it has become as enjoyable to continue to view as watching television. This platform especially runs on an algorithm to constantly keep showing users videos that suit them by analysing what they liked before.

The more time a user spends on this platform, the more tailored their experience will become. For businesses looking to advertise products, they need to be aware of this. If you don’t use engaging content that your customers will want to see, it means the platform is less likely to show it to them again.

To create content that your audience will find entertaining, you should aim to understand the platform as best as possible. 

For other social media platforms, though, it is more straightforward to create content. Instagram is mostly images with some video, Twitter and Facebook are mostly the same. For TikTok, you should show the product you want to sell in a way that fits other content. If you get the right content for the platform, users could even share it and you could quickly reach many more people.

For example, if you sell women’s clothing, then you can see what viral dances are trending and make sure that the person’s outfit in the video stands out. Ideally, on the platform you want users to not notice it as advertising immediately and be captivated by the product, which means they will click on the link to buy it.

On social media, influencers have become a huge asset to brands aiming to sell their products. That said, those with millions of followers know the value they hold and often will charge high prices. To overcome this, many businesses in 2022 chose to turn to micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers are users on social media with a minimum of ten thousand followers. Often these people have a niche following and may even be emerging talent with high growth potential. Smaller brands now often favour these individuals, so if you can find users that appeal to your audience, they can help build your reputation.

All social media platforms are built on engagement with their users, if you are a brand that understands this, you will have more success on the platforms. It has become a trend to engage with customers as much as you can. This could mean polls, competitions, answering questions live or just responding to comments on photos. If you speak directly to your audience and ask for their opinions, they may become more loyal to your business.

If you start to use some of this engagement as feedback for improvement, you can build relationships with customers while doing market research. This could also involve messaging or emailing customers after purchase and asking for a review. If they feel positive about the product they have purchased from you, ask them to share it on their own social media pages.

For example, if they have bought a t-shirt from you, offer 25% off their next purchase if they share a photo wearing it and tag your account on Instagram. They will feel like a valued customer while you can reach their followers.

To understand the success of your social media activities for your eCommerce business, it could be useful to set up a separate account to keep updated on the money coming in.

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software to help you efficiently manage your finances. Its cash flow insights feature notifies you of your sales to see if you reach the targets you expect.

The Countingup app also includes an expense categorisation feature to record the costs of any social media marketing and other expenses. You can see exactly where your money goes, allowing you to plan for your business in future.

Start your three-month free trial today. 
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