I get it. You’ve invested a lot of time and resources into social media marketing for your brand. You’ve spent significant ad dollars to drive traffic to your company’s website. You’ve collaborated with multiple influencers to introduce their audiences to your company. And it’s working. Your followers count on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest only keeps going up and to the right. Your engagement rates are at 5%, which puts you at elite benchmarks for that metric. And still …
NO ONE BUYS YOUR PRODUCT ON SOCIAL
It’s not your fault. It really isn’t. It’s that those platforms were built for social interaction, not business transactions. And it’s difficult to change the utility of a product without changing the experience. This is what every major social platform is facing. All of their revenue used to come from advertising. Advertising ruins the user experience though, so as your users’ needs change, so does the way you make money. Enter live selling.
The last few years have seen every major social media company try to activate live shopping functionality on their website.
- 2019: Amazon launches Amazon live
- 2021: TikTok launches TikTop Shopping
- 2022: Twitter launches Twitter Shops
- 2022: Youtube launches YouTube Shopping
Without picking on any of these products individually, results have been mixed. The reason is simple. Customers prefer buying on a brand’s website, not their social accounts. Their websites are built to sell products. YouTube shopping sort of is.
According to Retail Dive, 71% of online shoppers prefer to check out on a brand’s website over their social accounts. Why is that though?
1. The checkout experience on social media is poor
The transaction via social media is an awful experience for the customer. Products highlighted with discounts often are out of stock on the actual brand website. Many times the landing page link is broken. Many times that landing page is incorrect. All of this leads to abandoned carts and lost sales.
2. Social media was built for discovery, not purchase
Many consumers found their new favorite brand via a social paid ad or an organic post that resonated with them. That discovery led to a follow of that brand’s socials and you now have a warm lead who appreciates your content. That does not mean they will be a customer. It does mean though that when they are ready, they will go to the channel that has all the information needed to make a purchase, your company’s website.
3. Ecommerce websites have various features to convert sales and increase AOV
Acknowledging the fact that a DTC brand’s website is literally designed to sell directly to the consumer, there are a myriad of tools one can use to make that process easier that does not exist on social media platforms. There are email capture tools, chatbots, abandoned cart software, and many other conversion products. There is a litany of sales tools for websites that other channels do not have.
Live selling, live commerce, whatever you want to call it, is the future of online shopping. It solves so many marketing problems for brands. It creates a unique and welcomed experience for customers. Most importantly, it brings the audience that your brand has built on a social platform to your website to enjoy a live event at the only place where your products can be purchased, your website.
Reactive offers the ability to launch live selling experiences on your website instantly. Want to see how Reactive can help you increase that sales checkout volume and AOV?Start your free trial now, or contact sales@reactive.live to request a live demo.
