What Is Shoppable Content?
Shoppable content is a digital asset, such as an image, a social media post, a video, or an ad for consumers to click through and make a purchase.
In some instances customer find that they have to complete the checkout process on the brand’s website. But some shoppable content enables all transactions to be completed on the same screen.
Shoppable content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok allows users buy any product without leaving the app. This is the essence of social commerce. Social commerce is the act of buying or selling of goods and services directly from within a social media platform.
Benefits Of Shoppable Content
The shift from brick and mortar stores to social shopping was always in the pipeline. The pandemic only accelerated the transformation by around five years. The volume of social commerce in the US is expected to touch $100 million by next year.
This emerging trend is a wonderful opportunity presented to brands on a platter to capitalize. But keep in mind that Gen Z and the millennials will only invest in brands that are transparent and authentic.
Businesses take utmost care with their campaigns, website and physical locations. A similar strategy must be maintained with your shoppable content. And it should demonstrate your brand’s humane values and integrity.
Create content that resonates and connects with your audience, then it will not take much to attract and convert them. Your digital marketing strategy should include shoppable content as it can yield numerous paybacks:
Better Customer Experience
Millennials and Gen Z use social media extensively while searching for a product or to make any kind of purchase.
Create content that is discoverable, genuine and authentic. Over and above if the content is shoppable, you minimize the possibility that leads to an abandoned shopping cart. In other words, a better shopping experience and a win-win situation for all.
Shorter Sales Funnel
With shoppable content, informative social posts, videos and ads, you assist the buyer to find what, when they want it, along with necessary information. This ensures there are no hiccups or delays that will extend the sales funnel.
Increased brand loyalty
Storytelling is the best possible fashion to transfer information, build trust and create loyalty.
Shoppable content gives you the opportunity to showcase true stories about genuine people who’ve utilized your product and appreciate it. The aim is to showcase your product’s value and at the same time educate all potential consumers.
Improved Conversion Rates
Marketing is a process of understanding the target audience, develop a value offering, communicate the same and deliver value to satisfy the needs, wants, and desires of the target audience profitably.
Marketing and advertising is being at the right place and at the right time. Targeted and personalized shoppable ads can aid in a conversion.
But how to go about your shoppable content campaigns to get a better ROI.
- Partner with small time, but niche, influencers
- Invest in engaging shoppable content such as stories and ads.
- Choose and showcase items that are affordable
Few brands like Tommy Hilfiger capitalized on live streaming shopping events during the pandemic. They partnered with celebrities and social influencers to make the event a success. Viewers could add items to their carts during the event.
Walmart has taken to live shopping events, hosted on Walmart Live platform, YouTube and TikTok. They also partner with influencers and celebrities to showcase new products and seasonal ensembles.
Main Types Of Shoppable Media
Build shoppable media campaigns and formats that match the needs of your target customers. Sometimes a video can give a better introduction of a product. An Instagram carousel is ideal when the product is a collection of outfits and accessories.
There are four types of shoppable content for businesses to mix and match to see what baits the interest of their audience.
1. Shoppable Social Posts
Shoppable content and posts can be published on social media sites such as TikTok, Meta, Instagram, and Pinterest. This is a brilliant manner to offer products without disrupting browsing sessions.
The posts should ideally contain shoppable images, similar to product catalogs, but the difference being they should be clickable and can be purchased immediately.
It has been found that 25% consumers use social media to purchase products or services. During a Facebook survey 54% respondents said they bought items immediately after seeing a product/service on Instagram.
2. Shoppable Video
Consumption of video online is the top manner through which information is transferred. Marketers rank video as the most valuable content that can meet the goals on social media.
A recent report stated that after watching a video 84% viewers were convinced to buy the product.
So how to make a good shoppable video? There are 2 aspects to it:
Tip 1: Tell a story
Unless they’re relevant and timely people hate watching long-form videos. Consumers need the right context to invest time in any activity. Storytelling works wonders during such a situation. Ideally the story should be completed within 8 minutes. Or then you should break them up into a series.
Tip 2: Keep it short and sweet
Giving too much information is also confusing and people lose interest easily. 40% of marketers already use shoppable video ads and 68% prefer SFV (Short Form Videos). The focus should be on a single topic and try to break up your message into multiple CTAs (Calls to action).
As the consumption of SFV go higher and higher, businesses are investing in production of such videos. And people are twice as likely to share such videos with family and friends.
3. Shoppable UGC
The key to gaining the trust of your clients is via social proof. This is via reviews and influencer posts. It doesn’t really have to be big-time influencers, anyone with decent followers can influence a purchase.
76% consumers believe user-generated posts are more trustworthy than branded ads.
This is one reason that makes social media powerful. Users swarm social media platform to read posts and comments from the common man who sometimes can inspire thousands and promote action. User-generated content is powerful shoppable content for brands.
User-generated content helps social commerce.
- Bring an influencer onboard and create a shoppable post for their followers.
- User-generated content delivers social proof and complements visual inspiration to encourage sales.
- Gather UGC and feature them as shoppable content on their social feeds, website homepage and product pages.
4. Shoppable Ads
Shoppable ads are a mix of video and images to grab attention and cajole buyers. Such content can be placed in their social media feed. And consumers can purchase directly like a shoppable post.
Shoppable ads are of various kinds:
- A 30-second video clip where shoppers can find “buy now” button
- Image that links to a website
- Text laid over an image or video
- Interactive scrolling for users to engage while scrolling through an ad to find a product.
These are some innovative ways to design ads. Be creative and test variations that work best for your brand/audience.
Shoppable Content From Top Brands
Shoppable content works for all businesses. Here’s a few.
Barbour Used Shoppable Content To Increase Sales By 42%
Barbour is a century old manufacturer that started selling outerwear for fishermen. But later transformed making clothes for everyone (land and sea).
Barbour went on Instagram to connect with its target audience and used shoppable Instagram posts to help customers buy. This cut down customer journey vastly and increased traffic 100% and sales by 42%.
Jane Increased Social Sales By 80% During The Pandemic
COVID-19 halted people visiting stores, but not from shopping online. Jane, a fashion boutique for women and children understood this.
Their marketing team carried out campaigns that was a mix of:
- A weekly promotion offer via shoppable product collections featuring niche products with exclusive discounts for IG followers.
- Displaying a selection of items on Instagram Live events. Pins were provided on the items for viewers to add to their bag during the livestream event.
Jane experienced amazing increase in sales and humungous amount of new visitors.
Aerie Used YouTube Video Ads To Derive 25% ROI
YouTube is not really social media, but a sales channel for brands to promote their products. One way is by using interactive video ads with shopping features. This is what Aerie, the apparel retail giant did.
They used YouTube video ads to connect with shoppers and exhibit their latest products. The campaign resulted in:
- Increased brand engagement
- 25% ROI on ad spend
- 9x more conversions
This strategy worked as many toggle between YouTube and Google to find information that inspires purchase. So using YouTube shoppable ads makes your customer’s path transparent.
Shoppable Content: The Base Of Your Social Commerce Strategy
For any firm it’s not too late to embrace social commerce as a digital marketing strategy. Platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram are constantly evolving their e-commerce features.
Social shopping is still in infancy catching the eye of businesses that means, there’s plenty of space to stake a claim.
After an Engineering degree and a Diploma in Management I devoted 16+ years working in the automotive industry. My innate skill and extreme passion in writing, encouraged me to adopt it up as a profession. I have been writing for more than 10+ years in the software industry. The 400+ blogs I published are informative, exhaustive and interesting to a professional and causal reader.
