Snap has certainly made a name for itself as a camera company, but its latest push in the marketplace is all about commerce as the company looks to give advertisers more ways to use Snapchat to drive online purchases.
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Social shopping went from being a pipe dream resting on clunky buy buttons to being mainstream. Today 25% of business owners are selling through Facebook, and the trend of marketers using social platforms to directly sell to users is only growing. The platforms are getting better about how advertisers can directly sell to their users, and the appetite for businesses to directly sell on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and others isn’t going anywhere.
Social shopping’s in the midst of a renaissance. After years of trial-and-error, failed experiments like Facebook storefronts and less-than-impressive implementations of buy buttons, we may finally have it.
Social Shopping’s Here Because It’s Seamless
Social shopping is now part of a seamless experience. Businesses can tag up to five products in a single Instagram post, letting users tap to see product descriptions and pricing information before going to the brand website to make a purchase. Users move from lust to conversion quickly and easily.
Moving users quickly from inspiration to action is something Pinterest has done as well with shoppable pins. Users browsing on the website can see something that inspires them and take action to scratch that inspirational itch.
Beyond that, dynamic ads are allowing businesses to sync up their product catalogs with programmatic ads featuring items they’re most likely to buy. Inventory is being tied to ads, putting machine learning in the driver's seat.
Augmented Reality is Meeting Reality
BMW AR Ad
Experience a product in your home through augmented reality? That was science fiction five years ago. Now, it’s commonplace with AR Lenses. Snapchat’s monetizing its 70 million daily Lens users by serving up ads that feature videos and other creative. From those ads, users can swipe up and enter an augmented reality experience the lets then try a product on for size, at least to the degree augmented reality will allow. Users don't need to imagine what life would be like with a product. They can see it.
Users Can Stay Where They Are
Social shopping once required a handoff between the social platform and the brand website, but now, most of the shopping experience can happen within each social platform. Users aren’t being asked to stop what they’re doing, go somewhere else, learn more and then decide whether or not to make a purchase. Users can get all of the information they need within Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat. Once they’re committed to making a purchase, they can go to the website but not before.
Direct Response has Found Its Footing
Social was once relegated to reach and awareness, and while it certainly still plays that role, it’s no longer a one-trick pony. Sales are being made through social channels. Social shopping’s actually happening… finally.
Twitter’s experiment with a Buy button is over. Resources for the button that would allow users to seamlessly make purchases on Twitter have been diverted to dynamic product. Twitter wasn’t the only social platform working on a buy button. Facebook, Pinterest and even Google have experimented in the area.
Read MoreThis year social networks are going to give social commerce one more try. We've seen Facebook test a 'Buy' button to allow people to make purchases within Facebook. Now, things are getting a little more serious for Twitter, which will reportedly have a 'Buy' button of its own that will allow users to purchase, submit payment info and share shipping information with sellers within tweets.
To date, social commerce has been one of the most disappointing tactics for marketers leveraging social media marketing. Advertisers, including Gap and Nordstrom created online storefronts from within their Facebook Pages only to stop supporting them when consumers made it clear that they weren't interested in visiting a Facebook tab to shop and purchase.
Social commerce was an added bonus for users that they didn't ask for and had no reason to understand.
Read MoreSocial storefronts were once declared dead. Advertisers selling their wares through Facebook tabs found that they flopped and instead shut down their efforts. Now, it appears social commerce is making a comeback in a very big way.
The social battleground has been focused on TV as Twitter and Facebook go back-and-forth with each arguing that its platform is the place where social TV conversations are taking place and where the opportunity for advertisers and networks to engage TV audiences is ripest. However, the more interesting battleground may be in which platform can become the leader when it comes to commerce.
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