By Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor
A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to speak on a webinar focused on the top five trends in social commerce.
My goal for the presentation was to provide a high-level overview of the specific trend, discuss the value for all retailers and include an example. Once the presentation was over, I felt like there were still so many great success stories to share!
In order to share some inspiration with retailers across categories, here are a few more examples based on the top five trends outlined during my best practices webinar, hosted by Vend:
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1. Instagram is a powerful revenue opportunity: I shared a lot of apparel examples in this section of the webinar, primarily because apparel and accessories are the most conducive to tools such as Like2Buy. However, I have to give props to Lilly Pulitzer for using the tool to not sell apparel, but books! The brand created a series of artistic prints to represent the brand, and published the most popular designs in a book.
During the 2014 Thanksgiving weekend, Lilly Pulitzer published content from the book on Instagram and used Like2Buy to drive site traffic and book sales. The brand saw a 400%+ increase in traffic to the site from Instagram. Over Black Friday weekend, Like2Buy delivered 50% more referral traffic from Instagram versus Facebook.
2. User-generated content inspires and delights: We all know that shoppers love to share their experiences with brands and products. Starbucks does a great job of tracking all tagged images and leveraging the content in its Instagram feed. It’s also as simple as responding to posts about you and re-posting them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! Not to pit two coffee shops against each other, but The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf always breaks up Facebook content with user-generated images.
3. Influencers and advocates are powerful mouthpieces for your brand: There’s nothing more impactful than having your most satisfied and loyal customers act on your behalf. It’s also beneficial to have notable experts and thought leaders share their expertise through your brand.
Jamba Juice tapped fitness bloggers and athletes to promote its new line of juices. Commissioning experts like Cassey Ho of Blogilates, Jamba Juice was able to organically spread the word about its products through a trusted source. Posts for the campaign averaged a 4.013% engagement rate on the Jamba Juice Instagram, surpassing its 3.5% benchmark.
4. Tumblr and Snapchat are the social up-and-comers: The fun part about these social networks is that they allow room for a lot of experimentation. I talked a lot about Vine, as well, which allows brands to create quick, hard-hitting videos.
Taco Bell was one of the first businesses to embrace Snapchat. To this day, the brand uses the platform to share breaking news, exclusive coupons and more, to give followers a VIP glimpse of the latest happenings.
5. Social and the store are becoming more connected: For the sake of this blog, I wanted to hone in on Whole Foods a little more, as I feel like their strategy didn’t come across effectively. In its Alpharetta, Ga., location, Whole Foods uses a series of digital displays to promote user-generated content.
In the wine section, for example, consumers are asked to share their pictures on Instagram using the #WFMAvalon hash tag. They also can see content being shared through the social network instantly on the display.
Have you seen any other great examples for the above trends? I’d love to hear from you!
