In recent months, Brandwatch published a list of thirty-seven statistics for Instagram that revealed some vital facts for companies who want to engage social shoppers on this platform. This year, Instagram reached 400 million users globally. Instagram thrives on shared images, making a social shopper’s experience more visual than other social platforms do. This also creates a unique marketing opportunity for social marketers, which is further enhanced by the features Instagram offers. Last year, Instagram created the “Shop Now” button, which you can include on product photos to enhance users’ social shopping experiences. This past summer we added this functionality to Wigwam Mills, Inc.’s website so that visitors to the site can make purchases from Wigwam’s “Shop Social” page with ease.
Here’s how it works for Wigwam: the photos are linked from Instagram for display on Wigwam’s Shop Social page and then tagged using Foursixty. The artistic touches in each photo are as varied as the people who originally posted them—but they all share one unique feature. When you hover your mouse over any photo in this gallery, a bubble with a number will appear over the featured sock with a caption inviting you to click through to shop that particular sock line. The same caption also occupies the top of the description to the right of the photo. The existence of this gallery serves a double purpose: not only does it provide site visitors with some lovely images to look over, but it also calls social shoppers to action by simplifying the buying process for them.
Social shopping is a method of marketing products and services using virtual word-of-mouth. Companies utilize reviews from influencers who buy their products in this format to create conversions and gain a larger customer following. Basically, the social shopping cycle creates a personalized shopping experience for potential customers and allows companies to easily identify and market to their target audiences.
Returning to Wigwam’s example, we may note that Wigwam remarkets positive reviews from appreciative Instagram users on its own site. This strengthens Wigwam’s authenticity in the eyes of social shoppers who are curious about the product or share the same interest as these influencers. This authenticity, backed by customer trust, is a powerful persuasive component. Potential customers are usually more willing to believe another person with whom they share a certain interest on an equal or similar level when it comes to making purchasing decisions.
Whether you want to host a social shopping page on your own website like Wigwam does or you want to create shopping opportunities on different social media platforms, we can help you create an eye-catching social shopping page for your company. Contact us at Starkmedia today to find out how we can help you use Instagram or another social platform to engage your customers in the social shopping cycle.
