Social Media influences the way that we shop, especially online. In general, people prefer what they’re familiar with, right? With the average social media usage being 2 hours and 24 minutes a day per person, social media is certainly what we’re familiar with. So, it’s important to consider what can be done in order to make the on-site experience consistent with the familiarity (and strengths) of the Social Commerce experience.

The D2C eCommerce experience has evolved throughout the years with major influence from Social Media. Remember when product photography used to almost always be simple white background shots? Now, product photography is quite literally insta-ready. How about when reviews were *literally everything* when shopping online? Now, UGC is arguably more valuable than standard reviews. It’s more trusted, less likely to be a bot, or filtered by the brand themselves.  

The impact of social media on eCommerce is clear, so let’s talk about Social Commerce and why it’s important to start considering the ways in which your D2C site can start taking some ~hints~ from this newer (and quickly growing) way of shopping.

Sell Brands on Your Site That Your Customers are Following

The beauty of Social Commerce is that it creates a marketplace of the brands that your customers follow (or might like) and allows them to purchase them all in one place. Because it’s a visually driven platform with a killer algorithm, the brand and product suggestions are spot-on. Plus, Instagram has a team of Editors putting together highly curated and merchandised collections. It’s a great place to both find what you already love and discover new things to love.

How to apply to your D2C Site Experience:

• Curate collections and merchandise based on seasonality, mood, and aesthetics.
• Easily mix in products from complementary brands with Carro through the Brand Partnerships feature. Turn your brand into a marketplace of intelligently curated products that your customers were probably going to buy anyway.

Quick Pay, Quick Pay, Quick Pay

Here, we’ll say it again: Quick Pay. It’s truly a must-have in the world of mobile-first shopping. Social Commerce makes payment methods like Paypal and Shop Pay front-and-center while also making the journey to purchase less-clicks. And if you’re not keen on quick pay, once you enter your card details into your Social Commerce app, it remembers those digits. How many times have you not purchased something because you didn’t want to pull out your CC? Quick Pay eliminates that and gets the user to the finish line faster.

How to apply to your D2C Site Experience:

• This one’s pretty straightforward: make sure you have Quick Pay options. And while you’re at it, be sure to add in a pay-in-four option like Afterpay, Klarna, or Sezzle.

Built-In Social Proof

This may be the most powerful way that Social Commerce could have the upper hand for some consumers. You can now add to cart directly from a photo of an influencer who you love and trust.

A brand that is taking built-in social proof seriously on their D2C site experience is The Lobby. Each product listing has quick video reviews from influencers. Each influencer talks about the fit, the size they’re wearing, the fabric, and pretty much everything else you’d want to know when buying clothing online. Elevated UGC and trustworthy reviews will be a key element in emulating the Social Commerce experience.

How to apply to your D2C Site Experience:

• Incorporate shoppable UGC across the site, using an app like Foursixty.
• Consider adding a few UGC or lifestyle-driven images to the product image carousel (make sure you have the influencers’ permission!).
• Prioritize and incentivize customers to post video reviews using an app like Okendo or Stamped.io

Overall, it’s key to understand where your customers are spending most of their digital time and to understand how that affects the way that they shop. Making subtle tweaks to emulate the intuitiveness of Social Media will go a long way, especially for your Gen Z and Millennial shoppers.

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