Given the ever increasing focus on social commerce, more and more businesses are considering whether or not social media is an appropriate channel for their business. Whilst Facebook is well established as a social network, it is still at an early stage of adoption as a sales channel.
According to a study by Ecwid, UK consumers spent over £50bn on e-commerce purchases in 2011. And although only 4% of consumers in Great Britain have purchased goods through Facebook, the research showed that 40% would purchase products from Facebook if offered a similar experience to an online store.According to Gartner, global revenues associated with social media will grow by more than 43% this year to a huge $16.9 billion.
Richard McCrossan, Strategic Business Director at Genesys, says that there are some barriers to translating the social media interaction into sales. There is a distinct lack of joined-up thinking between different departments across the enterprise, which is hindering the deployment of integrated technologies that are capable of fuelling effective social media efforts.
Big brands like Coca-Cola, Warner Bros, Starbucks and Pampers are already using f-commerce, using Facebook as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions. But while some companies are investing resource and money trying to acquire new customers through social media, many are missing the opportunity to use that information to retain existing, loyal customers and give them a good experience via social media that they will recommend to their friends.
When a business uses its Facebook page to advertise a new product or service, it should not only look to build sales transactions, but should look at consumer reaction through comments posted on its wall in response to its advertising campaign and make appropriate responses to those comments, whether positive or negative.
“The key here is relevance. As well as ease of use and accessibility, the power of f-commerce lies in the ability to drive targeted deals and promotions to consumers who are most likely to purchase. Customer service agents can know straight away whether a product is relevant to a customer based on their previous interaction and purchase history,” Mr McCrossan says.
However, for many companies, social media efforts are still evolving, and processes are often fragmented. The result is that, instead of optimising communication with customers via social media, companies are missing valuable opportunities to target the right consumer at the right time, with an offer which is particularly relevant to them.
The Ecwid study shows that f-commerce has the potential to grow massively. If f-commerce is to have any chance of succeeding, businesses need to adopt a new strategy: one that integrates social media operations with customer service in order to leverage the existing information which is on file for each customer.
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