The world we live in today is digitally dominated.
People spend hours buried in their phones or computer browsing the internet, connecting with friends halfway across the globe, and shopping, all from the comfort of their home.
Online shopping has risen dramatically in popularity, with the world of ecommerce becoming more and more diverse and competitive. While people may not initially equate any sort of relationship between the ever popular world of social media and the expansive realm of ecommerce, they both benefit each other tremendously. Shopify especially allows for social media to easily integrate into your store, making it a great platform for businesses aiming to take advantage of the social media front.
Here’s 4 ways that social media can benefit your Shopify ecommerce business.
1.) Social Media Can Act As A Great Storefront
People spend a lot of time on social media. Whether they’re catching up with friends, following their favorite celebrity, or even following an interest or hobby, social media grabs and holds a large amount of people’s attention.
That makes for an ideal arena when it comes to the world of ecommerce, and offers a great opportunity to get your target audiences’ attention right now instead of dragging them to your site.
Shopify offers pretty painless integration when it comes to major social media outlets, including a Shop tab in your Facebook page, the option to turn your products’ Pins into Buyable Pins on Pinterest, and a Buy Now button added to tweets regarding your products on Twitter.
2.) Social Media Is A Great Way To Connect With Your Customers
Have we emphasized enough how drawn to social media people are?
It would make sense then that social media also offers one of - if not the - best place to communicate with your customers and establish your brand.
If you’ve already established a social media storefront as brought out above, then you now have access to very valuable data you can use to track the performance of your products and your customers’ habits and make changes accordingly.
Reaching out to and monitoring your customers for feedback, communicating any valuable information, and taking a more personal interest in your customers (especially if you’re a small business) can go a long way towards building trust and a good reputation with your customers and provide a more secure future for your business.
3.) Social Media Gives You A Great Opportunity To Correct Mistakes
As social media makes for a great opportunity for people’s voices to be heard, you can bet any amount of many that if people have a complaint, they’ll take to the internet to vent.
While this can be troublesome in some scenarios, majority of the power as to the outcome of these situations actually rests in the hands of the seller.
Customers can be as belligerent and unpleasant as they please, but it ultimately comes down to your reaction and how you handle the situation that can affect your reputation and the trust that exists between you and your customers.
If you handle things in a calm, reasonable manner and attempt to reach a satisfying solution, people will take note of that. Finding some of these unhappy campers on social media can require some vigilance, however.
Be regular in patrolling and keeping an eye on things, and try your best to address any issues as soon as they arise.
4.) Social Media Also Allows For Customers To Build Your Rep For You!
If people often take to social media to vent negativity, then it’s guaranteed that the inverse is also true: people also take to social media to sing your praises!
After a great customer service experience or a great deal, a lot of people will excitedly share their happy experience with the world over whatever outlet they use.
If you’re regular in patrolling said outlets yourself, then this offers a marvelous opportunity to build even further by expressing appreciation or thanks for the good word!
Another opportunity you have to let your customers build your rep can happen on your own site if you implement the option of allowing them to leave reviews!
This allows you to not only keep connected with your customers and monitor and address any issues as well, but it also gives a nice, centralized location for any visitors to see firsthand your reputation and decide for themselves if they want to buy from you.
Shopify has tons of options when it comes to integrating this feature into your site.
Social media is a powerful tool that can be put to use for great benefit for you and your ecommerce business. Expanding your business into new outlets can reach a broader audience and keep you closely connected with your customers.
Gapstow Design would love to help you accomplish that. As an Ecommerce Consulting firm located in Cleveland, Ohio, we specialize in helping businesses expand and integrate into new channels.
We’d love to hear from you and see how we can help you achieve your goals!
