Did you know that about 96% of all online purchases occur on e-commerce sites and marketplaces?
Not on social media.
But wait, let’s back up a bit.
First and foremost. Im not saying don’t use social media to sell stuff—quite the opposite. But the different media fill different needs in the customer’s buying journey. Discovery often happens on social media, where the customers discover a product, see who uses it, and how it works. But the purchase is made on the brand’s e-commerce store.
This happened to me when I saw an influencer I respect recommend a pregnancy pillow. Then later, the company had a live shopping event where they talked further about it, and I made my purchase there without needing to leave the live stream.
That is also one thing that differs from having your Live Shopping on your site. Because you are thrown out of the live stream when clicking a link on social media. This could be better, especially if you plan to buy more things. You only want to check out once, so the customer experience on social media could be more optimal.
That said, you should keep having live streams on social media. You can chat & connect with your followers in a significant way. But when you mix in purchasing, the experience differs greatly from social media. It’s much easier for the customer to buy, and don’t get me started on the average viewing time and TSB (Time Spent With Brand), which is much higher on your site for the following reasons.
On your website, the viewer can not just scroll out. There are no ads, and you have complete control of every aspect of the shopping experience, from the player’s branding to choosing products, integrations, chat, etc. First-party data & all the content you create you have full ownership of, in perpetuity. That’s a strong selling point of its own.
It’s up to you and your company to decide what experience you want to provide your customers.
It is much easier to go live on Instagram and doesn’t require any technical integrations. I get that. But your website is the way to go if you are serious about implementing a Live Shopping strategy long-term.
Remember that the technical integrations only need to be done once, which is usually the least of our customers’ concerns when implementing Live Shopping.
As I’ve said before. Live Shopping and social media do not compete against each other.
If used correctly, it’s a match made in heaven.
