Welcome to the Make It Big Podcast. This bi-weekly audio series is about all things BigCommerce ecommerce.

This episode features Meta’s Derek Netto and BigCommerce’s Melissa Dixon. They share success strategies for Instagram. Get an insider’s look at the latest trends in social commerce, how to sell more using Instagram Shopping, and the next generation of social connection in Metaverse.

All episodes of The Make it Big Podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple, and Google.

Episode 20 of The Make It Big Podcast

Melissa Dixon – Can you take our listeners on a tour of the evolution of the social landscape and show them how it got to where it is today?

Derek Netto: “Before diving in, I’d love to begin by defining social commerce. Many people mistakenly think that social commerce is just buying stuff on social media. It’s not just about buying stuff via social media. But, it’s much more. Social commerce is a paradigm shift in how people discover and buy new products. It is a shift in consumer behaviour.

“How did people sell stuff on Instagram if you could travel back in time to a few years ago? Let’s suppose you came across a post that you liked. What would you do if the seller asked you to purchase it? The seller usually said, “Scroll up from my post, read my bio, and tap this link” to take you to my website.

“That was a very difficult process with a lot of friction and sellers losing buyers at every turn. Instagram also realized that Instagram was being used by more businesses to reach more customers and grow their businesses. These two factors combined, led us to launch Instagram Shopping.

“With Instagram Shopping we took existing behavior and simplified it. We created the framework that allows sellers to tell buyers to tap on the product in the post. The buyer is then taken to the store that lives on Facebook or Instagram. They would then click the link to complete the purchase at the seller’s site.

“This was great. But, we thought, ‘How do we make it even more amazing? We thought of ways to eliminate friction. So we created the em app em that allows buyers to view the product on Instagram, and then to purchase it.

We now have an opportunity to integrate Instagram into the customer journey from discovery to purchase.

MD – What emerging trends in [social commerce] should businesses be aware of and who is driving them?

DN: “The most popular trend right now is video, but I wouldn’t call it an emergent trend since it’s already huge at the moment. There is a huge increase in the number of tagged video content which leads to a checkout page. The video format can be used in many different ways. We’ve tagged stories, reels, and live shopping.

Live shopping on Instagram offers businesses a way to connect on an intimate and more personal level with their customers. Live shopping allows buyers to view a seller’s product live stream and share their brand story. As a business, this is a fantastic opportunity to personalize your brand and offer customers an immersive way to interact.

Live shopping is estimated to reach $25 billion in annual sales next year.

MD – Do you have any advice for sellers considering a live shopping event?

DN: “Choosing the right product is the first step to ensuring your success.” Consider your entire product catalogue and determine which products you can most easily demo. What are the best products you can demo?

Once you have the product in mind, think about who your host should look like. We’ve seen brands use celebrities, while others use professionals. If your brand has a founder story, and the founder is central to what you stand for, this is a good strategy.

Whatever the case may be, the key is to simply be authentic to your brand and to share your brand story.

You can then start thinking about promotions. How can we ensure that people will show up when your event goes live? You can do this by using our scheduling tools. Your followers will receive a push notification during the period leading up to your event.

It’s important to interact with your followers while you’re online. Even giving shout-outs could be a possibility. We have seen sales increase by offering a flash sale or making the product exclusive to your drop.

“Finally after the broadcast ends you can save it and put it on your website. This allows people to watch it .”

MD – What advice would you give to someone just starting on Instagram? Are there any best practices, or lesser-known tactics they should be focusing on?

DN “I like sharing with people who:

A business presence on Instagram is similar to having a business at one of the busiest places in the world.

“We have more than one million people who are joining together to build culture and create something special…Instagram allows people to express themselves, connect with brands they love, and make these connections. Building a sense of community is key to building your company, as I have said before. User-generated content will play a major role in this.

Studies have shown that user-generated material is an important lever for increasing your sales. Because content from the community builds trust and expands your reach,

“We have really internalized this learning at Instagram and that’s the reason why we’ve added the ability to tag products in our most recent product update… This is a major win for user-generated material and we expect a large influx of people to tag products.

“As a company, you have the ability to see all community content and select which content you wish to include on your product page. Now, anyone who purchases your product can be a brand ambassador.

Another important tip is to remember that your creative strategy will be one of the biggest levers to your sales success. Creative strategy refers to the photo, video, and text that you use for your content as well as your ads.

Nielsen studies show that ads have a 56% share of digital advertising’s sales lift. Let’s look at this. You optimized your ad creativity em> to make the same product sell 56% more.

MD : What about the more experienced social commerce professionals? What are their options for what’s new and how can they grow their business if they’re more experienced?

DN

“Augmented reality ads are for professionals. AR is mainstream, as we know. AR is now mainstream. We know that AR has been used by about 80% of online users in the last year. Three out of four business leaders consider AR a key part of their marketing strategy for 2023. Start thinking about how AR can be used in your ads.

“Thinking longer term, as we know, our long-term vision is to create the Metaverse to be the next generation of social connections. We are moving towards a place where physical and digital products can be purchased in the Metaverse. We also plan to bring NFTs onto Instagram. The details of these two projects are still being developed .”

MD – What is the most important thing for listeners to take away from this episode?

DN “I want to them know that social shopping is going to be one way people discover and buy products. Projections show that social media commerce will reach $1 trillion by 2025, but don’t wait!

Today’s brands should think about how they can take advantage of the $1 trillion opportunity.

MD: Yes, don’t wait. The future of ecommerce is now.

source https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mib-podcast-episode-20/#the-make-it-big-podcast-episode-20