Using the Power of Social Commerce to Increase Conversions

Internet shopping has changed the way people buy things. Now more than ever, people look towards the opinions of others to help them analyze a product. For any popular product you will find hundreds if not thousands of impartial product reviews posted on the web. Online shoppers now have easy access to this huge resource of consumer reviews to help them decide where and how to spend their money. This is how social commerce has changed the way people shop for products.

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But how can you use this to your advantage? The presence of products reviews and service reviews can prove to be what clinches a sale. If a consumer discovers a product on your e-commerce site, their next step will be to look for reviews to find out how well rated the product is. Unless you display reviews on your own site, those potential customers will click over to another site to find reviews, and will probably buy the product elsewhere.

There are three key ways you can leverage social commerce to to help boost sales and conversions – this is through displaying product reviews on your site, displaying service reviews on your site, and through encouraging customer interaction.

Here is an overview of how effective these three elements of social commerce can be…

Product Reviews

Displaying product reviews from real consumers is a powerful way of prompting a customer to buy from your website and not from a competitor. Even if the user does not buy the exact product they were initially interested in, it’s likely that they will stick around on your site and read reviews of other products you have listed.
Your own customers can then become your best salespeople, as many of them will go on to write positive reviews of products they have bought from your site, which will encourage others to buy.

Service Reviews

In addition to being reassured about the quality of a product, customers also need to have trust in where they are buying from. Online shoppers are very cautious so like to search for signs of good brand reputation. By displaying impartial customer service reviews of your site, you reassure customers that they are safe to order from you. By doing this, you can combat any last minute jitters that a customer may have when making their purchasing decision.

User Interaction

Interaction between the users of your site is another key element that can help customers to get the information they need before making a purchase. For instance, if a customer would like to know a certain piece of information that cannot be gathered from your site, they could contact a previous buyer to get their questions answered. This adds another dimension to your site that carries many top line benefits.

Author Bio:- This guest post is contributed by Mark Pitt. To see more detailed information about how social commerce can improve your brands conversions by up to 123 percent, check out the social e-commerce guide.