In light of the events that unfolded as a result of the COVID19 pandemic, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say the world has made years of digital transformation progress in a matter of months. And it hasn’t happened because everyone suddenly wanted to go digital. The coronavirus has turned the world upside down.
Nation-wide lockdowns and strict social distancing guidelines have presented businesses with an entirely new set of challenges, bringing in sweeping changes in how we shop, work, and live.
Like every other aspect of human activity, major changes are taking place in the eCommerce space as well. According to PYMNTS.com, eCommerce has grown to account for almost half of pandemic-driven retail growth in the US.
In the UK, online sales soared to 30% of total retail sales. Admittedly, this is also due to the steep decline in brick and mortar retail sales due to the pandemic.
Image source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52766856
Accordingly, some of the biggest players in the social and eCommerce space have started making moves to help SMEs make a smooth transition to eCommerce. On May 17, 2020, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Facebook Shops. Starting with a limited number of businesses, the feature will eventually be rolled out globally.
Didn’t We Already Have This Feature?
No, we did not. What we had was Facebook Page Shops that only allowed businesses to list their products without the option for users to add to cart, checkout, or to have a customized branded experience.
What’s New Then?
Facebook Page Shops are being upgraded to Facebook Shops. This feature allows users to not only browse a seller’s collections, see product details, save products, but also eventually buy the product without leaving the app. One of the best things about Facebook Shops is that businesses can customize the look and feel of the experience, maintaining their brand.
Facebook is also working with some of the most prominent players in the eCommerce space to improve seamless connectivity between online stores and their Facebook Shops. The partners are:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
- Channel Advisor
- CedCommerce
- Cafe24
- Tienda Nube
- Feedonomics
What About Instagram?
There’s good news! The ability to buy directly from your favorite brands is being rolled out to Instagram as well. This is in addition to Instagram Checkout that allows businesses to tag products in the images they post, directly leading to checkout.
Shops on Instagram are designed to match the experience on Facebook Shops. It’s a mobile-first design that’s customizable using easy-to-manage tools for brands maintain a seamless transition between their stores and Shops.
Image source: https://business.instagram.com/blog/introducing-shops-on-instagram
Impact on SMEs
The introduction of Shops opens up an exciting new channel for small businesses to leverage their social media following to increase sales without leaving the FB/IG apps.
Until now, brands that have been able to amass a large social media following with quality/viral content had to try to eventually get people to click on links to their external stores/product pages. The result was a disruption in the user journey leading to potentially higher bounce rates.
Now that users can shop without leaving their apps, the user experience and journey would be a lot more streamlined. Consequently, SMEs should see a significant improvement in online sales and social ROI, making an investment in social media easier to justify for marketing managers.
The Finer Details
Once the Shops product fully rolls out, a few things I’d be looking closely at are:
Retargeting Options
Would businesses be allowed to retarget the people who visit the Shop? A pixel may not be necessary since the action is taking place on the FB/IG apps, but the results may still be shown on the same dashboard.
Analytics
Facebook provides a ton of information to businesses through the Insights feature. I’d be very interested to see what additional information on customers would we be able to see as a result of Shops being added to pages.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the lifeblood of an eCommerce business. Recently, it came to my attention that Facebook is in the process of testing email marketing tools. I would imagine this is directly linked to the overall direction they’re taking in terms of facilitating eCommerce. Exactly how they integrate this feature with Shops and how well they build it is something I’ll be keeping an eye out for.
Overall, as someone who started an eCommerce store and does it for other businesses, I’m super thrilled about this much-needed feature on Facebook and Instagram.
With innovative business models like dropshipping and print-on-demand, platforms like Shopify that support them, and companies like Oberlo and Printful that make it possible to run such stores without ever buying or holding any inventory, creating eCommerce stores has become infinitely easier than it was in the past.
Online sales as a percentage of retail have been increasing globally, but the social and economic impact of covid19 is going to encourage a lot more entrepreneurs and small businesses to look towards eCommerce as their primary or secondary source of income in the future.
Keeping these factors in mind, Facebook’s announcement for Shops is timely and right on the money.