Social selling in e-commerce

For a number of years, social selling has been used across all sectors in the pursuit of higher revenues and greater customer loyalty. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine online retail without it, because social selling is perfect for building long-term customer relationships.

Despite what the name might suggest, the results from social selling do not show up immediately in current sales figures. That’s because social selling is about viewing the building of long-term, trusted customer relationships as an important step in the sales process. This means that the core idea behind social selling is to build a customer network online. If these close relationships are prioritized, they will provide a promising basis for good sales figures and a high level of customer loyalty in the long term.

What role does social selling play in e-commerce?

Almost all companies engaged in online retail now use social selling. It’s a useful tool for creating trust, boosting revenue and creating high repurchasing rates, driven by long-term customer relationships. Social selling also offers another crucial advantage for e-commerce companies. By staying in regular close contact with customers, companies gain valuable insights into their concerns and problems. Social selling thus makes it possible to better understand customers and their requirements.

How do companies begin with social selling?

Social selling is a long-term process. The first step is to develop a strategy that takes into account the specific target market and individual company goals. This strategy is then used to create an attractive and insightful corporate profile on relevant social media platforms, such as LinkedIn.

The core social selling activities can then begin. This involves companies posting relevant, high-quality content on their profiles that offer genuine added value to followers. By doing so, the network will in time grow in a sustainable and organic manner. To achieve the best results, it’s best to post content regularly and to engage directly with your own followers. That’s because active interaction and creating personal connections are essential components of social selling. To make social selling even more effective, companies should occasionally refocus their content and adjust it to meet the needs of their target audience.

Getting started is no easy task

When companies begin social selling, they often lack the expertise and resources. New processes also need to be established. Once these initial hurdles have been overcome, social selling offers numerous advantages to e-commerce companies: better access to their target market, greater customer loyalty and higher revenues are just some of the benefits.