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Establishing Social Commerce Goals

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Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Setting objectives

Social commerce can achieve many outcomes, so it’s important to focus in on the primary objective of your marketing campaigns and activities.

There are two types of goals to focus on as part of a successful social commerce strategy:

  • Direct sales: Sales and revenue directly from social commerce
  • Indirect /Assisted sales: People discover your products by browsing your social shop

Direct sales

Let’s look at direct sales first. Consider whether your audience is likely to buy your product or service in an impulsive or partially impulsive manner. Factors that affect this include price, availability, virality, exclusivity, and so on.

While products at lower price points sell well with social commerce, established brands can also sell higher-ticket price items on social media. This is because consumers can be familiar with the product quality and are more informed. As a result, they have the information to help them decide to buy without the risk of paying too much for a product they know little about.

Indirect/Assisted Sales

Choose this as a goal for your social commerce activity if you plan to use your product offerings on social media as a means for people to discover and learn about you. They may need more information and visit your website or read reviews before making a purchase, but the starting point of their purchase journey was through the social commerce shop. The final purchase might be made on a company website, but the product discovery itself happened on social media. As a result, we can see social media as having an assisting role in the purchase.

Consumers can engage with these offers in a number of ways to help make up their mind:

  • Click through to find out more information.
  • Bookmark or save a post.
  • Watch a video.
  • Join a livestream.
  • Ask a question in the comments section.
  • Send a direct message, or…
  • Review comments and feedback by other users.

All of these interactions will have an influence on how consumers make up their mind as they consider their options before committing to purchase.

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Alison Battisby

Alison is a Social Media Consultant with Avocado Social, she is a Facebook and Instagram accredited social media expert and founded Avocado Social in 2014 having worked in the social media industry since 2008. Alison has worked with a wide range of brands including Estee Lauder, Tesco, and Pringles. Alison has traveled the world training companies including the BBC, Etsy, Canon, and Cambridge University Press. She offers social media strategy, training, and consultancy at Avocado Social across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. 

ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

Social Commerce & Affiliate Marketing
Alison Battisby
Skills Expert

This module focuses on the fast-moving world of social commerce and affiliate marketing. It begins by explaining the importance of social commerce in a digital strategy and by outlining the key social commerce channels. It then takes you through the steps involved in setting up an integrated social commerce store. After that, you’ll learn about the tools and tactics you can use to drive more sales in your social commerce channels, and how to optimize the performance of your paid social commerce activity. Finally, the module examines how you can use affiliate and influencer marketing to achieve your business objectives.