Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Type of social commerce goals
As part of your social commerce strategy, you’re likely to want to focus on two types of goals:
- Direct sales: These are sales and revenue directly from social commerce.
- Assisted sales: People discover your products by browsing your social store, and then purchase elsewhere, such as on your website.
Let’s now look at each of these in some more detail.
Direct sales
You can choose direct sales as a goal for lower-cost items. Remember, people are more likely to buy on social media in an impulsive or partially impulsive manner. And impulsive purchases tend to be for lower-cost items that don’t usually need a lot of consideration.
While products at lower price points sell well with social commerce, established brands can also sell higher-price items on social media. This is because consumers are likely to be already familiar with the product quality and are more informed about its features. 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.
Assisted sales
You can use assisted sales (or indirect sales) 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. Potential customers may need more information and visit your website or read reviews before making a purchase. However, the starting point of their purchase journey was through the social commerce store.
The final purchase might be made on a company website, but the product discovery happened on social media. As a result, we can see that social media had an assisting role in the purchase.
Back to TopDerek Liddy
Derek is Head of Marketing and e-commerce for Carrolls Irish Gifts. He has over 20 years’ experience developing brands through digital channels, onsite UX/UI, and digital innovation. He has previously worked as the Head of Digital Marketing at Aer Lingus, Head of Online for Anglo Irish Bank, Head of Digital Strategy at Continuum, and has held communications roles at Windmill Lane and Animo Television.
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.
These walkthrough videos give clear, step-by-step demonstrations and guidance on how to apply key digital marketing concepts and strategies, and use industry-standard tools. While relevant to this module, you will not be assessed on this content.
