Will Influencers be the Future of E-commerce?
As e-commerce brands move towards digital forms, the traditional marketing avenues are being replaced by influencers and their affiliated marketing strategies.
Following Instagram’s shopping feature that enabled businesses to add product tags in their posts, it becomes clearer how important influencer marketing is in driving e-commerce. With this feature, buyers can easily find the information regarding the products they are interested in by clicking the pictures displayed on the posts. From prices, fabric types, sizes, for instance, everything is within the reach of single click. What’s even better is customers can even order the products directly on Instagram.
This groundbreaking Instagram update obviously puts influencers at the center stage as their social media role keeps increasing prominently and could significantly steers the direction of e-commerce in the future.
Influencers and E-commerce Today
For the time being, influencers on social media are using hashtags to drive traffic, sharing their authentic experience to win people’s trust, as well as using a promotion code to boost up sale. This is the ‘standard’ procedure being taken by hundreds and thousands of influencers on social media, which is also how most e-commerce brands are leveraging them.
While there’s nothing wrong with the practice, however, smart marketers know that part of the marketing strategy and customer service is to offer an upgraded experience. In other words, marketers should always strive to deliver a ‘wow’ factor that surprises their customers.
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Many of purchases made by online shoppers are mostly done out of impulse, therefore, it is imperative for brands and marketers to find a strategic approach, utilizing influencers, to optimize the lingering effect of this short-lived impulse.
Optimizing Influencer Marketing
Instagram’s recent upgrade makes it obvious enough that influencer marketing will still be the key that reshapes ecommerce. Added with the constant changing of marketing trends and how disruptive digital transformation could be, how would influencers triumph in this new digital ecosystem?
Dynamic interaction
Naturally, as influencer marketing industry matures, customer relationship becomes even more important. With brands putting influencers on the spot, not only as their brand ambassadors, but also part of the customer experience that brands offer, influencers would be expected to be more vocal in terms of representing the brands. How? Via customer interaction.
Even more than ever, interaction will be critical to establish a solid and personalized connection with customers. Now, customers can directly reach brands and influencers via direct messages, live-chat, among others, instead of leaving questions in web pages. At such, consequently, it’s possible for customers to expect influencers to be in charge of answering some FAQs regarding the products they promote.
Hashtags here and there
In the near future, influencers are not only responsible for sharing the experience but also the sales. With more e-commerce brands launching posts that could directly bring users to check-out pages, driving traffic will not be the sole duty of influencers as their brand ambassadors. As technology evolved, influencers need to step up their games to prove their values.
Therefore, influencers who are also actively participating in increasing revenues could be seen as more valuable assets for e-commerce brands in the future. So, how do influencers help in improving sales? A simple way is by utilizing hashtags. Granted, hashtags are not new, but it will be a mistake to look down on its potential. Creative hashtags can easily go viral online, which tremendously increases exposure. Topped with intensive use of the particular hashtags, it is not impossible for influencers to drive sales from hashtags alone.
Social Media is the Next Battlefield
Today, the line between e-commerce and social media has become even more blurred. After all, more social media channels, from Instagram to Facebook, are appeasing online shoppers with improved convenience and better customer experience.
So how can brands react to this trend while still maximizing the potential of influencer marketing to propel their businesses?
The very own influencers
If in the early phase of influencer marketing, most brands are relying on social networks and influencer platforms to look for influencers for collaboration, today, more e-commerce brands have started on nurturing their very own influencer groups.
Establishing your own influencers is quite similar with fostering your personal social media channels. Although it could be more time-consuming, but it also has its own perks. Having exclusive influencers to represent your brands will leave an even bigger impact on the audiences, because the influencers are genuinely interested and passionate about the brands they are representing. The passion will translate into authentic storytelling, which will leave a stronger brand impression on the audiences.
Focus on engagement
The least brands want to do is to have influencers keep promoting their products or services in a way that will annoy their potential customers. The reason why influencers are effective marketing tool is because of their relatability. That’s why, it’s also important to offset a balance between ‘promoting brands’ and ‘sharing experience’.
For brands to thrive among their competitors, improving engagement rate is one of the most effective strategies. After all, online corresponding is part of the experience that influencers can ‘sell’ to the audiences, which in turn translates positively to the brand image and overall brand reputation.
Wrapping Up
There is no doubt that e-commerce has evolved alongside the rising popularity of social media and influencers. Despite the transformation of the industry though, the essence of influencer marketing doesn’t change. What changes is brand’s approach in leveraging influencers in the new digital ecosystem.
Amidst the hefty stride of social media, e-commerce brands have no choice but to find the best practice to operate their business that offers convenience, versatility, and values to gain competitive advantage.
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