The Instagram Buyer: 3 Reasons E-Commerce Sellers Should Double-Down On Social in 2019
Amazon changed E-commerce everywhere.
They made the idea of putting a credit card on the internet “normal”. And because of their investment in distribution infrastructure, they’ve tapped into buyers need for instant-gratification, and buyers will legitimately get mad now if they are not receiving a product in 48 hours after clicking ‘Buy Now’.
But the #1 way that Amazon has changed E-commerce is by changing the way that buyers find products.
Recently, Amazon has surpassed Google as the #1 place people go to find new products, accounting for 54% of all product searches and captures nearly $0.49 of every dollar spent on the internet.
They do this because it is so damn easy to buy products on Amazon.
But despite the simplicity that Amazon has in their order process, I’m predicting that over the next decade we will see a large shift in more transactional purchases shifting off of Amazon and onto platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks (maybe even LinkedIn?)
Here’s why:
1. With Amazon, it has never been easier to buy a product, but as a seller, it has never been harder.
Think of this like internet marketing back in 2004. If you wrote consistently about the technical components of insurance and wrote blogs about “5 quick steps to save on auto insurance” after a bit of time you will probably start ranking pretty nicely.
In todays age, insurance has an average CPC of nearly $60 and getting anywhere close to the first page is a fools errand that will likely cost you a fortune.
It’s the same with Amazon.
If I were to start selling Dog Collars back in 2008 on Amazon, I’d likely have an empire of canine harnesses and dominate the real estate on the first page with hundreds of reviews by now.
These days however, no buyer will dare pass the first two pages on Amazon.com, and getting on those first few pages requires extreme amounts of traffic and reviews which are nearly impossible when you are buried on page 57.
2. Buyers are OK with putting their credit card into social media accounts
I know what you’re thinking — what about all of the Facebook privacy issues? Don’t people care about putting their credit card there?
Shockingly, no.
In fact, out of the > 1 billion users on Instagram, 72% of them have reported buying something off of Instagram in the past.
Buyers are more receptive than ever to purchase products the second they see them even on mobile devices.
And this is likely a result of Instagram allowing companies to tag their products from their current website and allowing buyers to purchase directly from the Instagram app.
Additionally, not only are they OK with buying the products on Instagram, they are in fact searching for them.
More often than not this is existing in the service and tourism industries where users can search for things to do when traveling based on local Instagram Stories that are posted and the Tags used in these videos.
However as we begin to see the growth in users following hashtags (yes this is a thing now) we will continue to see users discovering products right from their existing newsfeed.
3. Sellers are already doing this… and it’s working.
I just recently watched the Netflix documentary on Fyre Festival which was essentially a scam that convinced people who had a spare $20,000 lying around to spend it on a tropical music festival. When they arrived… well there was nothing (spoiler alert?).
But the point that was so interesting to me was that they sold out of their entire registration to this and made so much money because they convinced models and celebrities and influencers all to post from their account promoting the festival.
These influencers carry serious weight in their messages.
In fact out of the marketers that used social media influencers, 92% report to have reported to have found it successful.
It’s the reason that Jerry Media, the owner of @FuckJerry and several other parody accounts is able to launch million dollar products at the click of a button.
And the reason you’ve likely seen this red bathing-suit in your newsfeed sometime in the past 18 months:
The point being, this stuff works and brands are continuing to build a voice where their consumers are to avoid the costly conversion that comes with driving traffic to their site.
Ultimately, with the competition that exists in the product search on Amazon.com going up combined with the purchasing power that exists on these social networks continuing to rise, buyers will find that their brand can stand out by building a larger voice on social media.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below... if you liked this piece let me know and I’ll write more like it!
