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The days of relying on salespeople to guide our individual customer journeys are quickly becoming extinct as we become more dependent on the Internet. The use of corporate websites, a simple Google search, and reading online product reviews has dramatically increased the scale, speed, and immediacy with which people can find what they are looking for. However, an even bigger player in this change is social media. Through social media, we can interact with brands and companies directly, send messages, participate in online contests, and share our personal interests and reviews of products. As customers, social media has given us the power to control our journey.

Social media’s impact on eCommerce is massive, and it has its metaphorical hand in most of the new customer journey. Think about this: starting from how a customer first interacts with a brand, to the checkout stage, to post-checkout, social media is a driving force. Furthermore, social media’s influence has essentially forced brands to produce interesting content, entertain, and provide value beyond their product offerings. According to Digital Commerce 360, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter help to generate more than $40,000 every minute.

The power of social media is mind-blowing. Social media responsiveness has led to progress in communicating with customers and enhancing their experience. According to many experts, 2016 was a year of conversational commerce – using chat, messengers, or other natural language interfaces to interact with people, brands, or services. As a matter of fact, Gartner’s research shows that brands will lose 15% of their customers if they do not respond to those who contact them via social media. Additionally,  Bain & Company found that a brand can expect an increase of between 20% and 40% in in revenue per customer through communicating to those who reach out via social media.

Social media has become the marketer’s best friend and a customer haven for a seamless shopping experience. Business Journals points out that social media is the absolute best way to reach out to customers because it has a measurable impact on customer purchases. However, staying up to date with rapidly evolving technologies in the eCommerce and marketing industries can be a daunting task. With a slew of new technologies out there, it is also not easy to pinpoint which ones are worth the venture. With that said, eCommerce businesses have an ongoing challenge to drive traffic to their websites, where they turn visitors into paying customers.

To make the task less daunting, Magento has released a new extension, Magento Social, designed to create opportunities for businesses to generate new revenue streams by turning their Facebook pages into digital storefronts. It works by syncing your Magento 2 product catalogue with your social networks in just a few simple clicks.

Magento recognized they had a missing piece in their inclusive package and created a way for your business to reach customers through several touchpoints. Users tend to trust their social networks, and are increasingly coming to them to hunt for future purchasing, or at least be enticed onto sites via the channel of their choice. With this in mind, Shopial, a recent Magento acquisition, made Magento Social.

Some of the key features of Magento Social include:

• Easy to sync: It’s easy for merchants to sync their full Magento product catalogue with their Facebook page
• Drive brand awareness: Promoting products on Facebook helps new customers discover your brand
• Promote brand evangelicalism: Current customers are the best marketers and advocates, and social can make sure their message is heard
• Publish ads: Magento Social allows you to create optimized ads from your Magento site in real-time
• Targeting: Determine who your audience is and how you can best budget your ad spend to reach them

Magento Social works by adding a “Shop” tab to your Facebook Business page, where all your products are synced with your catalog and displayed. If a customer selects one of the products, they will be taken to the corresponding page on your Magento store to purchase. Merchants can also easily select a product and create an ad within a few clicks.

The live demo of Magento Social at Imagine 2017 was certainly compelling and exciting; most of us in the room couldn’t wait to get started. Fortunately, Magento Social is now available for free download. Note that there is an ongoing service fee starting at $35 per month.

Whether you’re just getting started or desperately need a site revamp, expanding your resources is a crucial component of success. Social media provides a great environment for getting to know your customers a little better. Once you’ve set up a presence on the sites where your own customers are most likely to hang out, you’ll be able to interact with them. You can host polls and get feedback on upcoming products. The direct interaction with your customers can be a big step toward getting to know the customer base you serve.

There are plenty of other ways to rev up your social media strategy. ParadoxLabs offers social media marketing and advertising services, as well as automated solutions for audience acquisition and retargeting. Check it out or get in touch with us today!