As paid social media continues to play a huge role in brands’ e-commerce funnels, social media platforms are constantly competing in an ever-fragmented landscape. Not only are they fighting for screen time from users, but they’re also fighting for dollars from advertisers. That’s where paid media buyers come in. 

While Facebook remains the industry leader with sophisticated business accounts and support, other platforms are offering brands a more customised and ‘hub-like’ experience for their consumers, all while keeping them in-platform. Each platform has taken its own approach, leveraging its core identity to take steps towards a customised e-commerce experience. Overall, the new features that are being tested and added on a monthly basis demonstrate this continued pressure to make the consumer purchase process as seamless as possible.

Snapchat

Leveraging its identity as a ‘social camera’ platform, Snapchat has introduced a feature to jump on the virtual try-on bandwagon through custom lenses. Consumers can try on any product in a business’ catalog to marry the benefits of trying things on in a store to shopping online. They’ve noted that with this technology, sizing and fit is hugely important to this virtual experience.

Pinterest

Pinterest, also known as the go-to for DIY, ideas, and inspiration, just launched Idea Pins. This allows creators with business accounts to share video content using sophisticated video editing tools. The platform’s ultimate goal with this feature is bigger than its initial launch. The Pinterest team is also testing product tagging features to inspire pinners to shop directly out of creators’ content and provide that one-stop-shop from inspiration to discovery to purchase.

TikTok

As a content consumption and discovery platform, TikTok recently announced a partnership with Shopify to allow in-app purchases. As the newest player on the block, the platform is quickly trying to catch up to its counterparts in the social media advertising space, finding the right solutions for brands and differentiating its solutions from those of legacy platforms like Facebook. Brands participating in this initial testing phase with Shopify have a storefront within their TikTok profile, which displays a range of merchandise with product images and prices.

Overall, these social platforms are still used as discovery tools and brands need to keep up with offerings on their e-commerce website experience in order to retain customers once they’ve shopped. But in a world where brand loyalty is on the decline, there is always a new opportunity to introduce your brand to new consumers via social media platforms.

Our paid media buyers mix the right channels with the right experience in order to get your consumers from seeing a product for the first time to clicking that “purchase” button as quickly as possible. If you’re interested in shortening your consumer journey on social media, get in touch with our team at info@honestlondon.co.uk.