3 Ways To Use Instagram With Ecommerce
Websites are great, but e-commerce websites are even better. If your business run solely off of sales from an e-commerce site, pay attention. New research shows that online shopping websites that utilize their customers’ Instagram photos on the site have a stronger traffic flow, customers are more engaged in the content, and ultimately sales increase! Here’s how the photo sharing social media platform is helping online retailers:
[success]1. Instagram Campaigns[/success]
You’ve heard of Facebook campaigns and even Twitter campaigns, but what in the world are Instagram campaigns? Essentially, what Instagram does is combines the best of both Twitter and Facebook. It’s a photo sharing app that allows for people to follow one another, share images, tag people in photos, and use hashtags in descriptions. This is where the campaign part comes in. What retailers are able to do as a marketing strategy is implement a hashtag for their loyal customer base and raise brand awareness. Here’s an example: Lululemon started a campaign using the hashtag #TheSweatLife and then asked their customers to snap pictures of themselves modeling Lululemon clothing and accessories and use the hashtag. They had a response of over 26,000 customer photos on Instagram and then used some of the best photos on their website to thank customers for their support in the campaign.
[framed_box width=”0″ height=”0″] E-book: How To Use Instagram For Business [/framed_box]
[success]2. Real Life Examples[/success]
Another way Instagram photos can help e-commerce sites is that customers can see real life examples of real people (not models!) wearing certain items of clothing along with reviews on the fit, fabric, and overall wear of the clothing. This actually encourages more online shopping to occur and one website that utilizes this is ModCloth. The vintage clothing website is strictly e-commerce and has a whole measuring and sizing system in place for their customers, however a fan favorite feature is the pictures that users put of themselves wearing the items they’ve bought along with a review. In fact, if there are photos of real customers on e-commerce websites wearing clothing, people are 2-3 times more likely to make an online purchase. It helps other customers in the decision making process of online shopping but it also helps retailers find out about any manufacturing defects, sizing issues, and customer satisfaction with their services.
[success]3. Smartphone Integration[/success]
As mentioned earlier, Instagram is an app that’s all about photo sharing, and surprisingly it’s telling of a target audience. People that often shop online, have smartphones, and use Instagram statistically fall into the age 18-30 demographic. In today’s virtual marketplace, it’s nearly impossible to maintain brand loyalty, but by getting this key demographic to use their everyday handheld devices to not only shop online, but become part of the brand via apps like Instagram is a whole new world of brand loyalty. It’s “cool” to be a sort of walking representative of your favorite brands, and it’s even cooler to be recognized for that on your favorite store’s e-commerce site where they’ve used your Instagram photo. However, this can often get tricky with privacy issues, and we recommend having a “remove photo” option for clients that would rather opt out of having their photo online – just in case.
[notice]What do you think of Instagram being a part of E-commerce? Will this trend last? Tell us what you think in the comments section below![/notice]
photo credit: IvanWalsh.com, @ifatma via photopin cc
