Why retailers need to use social 'buy' buttons this Christmas

There has been a lot of hype about social ‘buy’ buttons, but they haven’t really taken off; I thought all of that could change as we enter one of the busiest shopping periods of the year, but following on from Black Friday 2015 I was disappointed with the lack of opportunities to immediately purchase items from social channels such as Twitter. Although many brands such as New Look, EE and Argos promoted tweets, hashtags and targeted users searching for ‘Black Friday’ and ‘offers’ on Twitter, not many retailers used buy buttons to rope in more impulse buyers. For example Argos, who have really embraced Black Friday this year, could have used Buy buttons within their Tweets for low ticket items such as this Andrew Barton AC Dryer.

Adding a buy button would have been perfect for Missguided also. Their deals were often only running for a just couple of hours at a time, creating the sense of urgency that comes with shopping for festive deals.

Retailers know they need to embrace various sales tools to ensure they keep ahead of their competitors and maximise sales; and you could argue that being seen using ‘buy’ buttons on their social media could position a brand as a trailblazer by potential customers.

Social buy buttons work very effectively in stores that are running a sale for example, linking the need for immediacy by consumers and the ability of retailers to offer location based offers.

Using beacons, and especially virtual beacons that are able to pinpoint a customer with far greater accuracy in a store, in conjunction with the retailer’s app, a brand marketer would be able to see that a particular customer has been looking at a display of on-sale TVs for the last 10 minutes.

The marketer can send them a tweet with a ‘Buy It Now’ button for a specific sale TV (perhaps with an extra discount and the option of click and collect), giving the customer the option of avoiding the checkout queue and carrying the heavy item home.

Brands can also showcase their best flash sale deals and offers within social posts, that include desirable images, pricing information, reviews and even a countdown timer to add even more urgency to the situation - with more product information being displayed once users click the buy button. This strategy combined with paid promoted tweets could work especially well if audiences are targeted via specific search terms, such as ‘Cyber Monday deals’ ‘electronics deals’ ‘Black Friday offers’ etc.

With the impulsive purchasing nature that comes with both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, buy buttons on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have the potential to perform exceptionally well. Click to buy buttons on Pinterest and Facebook will also do well - users may have already liked a brand’s Facebook page or followed a brand’s Pinterest board, showing they already like the products they sell, and so are more predisposed to make impulse or considered purchases.

With Pinterest’s ability for brands to create boards based around particular themes such as Christmas decorations and holiday recipes, users could purchase everything they need in one go. This one stop shop ability, where someone could order all the ingredients in a few clicks that they need to make a cake they see on Pinterest for example, could be very appealing. This would allow retailers to turn Pinterest boards into a brand’s online inventory.

One brand I’ve seen who are fully embracing social commerce are Net-a-Porter. During the Festival of Marketing 2015, their SVP of Social Commerce, Sarah Watson, gave an interesting insight into The NETSET. An app where ‘the world’s most stylish women share and shop’, and the latest string to the YOOX NET-A-PORTER Group’s expanding bow.

Net-a-Porter is a brand that understands 40% of sales are now made through mobile devices and four-fifths of customers would be more inclined to buy a brand after being exposed to it on social media. Enter the NETSET. A community of like-minded individuals where users can browse, share and shop the most loved, most shopped and emerging trends, along with live feeds, style councils and Pinterest-like profiles. The app makes it easier than every for users to shop socially. You can even take a photo of something you like the colour of (not necessarily a clothing item) and it’ll fetch available items to match.

The introduction of this kind of social platform and retail app is a step forward for social commerce as the ROI is spread across various channels. By implementing this kind of social commerce strategy, retailers are able to gain insights into customer demand, emerging trends, customer segmentation and community feedback. All of which can then be applied across all digital channels.

Rebecca Smith is Social Marketing Executive at SmartFocus and sits on the DMA Social Media Council.