According to eMarketer, U.S. social commerce sales will hit $36.62 billion in 2021. Social commerce brings tangible opportunities to drive sales and create loyal customers, and many brands are using it to their advantage to reap serious rewards.
In this post, check out seven social commerce examples from brands expanding their businesses and explore tips to use at your own organization.
1. Ocean Spray: Listen To Unique Audiences and Roll With It
In 2020, Nathan Apodaca, known as 420doggface208 on TikTok, filmed himself with Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and a 64-ounce bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry, which soon became a viral hit.
Image Source: 420doggface208/TikTok
In a podcast interview with The Digital Shelf Institute, Trace Rutland, digital hub director at Ocean Spray, shared that “the video received over 13 million views. Sales for Fleetwood Mac’s song jumped 374%, and average daily uses of “Dreams” on TikTok also jumped 1,380% after the video went viral.”
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Listen to your existing and potential customers. They’ll give you insights into what type of content you should create. In the case of Ocean Spray, their video idea didn’t come from Nathan, but from his social media followers.
2. McCormick: Spice Up Your Content With Collaboration
Influencer marketing plays a crucial part in McCormick’s product launch strategies. Recently, the brand partnered with the food influencer Tabitha Brown to create a new product and promote it on social media, called Sunshine Seasoning.
This co-developed flavor helped them achieve “record-breaking sales results,” according to Alia Kemet, McCormick’s VP of creative and digital marketing on Modern Retail.
Image Source: @iamtabithabrown/Instagram
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Keep an eye on what your consumers are interested in and whom they’re interacting with. Then, develop products that align with their preferences. McCormick’s team noticed that everyone was falling in love with Tabitha Brown on TikTok, so they decided to work with her. They also did a good job of identifying trending hashtags and concepts relevant to their brand.
3. Elf Cosmetics: Put Your Authentic Face Forward
Created by creative agency Movers+Shakers, E.L.F Cosmetics’ “Eyes Lips Face” challenge is one of the most successful marketing campaigns on TikTok (and a great addition to this list of social commerce examples). This campaign attracted over 3 million user-generated videos, more than 4 billion views, and scores of non-sponsored celebrity videos.
Image Source: TikTok
Evan Horowitz, CEO of Movers+Shakers, shares with The Digital Shelf Institute podcast that TikTok is “now relevant for most brands because a big segment of their audience is spending a disproportionate amount of their social media hours on TikTok.”
And this platform is no longer just for young people.
“While we entered 2020 with pretty much everyone on TikTok being Generation Z, leaving 2020 and now in 2021, only about half of TikTok is Generation Z. The other half is over 25,” he adds.
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
According to Horowitz, the key to success on TikTok is an authentic story. Find a way to translate your brand into the TikTok world while staying true to what you’re doing. Then, move forward.
4. JOAH Beauty: Embrace Natural Growth
Another brand that achieves huge success on TikTok is JOAH Beauty. Despite just starting to participate on the platform in late 2020, this brand has grown its following from zero to more than 66k followers to date.
JOAH Beauty’s TikTok strategies use organic and paid content to showcase the authentic transformation of their products.
They work with influencers or content creators who “come off ‘natural’ in their videos, and that stays true to their channel’s brand,” says JOAH Beauty marketing director Xue Li on Digital Commerce 360. This approach ensures that they market their products to those who are highly likely to purchase.
Image Source: JOAH Beauty/TikTok
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Spend enough time researching influencers to choose the right one for your brand. Don’t rush this process, as your chosen influencers will determine your campaign’s performance.
5. Shapermint: Lean Into Partnerships
Due to COVID-19, many brands cut down their marketing budget, but that’s not the case for web-only shapewear brand Shapermint. The brand has kept its marketing dollar allocation for brand ambassadors and influencers steady, which later showed a successful strategy.
For example, in 2020, Shapermint partnered with more than 100 influencers and brand ambassadors to run the Mother’s Day #MakeTheCall campaign across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The campaign generated more than 2 million views, 20 million impressions, and reached almost 10 million unique people.
Image Source: @shapermint/Instagram
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Be creative and responsive in the way you implement influencer marketing. If you have a great idea and a sure-fire plan, go for it. The current situation might create a lot of challenges, but it can also be an opportunity for your business to thrive.
6. Lindex: Leverage Livestream Selling
Livestream shopping on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has evolved rapidly in ecommerce. Many brands are experimenting with this format to sell beauty products, clothing, electronics, and home furnishings.
European apparel merchant Lindex is an excellent social commerce example where using livestream shopping increased sales.
Their May 2021 livestream shopping event was their most successful event to date, getting twice as many viewers as its average tune-in rate and generating a 55% add-to-cart rate, the merchant says on Digital Commerce 360.
Image Source: Lindex
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Let customers interact with your brand while you livestream. Lindex encourages their customers to ask questions for influencer hosts to answer, which is great for driving engagement.
7. Betabrand: Build a Lively Community
Like Lindex, Betabrand also turns into live commerce platforms to market products, drive engagement, and boost purchases.
The brand has used livestream for new product drops since 2019 and now broadcasts twice a week. According to Betabrand founder and CEO Chris Lindland, half of their sales are now driven by livestream events.
Image Source: Betabrand
Takeaway Tips for Your Brand
Livestream regularly. This way, you can develop a relationship with your shoppers, and your shoppers can also build connections with other people who shop. The more engagement you have with shoppers, the greater confidence and trust they’ll have with you.
Tap Into Social Commerce Today
With these success stories, it’s clear that brands can’t afford to ignore social commerce. The sooner you adapt to this trend, the more you’ll benefit from it. Applying the tips mentioned among these social commerce examples might just fast-track your brand to game-changing digital shelf performance.
If you need help implementing social commerce, download our guide, The Social Commerce Crash Course for Brands, for a clear direction on how to get started.
