After carefully building the content of social media platforms and building a targeted audience into social media it is time to move to further steps.
Social media audience can not be very valuable if the business owner does not have a plan regarding its usage therefore a new system of client and business connections is offered as an Online store or known as Ecommerce business.
The Connection between Ecommerce selling and social media platforms is seen as highly strategic because of the marketing reason. From one perspective Ecommerce sells products through its websites, and at the same time through social media the power of brand awareness is very big.
Considering the products of restaurant business, the ecommerce platforms sells through websites and ecommerce channels and at the same time the support coming from social media audience increases the awareness of clientele which results to a very good marketing strategy together.
Social Media marketing strategy can help the business ecommerce platforms in the following examples:
- Brand awareness
- Communicate fluently with the clientele
- Generate more website traffic
- Connect with clientele
- Build community
In order to build a connection between the ecommerce platforms and social media marketing strategy with the example of restaurant products an explanation on how to build both of them is as follow:
In order to Build an ecommerce platform and list all the products available for sale it is important to follow the steps such as:
- Conduct E-commerce market research/Finding a niche
In this phase, known as the first phase, the business manager researches about the market and finds a specific niche into the market on selling products of his business. The business should research its competitors, similar businesses, name of competitors, products sales, design of the products, location of sales, etc.
- Select the website to build the platform
There are a variety of platforms that can help you build an ecommerce store however there is always the possibility of designing it by your skills which is more expensive and it takes lots of time, therefore
Some of the best websites that help you build ecommerce platforms are Shopify. Com or Square. Com
- Website design and Business Name
There are cases where the domain name is not available therefore it is needed to buy a specific domain with the specific business name which allows the company to open its ecommerce store with the business name they have.
- Set Online payment method
Online payment method is very crucial, the store developer must be very precise in this platform because the client’s money is very important. The platform builder should set the online payment method very easy and very secure. Making the clients be very safe when using your ecommerce platform
- List the products/ Develop products
At this step the business owner should develop the list of products selling and should list all of those products pictures into the ecommerce platform. The pictures and videos of the products should be very clear because the clients want to see the products very well before purchasing them.
Since the focus of this blog post is restaurant business, those kinds of ecommerce platforms can list a variety of products such as: food, machinery, knives, kitchen tools, tables, chairs, or any product that has restaurant logo, etc.
- Advertise Ecommerce platform on social media
The way you use social media marketing to increase the sales of business through ecommerce platforms is very significant and needs a proper strategy to follow therefore the following steps helps you to build an social media strategy that help ecommerce sales.
Building brand awareness
– It is important to create a hit before launching the ecommerce platforms and that is done by launching news and information for the upcoming ecommerce store. At this stage the business will just inform the audience that the ecommerce store will be launched so they will be ready to go and visit as soon as the store is available.
Create logo of the online store
– The logo and the design should be published all over social media platforms which will make the audience see what is about to come. Through this the audience will already know the online store of the business therefore they will have an imagination of how the business store will look like.
Advertising
– As soon as the business has the store, domain name and logo design it is time to use that to advertise through social media advertising tools. Some of the best tools to use are Instagram ads, Facebook ads, google ads, YouTube ads and LinkedIn ads.
Link ecommerce store with social media platforms
– After the advertising is already launched and the ecommerce platform is functioning, it is important to link all social media platforms with the website link of the ecommerce store which will make it possible for the audience to have the store link to review when they want to visit it.
Client service
– Another important factor is client service which allows the audience to give comments, likes, reviews and share their ideas on what their experiences are when purchasing products at the store of the business. It is important that these reviews are good because some of the clients will be checking this review to understand if the store is serious or if it is not.
Therefore, the manager of the ecommerce store and social media marketing should understand that the clientele and social media audience should give good reviews to the business.
The connection between social media platforms and online selling platforms can bring much benefits to the business.
Allowing the business to develop two platforms at the same time where at one side in social media they publish content and gain an audience and at the other ecommerce platform they sell products can increase the sales of the business.
Increasing the sales of the business means they will get more profit and will improve the quality of the product which will result in two positive sides where at one side the business makes more money and clients get better products.
References:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/how-to-start-an-ecommerce-business
-https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-ecommerce/
i like the idea! lets make it a reality