Social Commerce in 2020/2021 Today’S Brave New Retail Frontier for Strengthening Brand/Customer Relationships

Social Commerce in 2020/2021 Today’s Brave New Retail Frontier for Strengthening Brand/Customer Relationships

Natalie DiBlasi Co-Founder /Partner Managing Executive of Strategy, Marketing & Media

LACED AGENCY | a Strategic Digital Agency www.lacedagency.com

www.linkedin.com/in/nataliediblasi

@lacedtweet / @NatDiBlasi

LICENSING UNIVERSITY: CLS Program October 27, 20201 About Presenter / Speaker:

Name: Natalie DiBlasi Title: CoFounder / Managing Partner Company: LACED Agency www.lacedagency.com Successful since 2002 Privately Owned WHAT I DO: I lead Strategy, Marketing & Media Competencies for all agency Client Campaigns & Initiatives. I also produce/direct of our video initiatives (when time allows)

About me: ● 20+ years of digital experience working on media and marketing campaigns for B2C & B2B clients. ● Verticals include; entertainment, tech, health and wellness, manufacturing, food & beverage, apparel, trucking & logistics, education, travel, HEMP CBD and cannabis among others. ● Insights Sharer / Public Speaker - 9 yrs+ ● Member of Forbes Business Council, LA ● Write/Contribute Thought Leadership (as time allows) ● Consummate Student & Always Learning/Sharing

Fun Fact: I saw Force Awakens 7 times opening weekend, between Thursday and Monday.. And I saw Rise of Skywalker 6 times opening weekend. I am kinda of a star wars fan... 2 What We Will Cover in this Seminar -

AGENDA / SOCIAL COMMERCE ● 3 Factors Driving Social Commerce Surge ● The Landscape of Social Commerce - Is there still opportunity? ● Deﬁning Social Commerce - literally ○ Types of social shopping/commerce ● Who Are the Players? ○ Pinterest - quick snapshot ○ TikTok - quick snapshot ○ Instagram (facebook) - deep dive ■ Case Studies - who is succeeding on Instagram with social commerce? ● How to Track & Measure your Shoppable Campaign ● Other Strategic Approaches to consider for Social Commerce Success ● Best Practices / Quick tips ● Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts

3 Social media platforms continue to be a leader in driving product discovery for brands.

30% of online shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase from a social media network like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat – either through organic or paid efforts.

4 However, we are witnessing a MASSIVE PIVOT happening in SOCIAL MEDIA right now.

5 From INFLUENCE to DIRECT PURCHASING - Social Media has emerged as a valuable resource & channel for driving sales.

Brands can establish Social Commerce as a pivotal piece of their ecommerce strategy.

How? By identifying and leveraging social platforms’ unique ad units - those that are geared for driving sales.

6 Okay…. So What’s DRIVING this change?

7 SOCIAL COMMERCE SURGE WHAT IS DRIVING THIS RAPID CHANGE IN RETAIL?

8 What is behind the Social Commerce Surge?

3 factors:

1. Innovation - Various Social Media Channels have been rapidly catering to social shoppers & rolling out user-friendly platforms & options for businesses over the last 1-2 years.

2. Mobile/Social Usage - The relationship between mobile and social engagement is creating more accessible shopping experiences than ever before.

3. The Global Pandemic - caused 5 years of tech evolution & change to happen within 1 summer. Basically, we sped up natural change to an exponentially faster adoption of new tech & DTC (Direct To Consumer) commerce. Factor #1 - INNOVATION

● Social commerce is still in relative infancy, but the early numbers from existing products are very promising...

eMarketer reports:

“According to Civic Science’s trend adoption tracker, the percentage of internet users who had bought a product directly through social media channels grew each quarter between Q4 2018 and Q3 2019, rising from 13% to 21%. The biggest jump came in Q2, shortly after the launch of Instagram Checkout.”

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/the-wheels-on-the-social-shopping-cart-will-ﬁnally-start-moving 10 Social media platform on which adult social media users in the United States have purchased from as of June 2020

70% of consumers search for products on Instagram and Facebook.

11 Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/250909/brand-engagement-of-us-online-shoppers-on-pinterest-and-facebook/ 12 Facebook The leader in the social commerce space to date, unsurprisingly, is Facebook.

● You can sell products directly to users by setting up a Facebook Shop that connects to your ecommerce platform or an uploaded product catalogue. ● You can tag products in the photos and videos of your organic posts as well as in paid ads. ● Facebook has pretty advanced ChatBots to help with Customer Service. ● Best of all? You can checkout within Facebook without ever leaving the site with Facebook Checkout.

13 CHANNEL: Facebook / ChatBot & Facebook Shopping BRAND: LEGO, Gift Bot

● LEGO uses a chatbot to help you ﬁnd the perfect toy as a gift. ● You answer a few questions and automatically get options delivered. ● Plus, you can buy within the platform and ship it out as a gift without having to leave Facebook. ● LEGO and its bot maker say the chatbot has reduced cost per conversions by 71%.

Source: https://learn.g2.com/types-of-social-commerce Source: https://chatfuel.com/?source=bot_landing_page&page_id=6665038402 14 Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● Ask yourself, How can you help fans with their gift lists & product choices for holidays and/or special events like birthdays? ● Make your product relevant by providing a utility with it that will help your followers daily lives. ● Gift Guides are a great idea for this! You can use Chatbots, Stories, Shoppable Posts, or Live Video with Shopping tags.

15 Instagram is leading innovation & reaching the widest market of users (50% of teenagers are here in addition to brands, businesses, Millennials & Gen X’s) - Instagram stands ahead of the pack for the Western US Market. (as of Oct 2020)

16 Factor #1 - INNOVATION

● Checkout ﬁrst launched in March 2019 with just 26 brands (including Zara, Revolve, Warby Parker, and Nike) making up the original beta test group.

● And now, Instagram Checkout is mainstream - all eligible businesses and creators in the US can now use the checkout feature! Just about anyone that meets the basic eligibility requirements can utilize this amazing social commerce tool!

17 Factor #1 - INNOVATION

● Instagram LIVE Shopping is already here & it’s here to stay. ● Think Home Shopping Network - but cooler & socially connected

Source: https://bq-magazine.com/how-to-use-instagram-live-for-e-commerce-sales/ 18 Factor #1 - INNOVATION

19 What is behind the Social Commerce Surge?

3 factors:

1. Innovation - Various Social Media Channels have been rapidly catering to social shoppers & rolling out user-friendly platforms & options for businesses over the last 1-2 years.

2. Mobile/Social Usage - The relationship between mobile and social engagement is creating more accessible shopping experiences than ever before.

21 Factor #2 - MOBILE / SOCIAL USAGE

● Mobile devices are the most popular device for online shopping by a wide margin. ● 72% of consumers are using mobile devices to shop in stores according to the latest PYMNTS' 2020 Remote Payments Study. ● E-Commerce and online retailers' supply chains, order management, and fulﬁllment systems are all being tested by the triple-digit order and revenue growth going on today. ● We are seeing more energy and intensity is being put into improving customer experiences online that ever before!

Source: eMarketer, Feb 2019 22 Source: https://www.pymnts.com/news/ecommerce/2020/remote-payments-retail-covid-19-social-distancing/ Factor #2 - MOBILE / SOCIAL USAGE

There are a few key beneﬁts for the implementation of social commerce for both the brand and shoppers.

● For buyers, browsing and purchasing via a commerce product within a social media platform cuts down on the amount of friction associated with the shopping process.

● These Social Media microsites are much more mobile-friendly which will generally lead to increased conversion rates & driving sales.

23 CONSUMER CONVENIENCE MATTERS.

24 What is behind the Social Commerce Surge?

3 factors:

1. Innovation - Various Social Media Channels have been rapidly catering to social shoppers & rolling out user-friendly platforms & options for businesses over the last 1-2 years.

2. Mobile/Social Usage - The relationship between mobile and social engagement is creating more accessible shopping experiences than ever before.

By Q2 of 2020, physical retail stores across the country (and worldwide) had been temporarily shut down due to COVID-19. No one really knew how long, when the stores would open again, or even IF they would be able to. Nothing was certain...

26 Factor #3 - THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC

● Just over 306 million Americans are affected by stay-at-home orders, nearly 95% of the U.S. population. ● COVID-19 will forever change retailing, and its initial impact on e-Commerce is creating challenges to online selling & service no one imagined in January 2020.

27 The Pandemic

to Prosperity... Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Retail in a ‘Post Acquisition’ World

28 Factor #3 - THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC

75-100% Pure e-commerce !!!

Source: April 28, 2020 - COVID-19 COMMERCE INSIGHT, AN EMARSYS INITIATIVE IN COOPERATION WITH GOODDATA https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/04/28/how-covid-19-is-transforming-e-commerce/#4da8d61d3544 29 Factor #3 - THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC

● U.S. retailers' online year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth is up 68% as of mid-April, surpassing an earlier peak of 49% in early January.

● There's been a 129% year-over-year growth in U.S. & Canadian e-commerce orders as of April 21 and an impressive 146% growth in all online retail orders!!!

● Online conversion rates increased 8.8% in February, reﬂecting a level of shopping urgency typically seen during Cyber Mondays, according to QuantumMetric.

DID YOU KNOW? On May 21, 2020 - TARGET became the 1st mass retailer to make its products available through Instagram Checkout as part of their COVID-19 response. 31 @targetstyle

1 2 3 @targetstyle

4 5 6 @targetstyle 7 8 KEY TAKEAWAYS ● Social Media Innovation is driving a surge in social commerce and for the US Market, Instagram/Facebook are leading the way.

● The intersection of Mobile & Social Media Engagements (Usage and Purchasing Habits) are also driving the need for increased social commerce. People want convenience, at their ﬁngertips, and a safe shopping experience online that is familiar to them & adds value...

● Lastly, the COVID-19 transformed the retail space in a matter of months compared to years. This means, we are going through a massive Recovery Reset - all businesses (small and large) are starting from the same line. Everyone is at home and shopping online so you can’t miss the opportunity to gain market share right now by getting in on the Social Commerce Trend.

35 SOCIAL COMMERCE Understanding the Landscape (for Western US) & Deﬁning Exactly What It Is...

36 And the Future is BRIGHT for Social Commerce…

Even after the pandemic subsides, this channel will continue growth & emerge as a power commerce player for retailers, businesses, brands, and content creators/inﬂuencers to drive sales.

37 As of 10/15/20 - Since COVID-19 hit….

● 36% of consumers shop online weekly since the rise of COVID-19, up from 28% pre-pandemic, according to new data from Digital Commerce 360.

● 29% say they currently shop more online than in person, while 35% have an even mix of online and in-store shopping.

● What about after coronavirus subsides, though? 28% say they will continue to shop mostly online after the pandemic, with 39% saying they will shop both online and in-store, 24% saying they “can’t wait” to shop in-store, and 10% not sure.

● 64% of shoppers surveyed want mobile and contactless pickup options, with 79% saying contactless store pickup is very important.

● 60% want curbside pickup options. 85% of shoppers have signiﬁcantly increased their use of the curbside pickup option over the course of the pandemic.

● 90% of consumers prefer home delivery over a store visit, 80% are likely to use digital communications with store associates, and only 28% plan to increase in-store shopping between August 2020 and February 2021.

38 Share of e-commerce companies worldwide that are planning to sell directly on social media in 2020 (Release date: Sept 2020)

60% of brands/business are not 40% using social commerce….yet. are already selling using social commerce.

39 Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1174507/direct-selling-social-media-ecommerce-companies-worldwide/ 40 So...What is Social Commerce?

41 Social commerce is selling products and

Source: One“ Night Stand | Nathan Rupert | Flickr https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3512/4066380475_2e8763f572_b.jpgservices directly through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok. It differs from typical social media advertising and marketing, which aims to direct users off the social media site to make a purchase. ”

42 Social commerce makes the purchase process much more convenient and seamless for the customer.

Source: One Night Stand | Nathan Rupert | Flickr https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3512/4066380475_2e8763f572_b.jpg

43 Deﬁning Social Commerce

● Social Commerce can include the ability to checkout directly within each platform or be a collection of products hosted within the social network.

● Most social commerce support is currently available through organic means

● But Paid Opportunities (ex: product-focused ads across most platforms), are becoming more prevalent this holiday season.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/start-using-social-commerce/371741/ 44 Why is Social Commerce so vital?

● Increased reliance on Social Commerce, especially by Gen X & Boomers

● On average 85% of global population are shopping online. COVID-19 accelerated the increasing digital growth trend, particularly encouraging older generations to embrace e-commerce.

● Meet your shopper where they are -- at home! Over the holiday season 43% of people surveyed say they expect to shop online more frequently due to COVID-19.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/start-using-social-commerce/371741/ 45 SOCIAL COMMERCE The Players & How Each of Them Work

46 3 Distinct Types of Social Commerce Activity

#1 Social-based Commerce #2 Social Referral #3 Commerce-based Social

Transactions happening predominantly within Driving traffic from social platforms such as Integrating social features into e-commerce social media platforms. This means Facebook to ecommerce platforms such as platforms. This is commonly in the form of a consumer discovery happens within social Shopify or BigCommerce. “feed”. media, selection of products/services, and sometimes even the transaction of paying - From social content to paid media to Social Interaction mechanism such as all happens within social media. influencers, recommendations and advocating, liking, sharing, recommending, partnerships. etc… build in ecommerce platforms like Examples: Shopify or BigCommerce or others. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, Using Channels and people to drive to Snapchat, WeChat. ecommerce. Humanize the shopping experience. Makes it more interactive. Content that inspires shopping, influence & purchasing decisions.

Seamless journey is key.

API Connection with commerce platform is a must.

47 #2 Social Referral

48 These (3) Channels Represent the Biggest Brand Opportunities to Tap Into for Social Commerce Success

49 50 Instagram Social Commerce

Compared to Facebook, Instagram is a network of younger users. According to Statista, more than half of the global Instagram user population is younger than 34 years old. It’s the second most preferred app after Snapchat for teenagers in the US.

51 One

say billion 62% of people people use Of those more 1 Billion users, they have become or Instagram 63% log in daily interested in a brand every and spend an product after seeing it in month. average of Instagram Stories. 28 minutes on the app.

● 200 million users visit at least one business proﬁle every day. ● Instagram is the second most downloaded free app in the Apple app store. ● It’s also the 10th most popular Google query. ● 500 million people use Instagram Stories every single day. ● One-third of the most viewed stories every day are from businesses.

52 Source: Hootsuite - October 22, 2019 / https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics/ Instagram Social Commerce

53 Instagram Social Commerce

If you’re not yet on Instagram, you may be missing out on an audience of 1 billion monthly users!!!!! — half of whom use Instagram Stories every day!!!!!

Most interesting fact about these users? 200 million of them visit at least one business proﬁle a day, and 1/3rd of the most-viewed Stories are from businesses!!!

Those business proﬁles could be yours.

54 Instagram Social Commerce

● Since the Covid-19 outbreak, shopping on Instagram comes as more than a natural progression of how people interact with brands and their products published on Instagram. ● On July 2020, Instagram dropped previous eligibility requirements (ex: having to have 20K followers or more) from their requirements to access certain social commerce features. ● Instead, Instagram opened it up to everyone - so small businesses could utilize these amazing tools to drive revenue too!

55 Instagram Social Commerce

56 57 Instagram Shops provide an immersive shopping experience without ever leaving home!

Shops are an immersive full-screen storefront that @spearmintbaby enable businesses to build their brand story and drive product discovery - all in a native shopping experience.

When users are in the shop - they can BROWSE PRODUCTS, EXPLORE COLLECTIONS, and PURCHASE PRODUCTS.

The Shopper can purchase 2 ways;

1. Purchase with a seamless experience through an in-app browser linking to the business’s ecommerce point of purchase website.

2. Purchase without ever leaving the social app, by using Instagram Checkout.

58 Very Easy To Set-Up! ● The ﬁrst step is uploading your product catalog to Business Manager. ● Once the feed is loaded, check to see if you’re eligible for Commerce Manager. ● This is where you will create and edit your collections and shop layout in addition to managing inventory and checking on fulﬁllment. ● One key thing to remember here – if you work with an agency partner, it’s important that the Commerce Manager lives within the brand’s Business Manager and not the agency’s, so that the brand always has access to their inventory & shop marketing.

59 Once Commerce Manager has been set up, you can now begin to build out collections to be featured without your shop.

Once the collections are created and published to your page, you will be able to track performance metrics like content views and clicks to the website within the Commerce Manager. 60 BEST PRACTICES One of the ﬁrst – and most important – steps in starting with any of these social commerce options is to make sure that your product feed is properly optimized for social as opposed to other feed-based platforms.

● Ensure the images that are being pulled in are the right size for use across social channels, typically a ratio of 1.91:1 and 500 x 500 pixels.

● Use custom labels to clearly delineate product groups you want to feature often, like new arrivals or best sellers.

● Make sure to have inventory markers uploaded to account for in and out of stock products.

It is also important to remember the individual nuances of each channel when customizing your feed, as well as considering how the media will be consumed on both desktop and mobile.

61 Shopping options on Instagram Here are the current shopping options that Instagram provides:

● Instagram shopping tags – tagging products with shopping links synced with external e-commerce platforms. ● Instagram Checkout for brands – Instagram’s native shopping checkout option ● Instagram Checkout for creators – option for creators to tag products of brands who have the checkout option enabled ● Shopping in ‘Explore’ tab – just navigate to the discover tab in the Instagram app and you will ﬁnd a ‘Shop’ tab where are listed posts that are shoppable. ● Shopping in Stories – this option is similar to the product tagging options in the Instagram posts. ● Product stickers – create a direct route for Instagram users to buy your products directly from your stories ● IGTV Shopping – option for creators to tag shoppable products directly in their IGTV videos ● Live Video Shopping - Shoppable tags and C2A inside live instagram stories ● IG REELS Shopping - Coming Soon…

** This information is relevant as of 10/20/20 62 ● Instagram shopping tags – tagging products with shopping links synced with external e-commerce platforms.

** This information is relevant as of 10/20/20 63 ● Instagram Checkout for brands – Instagram’s native shopping checkout option

64 ● Instagram Checkout for creators – option for creators to tag products of brands who have the checkout option enabled

** This information is relevant as of 10/20/20 65 ● Shopping in ‘Explore’ tab – just navigate to the discover tab in the Instagram app and you will ﬁnd a ‘Shop’ tab where are listed posts that are shoppable.

66 ● Product stickers – create a direct route for Instagram users to buy your products directly from your stories

67 ● IGTV Shopping – option for creators to tag shoppable products directly in their IGTV videos

68 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: COACH, “Get Ready for The Weekend!”

Coach used Instagram to tell a story around their Parker bag. They open by getting their fans excited for the weekend, imagining a night out on the town in New York. Then they highlight their bag and follow it up with a clear call to action to “Swipe up to shop.” Coach is one of the brands using Instagram Stories effectively by posting this Story on a Friday, a time when fans are visualizing their weekend. Instead of just showing their bag, they drew fans in ﬁrst with a scene of New York, helping them imagine the places they would use the bag, before going for the sale with a closeup visual of the bag itself. 69 Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● Ask yourself, How can you help fans envision your product in their daily lives? ● Make your product relevant and essential like Coach did.

70 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: Anthropologie: Give your fans the spotlight

The #MyAnthropologie campaign shows off Anthropologie clothing and accessories, as worn by their Instagram fans. This Instagram Story is pretty cool on several strategy fronts:

● It lets Anthropologie highlight their products, but in a way, that’s not obnoxious. They’re reusing photos from real fans, instead of their own models. Plus, this is (UGC) user-generated content that’s totally free for Anthropologie to source and use.

● Instead of perfect catalog images, they’re using lifestyle imagery, the speciﬁc kind of content that performs well on Instagram.

● Finally, it gives fans a reason to post about their latest Anthropologie purchases and tag the brand, boosting both brand awareness and customer loyalty.

With everyone wanting to be a social media inﬂuencer these days, Anthropologie’s call to “share yours” is a viable way for real-life customers to enjoy their turn in the spotlight.

Anthropologie is smart to include markup to tell users what to do – inviting them to click through to view all the looks, before ending with the ﬁnal CTA (Call-2-Action) to join the campaign themselves. Each image includes a link to the featured product page, so fans can emulate the look themselves.

71 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: Anthropologie: Give your fans the spotlight

72 Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● Turn your fans into brand ambassadors. ● Don’t just ask them to post about you on Instagram – give them a reason to by promising to shout-out your favorites.

73 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: Sephora: Engage fans with a poll

Sephora regularly polls their customers about their cosmetic choices and favorite brands. Not only does this allow them to gather free user research, but it’s also a way to get the customer in the habit of saying “yes” to Sephora. The psychology behind micro-commitments like polls is that the more of these small actions you can take with your customers to say yes, the likelier they are to convert more easily generally – following you on Facebook, opening your emails, and of course, buying your products. Sephora takes care to highlight their bread and butter – using a simple but visually appealing background so the emphasis is on the makeup product. Each one includes a link so fans can click through to purchase. By going heavy on the emojis and tagging the featured cosmetics brand, the poll feels social and fun, and perhaps a bit more exciting than it really is. 74 Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● Poll your customers. Ask them questions relevant to your industry, or simply related to a trending hashtag. ● Don’t be afraid to use lots of emojis.

75 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: FedEx: Don’t let customers forget about you

When people shop for gifts, they often don’t think about the more-forgettable, yet equally important, parts of gift-giving – like shipping and wrapping. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, FedEx reminded customers how they can help them prepare gifts for all types of loved ones, from teachers to dads to signiﬁcant others. It’s a heartfelt way for the brand to show they care and keep them top of mind for any gift giver who lives somewhere different than their giftee. 76 Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● Remind your customers of the different use cases for your product, but in a way that provides value to them.

77 CHANNEL: Instagram / Shopping in Stories BRAND: REI: Offer a solution for everyday problems

Utility Marketing - REI’s Instagram Story was timely since the winter season makes outdoor running conditions tougher for runners in North America, where the majority of REI’s customer base is located. They start with a common excuse that keeps runners from heading out (“it’s too muddy”), and then instantly solve it with their running shoes. The shoe product name is prominently displayed, as the shoes themselves walk across the screen leaving muddy footprints in their wake, helping fans envision themselves running with them. The last shot reiterates the unique selling proposition of the shoes, 78 with a link to purchase. Social Commerce Strategy

KEY TAKEAWAY

● What are common problems your customers have – that your product is uniquely able to solve? ● Find quick, snippable ways you can illustrate the solution such as brands using Instagram Stories do. ● Don’t forget C2A (Call-2-Action) to Purchase & Checkout

79 80 Pinterest enhances eCommerce Tools through their SHOP tab.

81 Source: SocialChamp.io / 2019 82 Pinterest enhances eCommerce Tools through their SHOP tab.

83 How It Works: Pinterest

● Pinterest is a top social media platform for brands because it isn’t just a social network, it’s a visual search engine. ● This means that your content can be discovered by almost anyone searching on Pinterest at any time – giving your content a much longer shelf-life than on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and beyond. ● In terms of interest areas on Pinterest, the biggest ones are fashion, food, cars, interior design, and travel, so there are touch-points for a large variety of users. ● It’s not anywhere near as big as Instagram or Facebook - but if your target audience is here, you could be in for some big sales & new customers!

84 How It Works: Pinterest PRODUCT PIN ● According to Pinterest, 83% of Pinners have made a purchase based on the content they saw from brands on the platform. ● 98% have purchased something because of Pinterest ● PRODUCT PINS and SHOPPING ADS boost your distribution and help your products stand out. ● SHOPPABLE PINS are shown via a brand’s product feed, based on the in-stock identiﬁed in the image. ● Every Product Pin links to a brand’s ecommerce point of purchase/Checkout page on the retailer’s website.

85 PRODUCT PIN

86 SHOPPING ADS

Pinterest has been experimenting with multiple ecommerce-related elements such as Shop the Look ads (which is now available), that enable consumers to learn more about the products that appear within a pin.

They also offer Catalogues, which enables retailers to upload their full catalog to Pinterest and automatically turn their products into shoppable product pins!

87 How It Works: Pinterest

● Pinterest will automatically show your ads to relevant shoppers, matching your products with the people they think are likely to love them.

● Pinterest catalogs are the fastest way to get your products onto Pinterest. ● After your data source is approved, product Pins are automatically created for every item in the upload. 88 How It Works: Pinterest

89 How It Works: Pinterest

Product Pins contain data to let browsers know that they’re shoppable, including pricing info, availability, product title, and description.

Once Product Pins are set up, it is simple to transition to paid promotion of these pins.

Lumping products together into groups, such as best sellers or new arrivals, will allow for easier creation of collection-based ads which can then be ampliﬁed with media spend.

90 How It Works: Pinterest

There are six types of rich pins for businesses to choose from: ● Product pins, which include pricing, availability, and purchasing details. ● Recipe Pins, which display required ingredients, serving information, and cooking times. ● Article Pins, which feature an article title, description, date of publication, and author. ● Place pins, which include a map, address, and phone number (ideal for local businesses). ● Movie pins, which display ratings, prominent actors’ names, and reviews. ● App pins, which feature install buttons (currently available to iOS apps only).

If Pinterest Shopping is on your radar, it is recommended to join the Veriﬁed Merchant Program.The program gets you a dedicated Shop tab on your page, similar to what is available on Facebook and Instagram, as well as a badge showing your status. The program also gives early access to new products, including updated insights capabilities which is key for tracking ROI and your Marketing KPI’s.

91 92 Snapshot: TikTok

VERY YOUNG AUDIENCE!

93 How It Works: TikTok

● TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos, available for iOS and Android. ● TikTok might be one of the newest social platforms on the block, but it’s already proven itself as a fully-ﬂedged marketing machine for brands & businesses. ● Whether it’s educational videos or fun dance routines are your thing, there’s a space for your brand or business to make its mark on TikTok. ● Similar to Instagram Stories, TikTok is a space where brands, businesses, and inﬂuencers can have fun, be their authentic selves, and try something new. And, chances are, there’s an audience out there that’s perfect for your brand.

94 How It Works: TikTok

TikTok is actively expanding commerce offerings offering;

● Product Catalogs ● Retargeting ● Auto-Template Features

95 How It Works: Shoppable TikTok

● Take TikTok users from the For You Page to your product pages in seconds.

● Set goals, build a strategy, and gain insight into which products are hitting the mark with your TikTok audience by tracking views and clicks.

● Convert TikTok’s fresh, ever-expanding audience into customers.

96 How It Works: TikTok

Please note: ● Owned by China - and there’s controversy surrounding the security of the channel as it has been banned by several countries for national security reasons. ● It’s not banned (technically) in the USA yet - but there has been a lot of back and forth talk about it. Currently there seems to be a deal in place with Oracle owning US portion of TikTok & Walmart stepped in to take a 7% stake of their ecommerce business. ● Ecommerce is a new thing for TikTok, and currently more people are using the app to dance and lipsync than to shop. ● Walmart could potentially look to the same playbook as Douyin, an app similar to TikTok that operates in China. ○ Currently 400 million people shop on that app daily, according to Reuters. ○ The shopping experience is like a short-form QVC, where people can view short videos and livestreams about products and then can buy them through the app. ● As of 10/15/20 - Walmart CEO says TikTok deal would help make social media more shoppable (so it looks like this is where things are going)

Bottom line: If your business or brand is risk-averse, you may want to skip it for now until the US Deal ﬁnalizes on it. If you don’t mind risk, jump into this platform!

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/22/technology-202-here-why-walmart-want-stake-tiktok-deal/ 97 Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/15/walmart-ceo-says-tiktok-deal-would-help-make-social-media-shoppable.html SOCIAL COMMERCE TRACKING YOUR SUCCESS How to Measuring your Shoppable Campaigns

98 Best Practices: What You Should be measuring for Your 360 e-Commerce Strategy

Here are the 9 marketing KPIs your brand or business should be always be tracking; ● Cost per lead ● Sales revenue ● Marketing qualified leads to sales qualified leads ● Customer retention ● Unique web visitors ● Organic traffic ● Form conversion rates ● Customer lifetime value ● Social media reach

99 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: Brand Awareness = Reach

From a brand perspective, keeping tabs on your reach (rather than impressions) is the best way to track how much brand awareness each post or story delivers.

● Reach metric reﬂects the number of unique views on a post ● Impressions metric reﬂects the total number of views on a post

100 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: # of SAVES = User Interest / Intent in Your Content

Instagram saves are the hottest engagement metric that brands are tracking this year — especially with Instagram trialling hiding likes on the platform as a potential feature change for 2021.

● These saves are a key signal for the Instagram algorithm as they indicate a strong interest in your content. ● The more saves you get on a post, the more people Instagram will show it to. ● By tracking the number of saves your posts receive over time, you can understand what content prompts the highest number of saves and use this to inform your future strategy.

TIP: Adding a quick call-to-action to your caption reminding your audience to save your post (like Your Social Team, above) can also be a super-effective strategy.

101 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: # of SALES = Product Revenue

This one seems obvious - but nonetheless needs to be mentioned. You should be tracking sales from every shoppable campaign you have running. Everyone may be talking about TikTok right now, but when it comes to marketing your business and actually driving sales, Instagram is deﬁnitely the better (and more sophisticated) platform to focus on.

TIP: To track sales from Instagram, simply add UTM parameters to any links you use. By doing so, you’ll be able to track conversions using your chosen web analytics program (such as Google Analytics), including how much revenue you earned. This is a great way to understand not only how much traﬃc your content drives, but what converts into actual sales.

102 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: Engagement

● Your Instagram engagement rate is a key indicator of how well your audience is responding to your content. ● If your followers are commenting, liking, and sharing your content, your engagement rate will show it.

TIP: Engagement rates can often be misleading when it comes to video content, as often people will engage with a video by watching it, instead of hitting “like”. This can result in a much lower engagement rate for video content in comparison to photos. Use metrics like reach or comments for a more reliable benchmark.

103 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: Instagram Story Views

● One of the toughest parts of creating content for Instagram Stories is generating ideas on what will interest your audience. You want to create stories that really resonate with your followers and hold their attention from start to ﬁnish.

● Once you know what kind of content has your audience hooked, you can better strategize and continue to create content that works for them.

104 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: Find the Best Time to Post

105 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce: Growth

● Keeping tabs on your proﬁle growth has always been important, but now — thanks to Instagram’s “followed” and “unfollowed” metrics — you can see exactly how many followers you gain and lose each day.

● For example, if you notice a spike in unfollow activity after sharing a feed post, it could be a strong indication that the post was a miss with your audience — and something to take note of in your future content plan.

● That being said, it’s worth not getting too hung up on your follower count. Followers can ﬂuctuate due to a number of reasons, and ultimately, having a smaller but more engaged audience is often more valuable.

● An engaged audience is much more likely to rep your brand, purchase your products, give useful feedback, and share posts with their friends and family.

106 Basics of Measuring Success in Social Commerce

The success of a social commerce campaign is measured by the degree to which consumers interact with the company's marketing through retweets, likes, and shares. Brand reach ● # of unique views on your Shoppable posts, stories, ads, & videos reached ● (not the # of impressions)

Saves ● Tracks consumer interest / intent in your content / helps improve your content strategy

Dollars & Sense ● # of Purchases made from Shoppable posts, stories, ads, & videos

Engagement ● # of Shares on Shoppable posts, stories, ads, & videos ● # of Likes on Shoppable posts, stories, ads, & videos ● Measuring # of brand mentions after shoppable Campaign launched, during, & ended. ○ # of user posts, stories, & videos measured in relation to Campaign Stories Views Overall Growth metrics

107 SOCIAL COMMERCE Other Strategic Approaches to Consider….

108 Strategies for Social Commerce

#1 - Reach strategy The ultimate strength of social media is in your brand’s capability to reach audiences. A reach strategy is one in which social media exposes your product to a wider audience. It involves these three activities:

1. Building social media following (Great Content!) 2. Optimizing product visibility (Ensuring all Best Practices and Tagging is done to optimize organic reach & visibility for your products) 3. Campaigning to boost the reach (Marketing Campaigns - could be Inﬂuencer based or Paid Advertising or hybrid model of campaigns)

Organic before paid: Create as much reach as you can before spending any money on advertising. Use conversion tracking: Once you start spending money, make sure all tracking and especially conversion tracking is set up, so that you can track and measure every dollar you invest, and ﬁgure out what works for you. Most of the social commerce platforms have this type of tracking/reporting available. Facebook/Instagram deﬁnitely does.

109 Strategies for Social Commerce

#2 - Social prooﬁng strategy Social proof is an external endorsement of your offering. It takes the form of reviews, ratings, and recommendations. A recommendation will be more important, or less, depending on your product or service’s business sector, but it will always be beneﬁcial.

In a social prooﬁng strategy, you start by mining reviews. Look through existing reviews for your product or service and those of competitors on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Next, build more reviews from existing platforms.

● On Instagram, you can simply type in your brand name or hashtag and see what comes up. Often times, you will ﬁnd a bevy of users already talking about you!

Don’t overdo the solicitation: There is a moment to ask for reviews When it has passed, you need to let go. Over-solicitation can backﬁre and generate negative reviews.

Review mining: Mining consumer reviews is one of the best ways to understand what counts for them and how you can improve your social ﬁt or even your product itself.

110 Strategies for Social Commerce

#3 - The Influencer Strategy In an influencer strategy, you must understand who your audience is and pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses. You need to find an influencer who is a good fit and who can reach and engage the right audience.

An influencer strategy can involve one or many influencers and be a one-shot or a long-term relationship. Be sure to evaluate what advantages you will have in each case and define objectives for the contract.

Win hearts: Everybody is an influencer for someone. Sometimes the impression you make on one single person can have an important and much wider impact. Focus on winning hearts rather than impressions. Micro-influencers: Major influencers represent major risk where micro-influencers (influencers with a limited following) represent minor risk. Learn with micro-influencers before taking a major risk.

111 Strategies for Social Commerce

#4 - Inspirational Strategy You can inﬂuence users by using social media to inspire, showcase, tell a story about your offering. Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are great places for visual impact, and video is the best format for inspiration. And video can be used successfully on other platforms like YouTube and Facebook as well.

Create your social media content calendar with inspiration as the guiding theme, and video as your preferred format. Make sure you have a clear view of the user journey from your content, all the way through to the purchase, so that your marketing analytics can track the outcome of the strategy.

Video is expensive, but: Nothing inspires like video. Video can be very expensive if you build storyboards, use actors, and use professional equipment. But stories can be created on a smartphone and be more authentic and a lot less expensive.

Post natively: It’s possible to upload video once to YouTube and share on other social platforms. But you’ll achieve better results by uploading a video natively to each social platform.

112 Summary: Strategies for Social Commerce

Get social proof, inspire and reach your audience via ads or inﬂuencers!

Making social media and commerce walk hand-in-hand is a challenge for most online platforms and also for most users. Working with inﬂuencers and selling directly on a social media platform are attractive approaches, but other approaches may prove more effective for your brand.

A successful social commerce strategy can be focused on third-party endorsements, on reaching beyond your inﬂuence circles, and on inspiration.

Tracking social media impact all the way through to sales can sometimes be challenging, but with these strategies, you can never really go wrong because they reinforce your online presence.

113 SOCIAL COMMERCE BEST PRACTICES & TIPS FOR SUCCESS

114 Best Practices for Social Commerce

Ensure your feed is set up for social commerce success!

115 Best Practices for Social Commerce

Drive Conversions Across Social

*LTV = Lifetime Value of a Customer

116 Best Practices for Social Commerce

Don’t forget, that Personalization can…

117 Best Practices for Social Commerce

Optimize Every Touch Point.. CONSTANTLY!

118 WRAP-UP Thank you!

119 8 Social Commerce Strategies to Win Consumers' Hearts and Loyalty in 2020/2021

Know (and Grow With) Your Customers - invest in your community activities ● Invest in the Right Channels (you can’t be everywhere for everyone) Quality vs. Quantity ● Always Be Optimizing (every channel is different)

Create Seamless, Shorter Paths to Purchase (fewest clicks = higher sales!) ● Leverage Social Checkout Features ● Showcase On-Site Social Proof and Shoppable Content

Leverage User-Generated Content and Organic Inﬂuencers ● Create Authentic Experiences Throughout the Buyer’s Journey ● Get Your Customers Involved

Ethically Embrace Chatbots ● Embrace Chatbots, But Establish Messenger Marketing Best Practices

Get Personal ● Personalized Product Recommendations Based On Browsing and Purchasing Behavior 120 KEY TAKEAWAYS BASICS: ● Social commerce promotes products and services through networking websites, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest to name a few. ● Social Commerce thrives with the shortest journey to purchase for consumers (fewest clicks) ● Pick the platform that best suits your unique target audience ● Ensure you are organized & tag your product catalog for optimal visibility ● Refresh/Optimize your feed daily, hourly, etc...

MEASUREMENT: ● The success of a social commerce campaign is measured by the degree to which consumers interact with the company's marketing through retweets, likes, and shares. ● Brand Awareness is measured by reach (# of unique views), not impressions.

CONTENT MARKETING: ● Creative: take advantage of all the unique ways your brand can be creative on these platforms (image, video, live casting, etc..) ● Reputability / Authenticity: utilize “social proof” - highlight reviews, fans who use your products regularly ● Be Helpful: Social commerce seeks to engage online shoppers by offering expert product advice and support, commonly referred to as “utility marketing.”

121 Figure out how to be human at scale. (this is different for everyone!) Be Patient & Respectful. Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brilliant. Thank You! Natalie DiBlasi LACED Agency 310-316-1962 [email protected] www.lacedagency.com @NatDiBlasi

@lacedtweet 122 Social Commerce in 2020/2021 Today’s Brave New Retail Frontier for Strengthening Brand/Customer Relationships

Natalie DiBlasi Co-Founder /Partner Managing Executive of Strategy, Marketing & Media

LACED AGENCY | a Strategic Digital Agency www.lacedagency.com

www.linkedin.com/in/nataliediblasi

@lacedtweet / @NatDiBlasi

LICENSING UNIVERSITY: CLS Program October 27, 2020123