How retailers can leverage social media to capitalize this holiday season

Online retailers cashed in big during the 2021 holiday season. Adobe reported that ecommerce topped out at $204 billion (yep – billion with a ‘b’) during November and December alone. 

In 2022 however, that number is expected to drop by nearly 16% due to the challenging economic climate. All of this is to say that online spending is still a major factor this holiday season, but the competition is going to be tougher than it was last time around. 

A decrease of $30-bil is no small change – but we’re optimistic that our clients can still secure a piece of that $170 billion dollar holiday pie. With that in mind, here are 5 tips to step up your social game so you can capitalize this holiday season.

1) Do your homework

Homework, market research, spying on the competition…it doesn’t matter what you call it. The point is that you need to figure out what your competition is doing and why they’re doing it. 

Are they crushing it on a specific platform? Did they tap into a new audience? Take a peek at the paid and organic social campaigns that your competitors are running and figure out how you can make them better.

2) Keep descriptions short and sweet

What problem does your product or service solve that the competition can’t? Write out the answer to that question in as few words as possible. Then, write it again in even fewer words. 

Consumers are being fed more ads than ever before and their patience for branded B.S. is waning thin. They don’t want to read the next great American novel, they want to know whether or not your product or service is right for them. 

Ditch the long sentences and clunky captions, use short form copy that gets to the dang point.

3) Leverage UGC

Consumers want to hear from real people before making a purchase. In fact, 93% of users say that online reviews had an impact on their buying decisions. 

Tagged in photos of people using your product? Have an awesome review on your website? Great – that’s called user generated content (UGC), and you can use it to your advantage. Studies show that campaigns with UGC convert at a 28% higher clip than those without, so we urge you to give it a go this holiday season.

4) Optimize for mobile

Salesforce discovered that mobile devices accounted for 58% of orders. That means – (and you should listen closely here) you need to optimize your mobile storefront. 

Whether you’re using a social media plugin like Shopify or you’re driving users back to your website, it’s paramount that images, videos, buttons, and forms are legible on smaller screens and accessible within a few scrolls and taps. 

5) Make checkout smooth

If customers have made it to this point, then we know your ad campaigns are doing their job. Close the deal by making check out as painless as possible.

The 2021 Baymard study showed that 18% of abandoned carts were due to complicated checkout processes. Customers don’t want to jump through hoops to place an order – limit the amount of required form fields and relax with all the pop ups. 

Not sure if your check out process is a pain in the you-know-what? Pretend that you’re a customer who’s visiting your site for the first time and run through the process yourself.

Need help setting up your campaigns this holiday season? Click here to get in touch with our team for some last minute holiday help! Let IOI take your social media to the next level!