Marketeer Julia Greven explains the factors behind the phenomenon, the importance of mobile-first, the good examples to follow, and what makes Shoptainment the next big thing.
Greven is the founder of philla BrandXitement, an agency advising companies in brand development, brand management, communication, brand and retail activation as well as multichannel commerce. As co-founder of LiveShopping4U, a service provider agency specialising in sales-promoting shoptainment content, she is also an expert in Social Commerce, live shopping, and video promotion.
– While social shopping is more about giving inspiration (on social media, Ed’s note) for people to go to the shop or e-commerce, with Social Commerce it’s directly possible to shop on the channel you’re in, she explains.
Why is Social Commerce such a hot topic now?
– The topic became relevant due to the coincidence of several developments. Firstly, technological progress in the field of devices, the emergence of social media channels and the experience we have all had with the pandemic and the need to use alternative purchasing and sales channels. Social media offered us all the opportunity to communicate and trade with each other at the right time. Here we have the opportunity to communicate, connect with others, be entertained and inspired and shop. And yet many companies still missed out on this trend and so this new type of retail grew up under the radar of many brick and mortars.
Is the brick-and-mortar and online retail too boring?
– I don’t want to say yes—there are a lot of brands and retailers, both small and bigger ones, that really did understand the rise of social media, Social Commerce, and mobile commerce. But there are also still a lot of retailers that have had their shops for years and have forgotten to look into new perspectives, are too tired or don’t know how to change, and have lost the connection to the end consumer.
Mobile-first is crucial here but brands are not focusing enough on it. Do you agree?
– Yes, totally. In our own private sphere, we use social media and all kinds of commerce, but a lot of brands and retailers don’t get the transfer to use it in a commercial way. There are also a lot of agencies that still are not able to build proper adaptive and responsive mobile sites. It all becomes very difficult when the clients, but also agencies, still don’t have the right knowledge.
One good example, Greven shares, is German beauty retailer Douglas, recognising the huge shift towards social media for beauty and makeup consumers.
– In the shift from (physical) retail to online, they understand that their target groups want to see, for instance, tutorials rather than just a picture of a makeup in a box. You have to show it in application and share it in videos, like on social media. Recognising this at the right time in the right space, they were the first to have a beauty platform where people are to get inspiration from the product, using software to connect the video content with their online shop.
However, Douglas is one of Europe’s leading premium beauty retail chains and not all industry players have the same resources.
– But it doesn’t need to be as professional as Douglas. If you’re a small brand, you are also able to offer Social Commerce to your clients and build up a community. Just use your smartphone yourself, and become your own producer of ‘webshopping shows.’ There are a lot of Saas- (Software-as-a-service) Providers, with whom you can manage to connect your shop with video or livestream. And even without the software, you can still just show the videos on Youtube and integrate the feed on your webshop. You can then also use WhatsApp Business for customer communication and chat with people. It really is a question of just doing, Greven states. She continues:
– Most of the questions I get from clients are about: How can we do it? And, as I said, you just need a team of two, or three people, learn the functions of, let’s say, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram Shop, and how to connect it with your communication strategy to build up a community. I think it’s much more worthwhile than doing any other advertisement. As with everything for successful marketing, however, it is of course important to proceed strategically, from target group planning and the right approach to communication strategy and investment planning. The same applies to brand building as it does to influencers: it doesn’t happen overnight, you have to continuously stay in touch with your customers, your community.
Lastly, what’s the next big thing in social commerce?
– It’s getting much more entertaining. Take the formal TV channels, they also had to change and they started with streaming. With streaming, you are able to connect your video with commerce, so I think there will be much more competitors from the entertainment area. German shopping platform Otto understood this, so they are now implemented in Apple TV with the German private streaming channel Joyn. They’ve integrated their live shopping shows there, so people can watch their Smart TV and now have the possibility to shop from it. Shoptainment—connecting entertainment, social media, and commerce— is the next thing!
