The average person spends two to three hours per day on social media, and it’s not all chit-chat. In fact, a 2016 study from Business Intelligence shows social media boosted its share of e-commerce referrals nearly 200% between the first quarters of 2014 and 2015—significantly more than any other online channel. And according to the Internet Retailer’s Social Media 500, the top 500 retailers earned $3.3 billion from social shopping in 2014, up 26 percent from 2013.

Small and midsized businesses that can’t afford mass media advertising in particular stand to benefit by building active, e-commerce-enabled social media sites. They need to make sure they’re making the right choices for their shoppers and taking advantage of the power of highly targeted paid social, which has become increasingly important given changes in Facebook’s algorithm that places a premium on friends and family content.

Are you in tune with the increasing importance of social media e-commerce?

Retail social media followers up 6% in 2016

Social media's influence jumped 9% over year

of shoppers were influenced by social media when making purchases in 2015

of shoppers were influenced by social media when making purchases in 2016

Shoppers buy on social media

23%

of shoppers have purchased products over social media

32%

of MILLENIALS have purchased products over social media

Where shoppers are socializing

77% of online shoppers use social media

To figure out which channels retailers should play in, they need to track where customers are spending their time. Facebook can be a safe and easy bet because it has the largest audience, while Pinterest can be a more targeted option given the high engagement of its audience and its tight focus on retail shopping.

Source: 2016 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper Study

Where shoppers most frequently promote brands (among social media users who are likely to promote brands)

81%

YouTube

33%

Facebook

33%

Twitter

24%

Pinterest

21%

Instagram

Source: 2016 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper Study

Have you properly prepared yourself to handle customer complaints?

Shoppers active on social media provide feedback in different forms

22%

Will post a photo to illustrate their complaints

28%

Will complain on social media

30%

Will unfollow on social media

Source: 2016 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper Study

To handle the very public customer complaints that you will inevitably receive on social media both rapidly and diplomatically, experts suggest that you:

• Closely monitor social media accounts to ensure that you see feedback in the first place.
• Determine whether a complaint seems valid and provide a brief, respectful and non-defensive public response.
• Then, attempt to take the dispute offline by providing an e-mail, phone number or direct message option.
• Respond to anger calmly and by taking the high road.
• Be authentic and transparent about how the customer can get help.
• When the complaint is hopefully ultimately resolved, respond again publicly thanking the customer for bringing the issue to your attention.

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