Tag: Facebook

New report shows that small retailers are becoming more invested in the digital space

A growing number of small businesses are beginning to embrace mobile commerce in the United States. Throughout the years, small businesses have been relatively slow to embrace e-commerce on any kind, partly due to the costs involved in doing so. Over the past few years, however, many retail businesses have been finding more success by engaging consumers online, especially during the holiday season. A new report from Duda, a website-building group, small businesses are growing increasingly invested in the digital space.

Small businesses expect to see 25% of their holiday sales come from online shopping this year

The report found that many small businesses in the U.S. expect 25% of their holiday sales to come from online shopping this year. Approximately 14% expect to see more than half of their holiday revenue come from e-commerce. The report provides a new perspective on the e-commerce space. Many believe that consumers generally favor shopping on sites like Amazon and eBay when they are looking for products, but consumers have shown willingness to shop directly from sites built by retailers, especially when it comes to shopping from a mobile device.

Small businesses have been slow to embrace e-commerce

Small businesses have been able to get by without having a significant online presence for years, but that may no longer be the case. Consumers are becoming more reliant on technology and many want to make use of online services that make shopping more convenient for them. This has lead to a surge in mobile commerce, as consumers have begun gravitating toward mobile-centric services. Social media is playing a role in the growth of e-commerce as well and small businesses may be able to capitalize on that trend.

Social commerce could help small retailers engage consumers more effectively

So called social commerce is becoming quite popular among consumers. This concept is relatively simple, as it involves shopping for products online using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Small businesses may be able to engage consumers more effectively by adopting some of the principles of social commerce.

The head of mobile advertising has shared that these ads must be exceptionally relevant to consumers.

Jane Schachtel, the Facebook head of mobile and technology and global vertical marketing has explained that when it comes to social media marketing over smartphones and tablets, advertisers have to take that extra step to make sure that consumers are being treated as individuals and not as an overall general group.

The explanation was that mobile devices themselves are highly personal, so ads have to be, too.

She explained that as smartphones and tablets are very personal devices, social media marketing conducted over that channel must also be carefully personalized for the individual recipients. Though this does appear to be quite the significant effort, the reward for marketers that take this step is equally large. According to Schachtel, only about 2 percent ($16 billion) of the total glabl advertising spend is going to be put aside for mobile in 2015.

This means that mobile social media marketing has a considerable amount of room for growth.

She explained to the Mobile First conference audience that “This presents a huge opportunity.” She pointed out that the relationships that people have with their mobile devices has become much more complex and profound. Schachtel expressed that “People used to go to the mobile web to find one specific thing,” and added that “Then came the feed. … Now people discover, they share.”

When device users do this, they provide a considerable amount of information on websites – including Facebook – that can be utilized by mobile marketing companies in order to learn more about the individual what they want, what they like, and what they do not like.

That said, she also stated that “no one company has all the data.” Even Facebook doesn’t have all of the information that would be required to know everything about each individual consumer. Instead, there remain “ a lot of companies with a lot of data.” Therein lies the true challenge of mobile social media marketing. These various kinds of information must be carefully combined in order to be able to fully target and personalize the ads that consumers are receiving on their mobile devices.