The Dawn of Social Shopping
It is headed to the top of all of the recommended best practices for digital marketing trends in 2023 and in reality, you can’t afford to miss out. Social shopping is where it is at the goods, the people, and the connection. Social shopping refers to either live streaming an event such as a sale and allowing people to purchase straight from the sale using a payment, shipping, or collection platform, or actually integrating a purchase platform into a social media site.
It sounds much more complicated than it is. At Caledon Virtual, we have been looking at this for quite a while, from Pinterest to Mercari evolution to the bitly sites on Twitter that allow products to be shown and then purchased by clicking a link. But imagine if social shopping was actually an interaction between your patients, a knowledgeable host, and a group of like-minded potential patients who literally paid for your products and services before they were scheduled. With Caledon Virtual’s Comment/Sold platform, that is exactly what you get.
What It Is Like On the Front End
If you could sit and interact with a QVC hostess or host, and ask about the colors, the feel of the fabric, and the sizing then you would truly be experiencing Comment/Sold, a Facebook-exclusive add-on for social shopping.
On the consumer’s side it looks like this:
- They receive a text or message invitation to a live-streaming show on Caledon Virtual’s social shopping site. It tells them the time, and place, and provides them with a link.
- At the appointed time, they go to the link and it asks them to register their name, address, and email if they are a first-time user. If they have used it before, it recognizes them by their Facebook name. ALL of the activity takes place on Facebook.
- Once the sale begins, the attendees are offered products and services, usually at a discounted price or with the option of receiving one free after so many purchases. As they are watching the product being demonstrated, they can comment or send questions to the hostess.
- Should they decide to purchase a product or service, they merely type “sold 123” or the pre-assigned number of the product they wish to purchase.
- As soon as they type “sold” and the number of the product, they receive a message from Facebook Messenger reminding them they have the product in their cart.
- When the show is over, the potential patient goes to their cart and pays for everything. They usually have four hours from the start of the show to pay for their purchases or they go back out into the product stream.
What Happens on the Back End
- The back end of Comment/Sold is where you, the practice manager, play a small role that can result in big returns. All you need to do is select the services or products that you want to feature and send us photos of them along with the price and a short description.
- Caledon Virtual will manage the show order, making certain that no two competing products are scheduled in the show together, the photos are high quality, and we have entered everything in the show with the correct product number.
- We send out text blasts to let everyone know that we are running a live sale featuring your products.
- Just before the show, we send out a link to the show where they can watch and participate live.
- Our hostess and backend managers run the show, answering questions, discussing products and services, and basically just creating a fun, online environment where people feel open to purchasing without pressure and with like-minded individuals sharing the experience.
- Once the show is over and everyone has paid, you will receive a printout of people who purchased your product and need to be scheduled.
Why We Think This Is a Great Opportunity
The main answer to that question is that nobody else is doing it yet and we want to know if it works. The second answer would be that is the most low-maintenance option available for our clients. There is little to no planning, you can use it to get rid of product that isn’t moving, and you can try out new services – there are so many options for the plastics and injectables industry when it comes to Comment/Sold.
Plus, we can purchase the license and own the channel on Facebook which will be operational and pulling in viewers even when you are choosing not to do anything. So we are literally building an audience for you and your product when you are not actively paying us to do it.
In all honesty, with no hesitation, we feel that this is the easiest, most cost-effective way to break into the area of social shopping. For those who don’t want to sink thousands into a singular campaign, this is the answer, one that won’t break the bank and might pleasantly surprise you. Contact us today.
