By Nick Mann

The U.S. is the world’s third-largest consumer of social media, after only China and India, with over 91% of Americans using social media, according to Statista. With a variety of social networks available to target nearly all demographics, social media is a gold mine for e-commerce marketing. In this article, I’ll be exploring specific ways to merge e-commerce and social media to dramatically increase sales for your military surplus/outdoor/tactical store. 

Add social share buttons to your website

One of the best places to start is to add social share buttons/icons to key places on your website, including your product pages, blog or anything else you want eyeballs on. If, for example, you added social share buttons to your product pages, website visitors could conveniently share what they love with their followers on networks like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and more. In turn, you can effectively bring far more exposure to your e-commerce store without having to lift a finger or pay anything. An added plus is that whenever someone shares your content with their audience, they usually have a certain level of built-in trust, which tends to make the audience more receptive. As a result, you can send highly interested leads your way. 

Adding social share buttons is fairly straightforward. Most e-commerce platforms like Shopify offer plugins that allow you to add buttons on any web page you want. And they can be customized to create a beautiful look that matches the design of your site. One particular example of a Shopify plugin is “Social Bar: Social Media Icons,” which is intuitive to use and easy to set up. 

Create shoppable content

The fewer steps shoppers have to take from finding a product to checking out, the more likely they are to buy. Fortunately, several social media platforms make it easier than ever to streamline this process. Instagram, for instance, has what’s called “Instagram Shopping,” which allows you to feature products directly on your Instagram account and include important information like descriptions and pricing. Whenever someone sees something they want to buy, they can complete a transaction from within Instagram without having to click through to your website. 

Making it so customers never have to leave the platform can have a huge impact on your conversions. And if you have a large, engaged audience, you can likely make multiple sales every time you post a new product on your account. Check out “Instagram Shopping” to learn more about this feature. Or, if you’re on other social media platforms, see if they offer something similar, as many do. 

Post product videos to your social accounts

Another effective way to merge e-commerce and social media is to create consistent video content featuring your top products. Say, for example, you run a military surplus store and you recently started carrying a high-quality military tent with innovative features you won’t find with average cookie-cutter tents. You could create a YouTube video that walks viewers through all the specs and features, showing them how to set it up, and anything else of interest. Better yet, you could even spend a night camping in the tent to really give viewers a feel for what it’s like. In the video and video description, you could point viewers to your e-commerce store so they could learn more about the tent and buy it. 

This technique kills two birds with one stone because 1) it helps you keep a steady stream of social media content coming and 2) it shows off your products without being overly pushy about it. In fact, it’s an incredibly natural way to promote items and is something many customers will be responsive to. 

Showcase products via live streams

Most major social networks like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube offer some type of live streaming service. Live streaming can be used for many purposes. But within the context of this article, you can use it to showcase new or best-selling products while simultaneously interacting with your audience in a very personable way. Ideally, you’ll tell your followers in advance when you’ll have an upcoming live stream so they’ll know when to tune in and what to expect. We also suggest providing a strong incentive to watch your live streams, which can be done by offering discounts or promotions that are only available to viewers. 

In terms of live stream length, most last anywhere between 30 minutes and two hours, as this is usually enough time to unpack everything and provide valuable content. However, you’ll likely want to start off at around just 30 to 45 minutes initially until you get the hang of it. Then, as you become more comfortable with the process, you can extend the length of your live streams to one hour or more. 

E-commerce and social media — the perfect combination

With 80% of Americans shopping online (according to Fit Small Business) and 91% using social media, it only makes sense that you’d want to merge the two. There are plenty of ways to do so. But focusing on the four strategies outlined above — adding social share buttons to your website, creating shoppable content, posting product videos to your social accounts and showcasing products on live streams — should help you generate far more leads and convert a larger percentage of those leads into customers. While it will likely take some trial and error to find the right formula, once you do, your military surplus/outdoor/tactical business should be well-positioned for sustained growth.