In the spirit of Mean Girls, I would say that we have all felt personally victimized by the events of 2020, however, there was a survivor of the onslaught — social commerce.

Because of the pandemic, reliance on e-commerce and the amount of time spent on social media has skyrocketed. In the last year, 20% of US consumers have made a purchase using social media and 71% of social media users are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals. (You go, Glen Coco!)

To help facilitate the transition to online shopping, social media platforms have developed e-commerce capabilities, from Pinterest Catalogs to the Instagram Shopping tab. Most recently, Facebook announced Facebook Shops, which allows retailers to set up full-fledged storefronts on their business pages.

So with the popularity of social commerce growing faster than Regina George on an all-carb diet, your business’ social media plan should be capitalizing on these trends in 2021:

• Interactive videos that showcase products in use are sure to grab attention. Try out Instagram Reels or TikTok’s new integration with Shopify!

• The use of conversational chatbots for round-the-clock purchasing and customer support will pick up. We use Drift.

• User-generated content is the new word of mouth. Utilize your customer’s photos to build trust, magnify reach, and push social shopping. We use Yotpo.

Read more on ecommerce inbound marketing