Learn how Amazon makes money through social media

Simple and effective

Amazon's social e-commerce conversion rate on Facebook is only 3.67%, which is average compared to Fab's 25%. Retailers use a variety of methods on social media, such as publishing news, and sparking conversations through random questions and answers, while Amazon basically publishes promotional information. For example, last Saturday, it launched a special offer for the 7 Harry Potter albums, and the post was just one sentence: "Harry Potter fans, have you bought it?"

Although Amazon only releases promotional information on social media, each post on Facebook receives an average of 417 comments, ranking 12th among the top 300. Each post receives an average of 2,916 likes, ranking 43rd among the top 300. Each post on Twitter receives an average of 48 retweets, ranking 9th.

These interactions can attract consumers to switch from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media to Amazon for purchases, which can significantly increase Amazon's sales. According to Top500Guide.com, Amazon's conversion rate from Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest is 3.67%. It ranks 129th among the top 300. Amazon has 89.9 million visits per month, of which social media brings 3.6 million visits to Amazon per month. If calculated based on a 4% conversion rate, Amazon's social e-commerce sales last year were $336 million, ranking first. The average social e-commerce sales of the top 50 of the top 300 is $1.3 million.

In terms of social e-commerce sales alone, Amazon can also be ranked 87th among the top 500 e-commerce companies this year. This does not include Zappos.com and Diapers.com, which are owned by Amazon. Among the top 300 companies mentioned above, Zappos' social e-commerce sales last year were $34.9 million, ranking 8th. Adding Diapers' social e-commerce sales of $1 million last year, Amazon's social e-commerce sales totaled $371.9 billion, ranking 81st among the top 500 e-commerce companies.

Nowadays, the importance of enterprise social marketing is self-evident, but the effect of social marketing is not satisfactory at present, and it can even be said that it is popular but not well received. According to IBM data, the transaction volume of US e-commerce from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter only accounts for 0.63%, and social networking sites only contribute 0.95% of the traffic to e-commerce. According to domestic Hitwise data, about 2.5% of Taobao's visits come from Sina Weibo, and the traffic from Sina Weibo to e-commerce and local websites accounts for 8.6% of the downstream traffic. In comparison, Amazon's performance is very excellent. The importance of social media lies in indirect influence, and the value lies in long-term persistence. Social marketing is like Chinese medicine, which emphasizes long-term rest. It is more of a icing on the cake, rather than a sharp weapon for attacking tough problems. It is recommended that general e-commerce should be cautious when using it! Therefore, a smart retailer cannot expect social commerce to bring much sales in the short term, but must always do business around social media. Many entrepreneurs only see social media as a new thing, and social e-commerce will bring a brand new channel and opportunity. Therefore, it is very risky to go all out in social commerce, which is not the way to achieve success. Amazon did not do so, but achieved very good results.

Online and offline collaboration

Like other retailers, Amazon not only attracts traffic from social media, but also integrates social elements into its own website. For example, in order to allow customers to share products on social media, Amazon has Facebook Like button, Twitter Tweet button, Pinterest Pin button, Google+ button and Email button on the product page.

Amazon continues to give its website more social attributes. For example, it will soon provide consumers with product information from Facebook. For example, consumers who have linked their Amazon and Facebook accounts can see relevant product reviews from Facebook, as well as all product information on Amazon's Wish List. Wish List can be kept private, but Amazon makes it public by default. This will help consumers choose products or gifts. Amazon's online and offline social media strategy has greatly improved the personalized shopping experience.

From social interaction to social discovery

Most retailers believe that the value of social commerce lies in increasing the interaction between brands and fans, while Amazon believes that social discovery will be the most important value of social commerce. Therefore, Amazon focuses on gathering massive product information and complex algorithms. This means that Amazon will likely become a new social media platform for brands.

Amazon is launching a new service before the holiday shopping season. This new service will closely integrate social media and e-commerce to build a more interactive online store for brands. The service includes three aspects: brand pages (Amazon pages), posting (Amazon Posts) and analysis tools (Amazon Analytics).

Brand pages (Amazon pages) allow retailers to create their own personalized domain name pages on Amazon. For example, www.amazon.com/brandname. As shown in the figure below, Lipton Tea, on this customized page, a brand will have a large number of pictures and social media links.

In addition to brand pages, brands can also post on Amazon and simultaneously publish to other social media such as Facebook, and Twitter will be integrated in the future. This move undoubtedly allows Amazon to enter the field of social marketing, enrich the diversity of Amazon's business, and add new profit points for Amazon.

Amazon Analytics monitors and evaluates social commerce activities. It gives retailers a clear understanding of the conversion process. It includes scope, evaluation and consideration, as well as a purchasing tool cart. It helps to understand whether the product is selling well and how fans interact with the brand. This is actually what Faceook wanted to do a long time ago, but it was weak in the follow-up. This may be mainly due to the trust issue. What will be the result for the perfect and trustworthy Amazon? Let us wait and see.