5 Ways Facebook Shops Will Change The Game For Sports Organisations.
People often talk about Game changers in sport, whether it be great players, inspirational coaches, or new training techniques. However, few will consider the obscure game-changers that work away in the shadows, outside the playing pitch, far from the training arena. What does the evolution of OTT broadcast rights, digital merchandise licensing and sponsorship activation have in common? They have all fundamentally changed the sporting world through their ability to generate revenue for organisations, brands, and federations alike.
Whether you realise it or not, the next game-changer for the sports industry is already among us. It is hidden in plain sight and no, it’s not Kylian Mbappé or Alex Morgan. I believe that sports' next big star is indeed, Facebook Shopping. Fast, reliable, and world-renowned, Facebook has all the necessary ingredients needed to revolutionise the way sports teams generate revenue. Let’s be honest, when the world’s largest social media platform decides to invest heavily in becoming a challenger in the e-commerce game, it’s a fairly safe bet to guess they will capture their share of the market.
What is Facebook Shopping:
Shops, which are available to all Facebook commerce accounts, allow businesses to display, market and sell a full range of products and services directly through Facebook’s suite of apps including Facebook and Instagram (with WhatsApp to follow). Businesses can create custom storefronts, tag products, and even create product collections, which is perfect for organising items such as team jerseys, training kits and off-field wear into themed collections.
Social commerce has evolved at an accelerating pace from the early days of Facebook when users would post second-hand items on their status, or if they were really sophisticated – in a buy and sell group. Little did we know then, what an all-encompassing digital machine Facebook would become.
The social media goliath has previously dabbled in the peer to peer e-commerce market with Facebook and Instagram Marketplace. However, it should be stated that these latest commerce products are an entirely different beast. Facebook's latest shopping feature allows users to browse products, add them to a cart and make a purchase, in less than 5 clicks – all without leaving the Facebook/Instagram app. Global sports retailers such as Adidas are already availing of the new product with great success. The German sportswear brand saw online sales increase by 40% YOY in the first quarter of 2019 after trialling Instagram shops for the first time, with CEO Kasper Rørsted saying,
“There was no doubt that Instagram had a positive impact for our online business in the first quarter,”.
While the full feature list of Facebook Shopping is currently only available in the US, this offering will likely be extended to further territories in the near future.
Facebook shopping also offers an integrated messaging system that allows customers to connect directly with businesses to ask questions about products and orders, enhancing the often impersonal social connection between online retailers and shoppers. The company has indicated that it will eventually accept secure payments through the messenger app, knocking out another barrier to seamless purchasing. Below are 5 Ways Facebook Shops Will Change The Game For Sports Organisations.
Seamless Shopping:
E-commerce has come a long way since the early days of the internet when purchasing products online was a tedious process, entering personal data into repetitive info fields, patchy checkout processing, all froth with the widespread danger of credit card fraud. Most well-designed websites now offer auto-fill options for required personal data fields and integrate secure payment options such as Stripe and PayPal.
Major players in the e-commerce industry such as Amazon and eBay have pioneered improvements in the buyer experience, reducing the average number of clicks required to purchase for registered shoppers to 10. In the sports industry, Nike has taken this user experience even further reducing this number to just 7 clicks.
But why is this important? In e-commerce, it is very much the case of quicker is better, less clicks translates to higher conversion rates and fewer abandoned carts. Basically, the easier it is for a shopper to make a purchase on your store, the more likely they are to convert and return. It’s about building a seamless experience where shoppers can make purchases without barriers that make them stop and question the purchase. Facebook Shopping takes seamless shopping to a new level, allowing shoppers to complete purchases in less than 5 clicks.
2. Reaching Fans at Those Crucial Moments:
However, what really sets Facebook Shopping apart is the platforms ability to reach fans at the moments when it matters most. Facebook shopping is highly integrated with Facebook Ads - one of the most sophisticated social ad platforms on the planet. This, when coupled with the advanced targeting capabilities and vast amount of user data Facebook stores on its 3.3 billion monthly users, makes it quickly apparent how the social media giant can challenge Amazon and co. in the e-commerce space.
Can Facebook challenge Amazon in the e-commerce space?
It is often mooted that Facebook’s machine learning algorithm knows us better than we know ourselves. Research from the University of Cambridge and Stanford University has highlighted how Facebook's activity data alone can indicate a user’s psychological make-up more accurately than a person’s family, friends and even their partner when given enough data.
This level of data collection and precise user tracking translates to serving users with the right types of content, at just the right moment, to prompt a desired user response. Advertisers who are familiar with Facebook Ads will already know how powerful the platform is at driving conversions, and this will become markedly more efficient as checkouts take place in-app.
3. Communicating In a Natural Environment:
Another crucial advantage Facebook has over other e-commerce competitors is the fact that sports fans flock to social networks to discuss and engage with live events naturally. Around one-third of people say they use Facebook or Instagram to follow live sporting events, therefore, these platforms have a ready built audience waiting to interact with your store.
Watching sport has the power to evoke intense emotions in fans, so powerful that a team’s performance can affect viewers' brain chemistry. Some research suggests that fans feel the highs and the lows of sport almost as intensely as those competing. If you ever scroll through Facebook or Instagram during a sporting event you are sure to see fans posting Instagram stories, frantically commenting on the action and sharing their teams' success in real-time. In those more gripping moments, fans are primed and ready to make impulse purchases as the excitement of the game courses through their veins. This might sound cynical, but Facebook shopping has the opportunity to capitalise on these impulses by capturing existing user intent.
Imagine a scenario in which Bruno Fernandes has just scored a late winner for Manchester United in a premier league fixture. Now think about what would happen if the club ran ads in the direct aftermath of the goal, prompting fans to purchase Bruno merchandise on Facebook and Instagram. What do you think would happen to conversion rates? My guess would be a skyrocket in “Fernandes 18” jersey sales. In sport, timing is everything, hence, reaching fans in their native environment, at just the right time, could be the perfect storm.
4. Using Your Influence:
At the time of writing, the Premier League team average is 8.12 million followers on Instagram, a number that is growing daily. Social networks are not only places to show off your brand's identity and behind the scenes footage, but can also act as an incredibly strong marketing platform if managed correctly. Of course, we are not advocating that sports organisations plaster their social accounts with product ads all of the time. To do so would likely evoke a negative sentiment among fans.
Instead, we recommend clients to use the 80:20 rule when posting on social media for maximum engagement. That is, 80% of posts should seek to inform, entertain or educate your audience, while the remaining 20% should directly promote your product or services. Facebook shopping also presents prime opportunities for smaller sports organisations and brands, allowing them to show off their unique brand identity and engage fans in a meaningful way, while capitalising on the continued digitisation of products and services to a larger audience.
Akin to this, athletes are no longer just sports stars; they are also, by default, social media influencers with the power to evoke mass responses from their fans. We have seen the rising impact of sports stars as social advocates with the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Marcus Rashford using their platforms to create mass awareness of social issues and evoke positive societal change. We have also become accustomed to athletes aligning with brands to drive increased brand awareness, positive sentiment and product purchases. Take Tommy Hilfiger as an example, who saw a doubling in online sales on Tommy.com after signing an endorsement deal with Tennis star Rafael Nadal in 2015. The science of tracking the success of an athlete partnership will take a giant leap forward with Facebook shopping, as athletes and influencers can tag products in their posts, taking users directly to the product page allowing the sponsor to track conversions associated with the tag. The shortening of the buyer journey coupled with the influence of top athletes will again increase conversion rates and in-turn the ROI for brands forking out big money for athlete endorsements.
Nadal stripping down to boost Tommy Hilfiger sales.
5. Cut Out The Middleman:
Finally, Facebook shopping offers sports organisations another direct route (in addition to physical brand stores and their website) to sell to their customers. With third party retailers taking up to 60% of merchandise revenue it is a no brainer for organisations to try and remove the middleman where possible. Selling D2C offers organisations a litany of benefits including increased control over their products, faster speed to market and more personalised customer service opportunities. However, the ability to collect valuable customer data is undoubtedly the most powerful benefit of selling direct to customers. Sports organisations can gain real-time insights into their fans, allowing them to quickly decipher what’s hot and what’s not.
Direct selling through Facebook shopping will allow agile sports organisations to capitalise on the platform's rich data analytics dashboard to better serve their audience with more relevant goods and services. Similarly, this opportunity extends to individual athletes who can build custom shops and sell products to their adoring fans. See the below example of how Serena Williams is using her personal brand to promote her jewellery line @serenawilliamsjewelry on Facebook and Instagram shops.
Wrapping Up:
Facebook Shopping is the next big game-changer for sports marketers. It offers brands and organisations unprecedented opportunities to monetise fan engagement at crucial moments in a way that feels natural to the consumer. Sporting organisations can finally capitalise on their social influence to a full extent, while fans benefit from customised shopping experiences and enhanced checkout speeds. There is a real opportunity to get ahead of the game by becoming an early adopter and even innovator in this new social commerce space. Our advice? Build it, and they will come.
At Fifty-Three Six we specialise in converting fans into customers, whatever form that may take. We have built out bespoke Direct to Consumer models, leaning on our production and digital acquisition experience. If you’d like to chat, please get in touch below!
