Social-media selling experts Buyapowa is planning to target the automotive industry with its social selling software platform.

Buyapowa uses social commerce to identity and engage people following automotive brands and those talking about car purchases and then bring them towards buying. This includes enlisting friends and family as viral marketeers, and using ‘gamification’, where rival bidders and brand advocates compete against each other for offers.

Buyapowa’s chief executive Gideon Lask (pictured) said: “Social channels offer huge potential reach - people spend 80% of their time online on social media and people like talking about cars and other autos. Our social commerce model takes that interest and takes people through to a sale by engaging them with interactive offers and opportunities.”

The company already works with brands to help guide customers into making expensive purchases, for things like watches, mobile phones cameras and lawn mowers. In each area Buyapowa’s social commerce solution produced a tangible result – for example, the mobile phone network EE saw a marked increase in sign-ups thanks to one of its social sales promotions.

Lask said: “A car is a considered purchase and not something you might expect to sell online without seeing and touching and even less on social media. But, we have seen social selling take off elsewhere with real ROI in the form of sales and lead generation; the auto industry needs to get involved or risk being left behind.”