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June, 9 2024
Due to customer behavior and technology constantly revolving, the e-commerce world is always changing. Social commerce is one of the recent large developments changing the market.
Social Commerce combines the convenience of online shopping with the features of social media. Social commerce is greatly transforming how consumers find, interact with, and physically purchase products. Social commerce allows consumers to directly purchase products on social media platforms. It includes the full shopping experience inside a social media setting, from product discovery and suggestions to purchase and post-buy engagement. In this blog post we will discuss why social commerce is growing at a rapid pace and how it is affecting e-Commerce.
There are many different factors as to why social commerce is becoming immensely popular in the e-commerce world. Some of these factors include the rise of social media usage, the necessity for seamless shopping, and the true power that Social Media holds in today’s world. In this blog, we will take a closer look at how social commerce is affecting the e-commerce world.
The average human spends a lot of their time on various social media platforms. Social media users discover new products on social media without the intent of discovering new products. Social media users will come across ads, posts, or even TikTok videos, showcasing a new item and users will Immediately be exposed to these products. Social commerce leverages on the amount of time that individuals spend on social media, which allows this adaptation to have great success.
Example: Directly on the Instagram app, there is a shop where users can discover a magnitude of products, with descriptions, and can complete the shopping process directly on the social media app.
Platforms on social media have the ability to allow brands to directly engage with customers at any point. Brands have the ability to host live streams, comment directly to customers, answer questions and more. With all of these features, brands are able to create their own personalized and unique communities amongst their customers according to their brand.
Example: Many cosmetic, or makeup brands, will host live streams, where individuals can physically demonstrate the new products that these brands are putting out for customers to engage with.
Social proof plays a large impact on the patterns of social commerce. User-generated information, testimonials, and reviews have a big impact on how consumers evaluate a product. Social media platforms make it extremely easy for social media users to observe how other people are interacting with a product.
Example: An example of social proof in social commerce is when people post reviews on platforms showing people what the product is, how to use it, and if they recommend it or not. A platform where this is most common would be TikTok.
Social media platforms provide brands and businesses with the ability to target specific audiences. There are features based on demographics, hobbies, behaviors, and more which allows brands to reach their desired audience. This benefits businesses by allowing their content to be pushed to people who are more likely to engage with their postings.
Example: Facebook advertising effectively demonstrates the focused marketing strategy.
It is far more convenient for consumers to shop and complete their purchases on social media without having to go to other sites. It is all in one spot. This process also reduces the time for consumers to purchase goods.
Example: You are scrolling on TikTok and an influencer is posting about Tarte makeup products, and there is a link on the post to buy those Tarte products from the video. You click on the shop link and you are already filling out your delivery notes.
Businesses should strongly consider integrating social commerce into their e-commerce strategy given its increasing popularity. Here are some doable actions to get you going:
As discussed previously, TikTok shop is a feature of the social media platform, TikTok, that allows users to purchase products extremely fast. “The orange “eligible for commission” tag has become ubiquitous while scrolling the app: products like clothing, eye treatments, wellness supplements, phone accessories and even noodles are heavily promoted across the platform.” The noodles went extremely viral where “foodies” would try these noodles that resembled ramen noodles. Other “foodies’’ made the champony pickle kits go viral as well. People could purchase these pickle kits that came with a giant red pickle, fruit roll ups, sour-sketti and some spicy dust looking substance. These chamony pickle kits absolutely blew up. Consumers were able to witness creators assembling these pickle kits and try these crazy looking concoctions.
These pickle kits are a prime example of why social commerce works. Consumers are able to experience the product before even purchasing it and then when they do decide to purchase something, it is completed within seconds.
Social Commerce is absolutely an adaptation that your companies should be learning about and adding to your social media platforms. If you already have the pages set up, you are halfway there. Add social commerce to your social media and marketing strategy. Exhaust all benefits of everything that social media has to offer your company. Below is a graph displaying the mass increase of social commerce growing in the United States.
Author: Akhilesh Srivastava
Founder and CEO of FenixCommerce
