As you know, social media is used for sharing and posting images, memes, reels, demographics, and diverse stories or statuses. Simultaneously, e-commerce plays an important role as a multi-market place where you can buy many goods in fashion, electronics, academics, and many other categories.
Social media platforms have surpassed their purpose of communication and are now considered market hubs. Brands connect with customers to sell their products/services, termed social commerce. This blend of e-commerce and social networking is a game-changing spin for business and customer communication.
Let’s delve deep into this article to explore the rise, influence, and types of social commerce, its ability to turn followers into customers, and how businesses leverage it.
What is Social Commerce?
It is a branch of e-commerce that utilizes social networks and digital media to bridge a transactional gap between businesses and customers. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more already have a feature that enables businesses to create a social brand account and sell their products and services. Through this collaboration of marketing and sales, brands tend to establish more meaningful relationships with customers. Let’s have a short look at the types of social commerce:
Types of Social Commerce
Using social commerce to connect with customers and increase sales is a strategic method that aligns with current practices in social marketing. Also, using the capabilities of social networks that have integrated social commerce tools, brands can enhance stronger connections with their target audience, which leads to improved relationships with customers and better outcomes for businesses.
Let’s explore the platforms that feed social commerce and can be used within social networks as a social commerce strategy:
- Facebook. Businesses can use a valuable feature, Facebook Shop, on this platform to build highly tailored pages. Similar to e-commerce stores built on Shopify and Amazon, retailers can select products and collections to feature on their sites to sell.
- Instagram. Mostly, individuals look for products on Instagram. The Instagram Shop enables brands to sell products that customers can directly purchase within the platform. Customers can access Facebook shops from Instagram.
- Pinterest. As of 2015, this platform has adopted social commerce, which enables customers to purchase products from Pinterest’s business pages through an integrated checkout process.
- TikTok: It is a third-largest platform integrated with social commerce features and a go-to for brands that need to reach a massive portion of audience. Reports state that +71% of normal TikTok users and 49% of Gen Z shoppers make a purchase from the platform, which clearly shows its close competition with Facebook and Instagram. With TikTok LIVES, users can shop during streaming via in-feed videos, and product display tabs.
Apart from these largest market hubs for social commerce, there are others, such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon Live, Weibo, and more.
The Rise of Social Commerce
Estimated sales globally through social media platforms set the figure at $992 billion in 2022. However, this number of sales grows highly in the future through online purchases from social channels. According to statistics, the sales value of social commerce will become $8.5 trillion by 2030.
There’s no doubt social networks have changed people’s routines, such as how they use, spend, and make money. When social media and e-commerce fuse, it is termed social commerce. The Asia-Pacific region pioneered the concept of social commerce, and its adoption has been popular in the U.S. market over the past years. In the middle of 2021-23, the number of US shoppers has accelerated from 97 million to almost 107 million. The research suggests that the GMV of social commerce will reach a number of $150 billion by 2028, ultimately double the figure of 2024.
Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Delivering Personalized Shopping Experience
Alongside delivering flexible customer engagement opportunities for businesses, there are plenty of values social commerce has to offer to customers. After the successful hype of social commerce, customers engage with it through friends and family product/service recommendations who’ve already used or purchased it before they buy. Moreover, direct interaction with a brand by comment section or via Q&A (question and answer) helps customers or shoppers ask relevant questions regarding the purchase of a product. It allows them to seek deeper into brand market insights confidently for better decision-making toward transactions. Social channels deliver an excellent opportunity to customers for an open pre-sale and after-sale interaction with a brand through they’re purchasing.
Many businesses use the data collected from these interactive customer engagements — such as likes, comments, and shares — to deliver personalized experiences based on customers’ picks or favorites. This personalized shopping experience truly cultivates a long-term bond between both the customer and the brand.
Do I Need Customer Engagement Services For My Social Commerce Business?
Customer engagement is the beating heart of your social commerce business. In today’s competitive market, where every interaction is a close chance to seal the deal, customer engagement services play a game-changing role for your brand. They help you convert passive scrollers into long-term sales and interact when an engagement occurs, such as a like, comment, and share on your published posts.
Turning Followers into Customers
In business, turning leads or followers into customers is an art of interactive marketing and sales, so how exactly do brands use social commerce to do it? Let’s explore some key techniques:
Transactional Posts and Product Tags
Showing transactional posts and product tags on your social media brand profiles enhances user flexibility to find and buy products that meet their needs quickly. By maximizing customer experience with this strategy, brands can reduce attrition rates and gain monetization and ROI.
Shopping Events or Product Launches
Creating urgency around your products by hosting live shopping events or product launches on social channels can directly grab the attention of shoppers. It is better to engage with customers in real-time, Q&As, and offer exclusive discounts or promotions to increase the purchase ratio.
Influencer or Brand Collaborations
Connecting with influencers or brand ambassadors to promote your products to their fans or followers gives you an edge. It is recommended that you collaborate with an influencer or a brand that aligns with your goals, values, and target audience. Authentic, captivating, and target-based content is the backbone of better collaboration results between your brand and an influencer or a brand you choose to collaborate with.
User-Generated Content
Must encourage your followers to make and post user-generated content (UGC) such as unboxing, reviews, hacks, or valuable tips featuring your products. This UGC effort converts into your brand’s social credibility and authenticity and is social proof of credibility.
Personalized Recommendations
Use data and analytics to provide customized product recommendations to your followers or customers based on their previous browsing and transactional behaviors. Through targeted ads and email marketing campaigns, re-engage users who have shown interest in your particular products but haven’t finished the transaction.
Navigating the Trust Factor
Fluctuation is a necessary part of nature, even in social commerce as well. Trust is the core aspect of running a successful business, and the key is to maintain it to remain prosperous. Users entrust businesses to protect their financial information and personal data. Further, if any kind of security breach happens or misuse is conducted, the consequences affect the overall business reputation and growth.
Thus, businesses worldwide ensure the layered security patterns to double up the safety measures and proceed with transparent communication. Multi-layered cloud databases, end-to-end encryption, reliable payment gateways, and clear data usage policies are becoming prevalent.
Trust is the key to winning customers; the more you build, the more conversions you will get soon.
In Last…
As we stand in 2024, social commerce has emerged as an emphatic force transforming the digital marketing landscape. It is not a fleeting fad but an effective transition that has truly redefined the way we shop and interact with brands. The blend of social media and e-commerce has enabled businesses to reach a massive audience to enhance sales. Using a smartphone to scroll through captivating visuals and purchase with a single tap has reimagined instant satisfaction. User-generated content, influencer, and brand collaborations have spun the orthodox marketing standard upside-down. It is risky for businesses to rely on the campaign’s results for ROI instead of using social commerce tactics such as UGC and influencer marketing, which offer more value.
Using platforms’ built-in social commerce features to increase sales by reaching the target audience. Social commerce platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and more, offer businesses the opportunity to grow worldwide. Customers need a personalized shopping experience that aligns with their preferences and is transparent when making a purchase. In this case, data analytics and customer behavior history help curate a more personalized shopping experience.
Trust is a prime factor; nothing works without it. Thus, social commerce businesses interact with customers, collecting their personal data and transactional information; it is mandatory to safeguard all of these essential components with the utmost security measures to cultivate a safe business-consumer journey. Otherwise, dire consequences will occur if security does not reach the level of expected customer trust and any hazard happens to their legal property.
Lastly, Social commerce is a blend of technology, customer behavior, and marketing innovation that has thrived in 2024. As per the research, social commerce has the power to turn followers into loyal customers. It is important to consider that social commerce is here to stay and will be deep-rooted in the market additionally in the near future. In this case, stay well-equipped with the necessary tools and strategies to lead the digital marketing landscape and future by cultivating unmatched business growth.
