Shopping styles have changed over the years, with technology taking center stage. E-commerce took the world by storm some years back. However, another layer to it has been discovered in recent years. Social Commerce is that newly discovered layer that has added a new dimension to the world of shopping.
Supplemented by the ever-growing social media presence, Social Commerce plays a part in increasing your business’s sales, revenue, and profit and will form a part of your overall business strategy. Since it holds so much value, let’s understand all the factors revolving around social commerce in detail.
What Is Social Commerce?
“Social Commerce” refers to purchases made directly through social media platforms. Social commerce involves promoting and selling goods and services through social media networking platforms. The entire frictionless shopping experience, from product discovery to checkout, takes place on a social media platform with social commerce.
Impression, clicks, engagement, improved reach, or conversions are all achievable goals for social media advertising campaigns through Social Commerce. Bonus point! You won’t even have to switch to the retailer’s website for your purchases.
Social Commerce VS E-commerce
Although the distinctions between social commerce and e-commerce are sometimes clouded, there is a significant difference.
- Social Commerce: From product discovery to deliberation, comparisons, and purchase, the entire sales experience occurs entirely within a social media platform with social commerce. Social commerce represents a fundamental shift in power from retailers and brands to people.
- E-commerce: E-commerce refers to a sales experience or shopper journey on a company’s website or app or occasionally on a third-party website or app.
Also read: 7 Tips For Choosing The Best eCommerce Platform
Rise Of Social Commerce
By 2025, the opportunities for social commerce will have nearly tripled. In 2021, social commerce sales were estimated to exceed $492 billion globally. The social commerce market will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 26%.
These stats represent 16.7% of the $7 trillion in overall e-commerce spending. China will remain the most developed market in size and maturity, but developing markets like India and Brazil will experience significant development. As new business models allow for broader participation in digital commerce across all spectrums of society, social commerce has the potential to take over e-commerce in these areas. In the United States, social commerce will more than triple by 2025, reaching $99 billion, with consumer electronics, apparel, cosmetics, and decor providing the most opportunity.
Why Is Social Commerce Creating Such A Buzz?
Social Commerce platforms seamlessly integrate social experiences and e-commerce transactions through a single path to purchase, enabled by a single platform. However, this is only the starting point. We will present you with other essential bullet points that make social commerce a blue-chip stock.
Engagement Rate Turns Into Conversion Rates
Lead Generation in online businesses takes a new lift owing to the social part of social media. Social Media offers a platform for buyers to interact directly with brands they love, review comments from previous buyers, consult with friends and family or even prompt them to buy something they love.
When such instant, informal groups get formed on social media platforms owing to interactions between retailers and shoppers, brand engagement, loyalty, and sales spike tremendously.
Since working culture has moved towards Work-from-Home, the percentage of hours people surf through social media during office time has risen from 2% to 10-15%. Social Commerce offers businesses a chance to convert engagement rates into conversion rates since the working class is more relaxed while surfing social media through their homes.
Offers Precise Audience Targeting
Social media’s hyper-targeting capacity is crucial, providing a fantastic opportunity to pinpoint the right audience for your product with high accuracy.
Watches that you love can be broadcasted directly to your feeds, urging you to buy them. Social commerce allows you to put ready-to-buy products in front of the individuals who would enjoy them, something traditional e-commerce and marketing cannot provide.
Shifting The Trend From Powerhouses To People-Powered
According to the latest research, 463 million people in China are already profiting from social media. It’s not just celebrities who turn their fame into profits through big-brand collaborations; millions of independent artists, influencers, and resellers use their preferred channels to earn money. As the competition among social media platforms heats up, each platform provides creators with incentives to increase their user base.
Apart from these influencers, new brands that don’t have a legacy are also popular. The reason? Having a social presence created through brilliant social media marketing. Having a branded name is good but won’t be enough to pitch sales as new brands prove that being in the eye of social media users is the new marketing trend.
Also read: 10 Sales Promotion Ideas to Boost Your Sales
Gives A Boost To Your Sales
Social commerce offers value as a powerful customer service tool, allowing you to interact with your audience in real-time, answer queries, and provide assistance. All of this contributes to your overall objective of selling more to satisfied customers.
Using the power of social media to promote your business enhances brand awareness and audience reach. In addition, 87 percent of internet customers claim that social media sites influence their purchasing decisions.
Wrapping Up
Social Commerce opens up new revenue streams for platforms, just as growth in digital advertising is expected to slow down. In the meantime, there are opportunities for retailers to develop new types of shopping experiences, connect in new ways and engage influencers. We can assure you that by adapting to Social Commerce, the only way for your business is up.
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