The immense popularity and influence of social media has created a huge potential audience to buy through social platforms. Internet users globally spent an average of 142 minutes a day on social media in 2018, up from 90 minutes in 2012, according to a GlobalWebIndex report cited by Digital Information World.
One of the biggest incidents in these media is what is constituted as Social Commerce, a trend in ecommerce in 2020. Within this, there is no doubt that business intelligence is a very active part of it. This has made social media have a major influence on consumer buying habits, with 36% of US Internet users saying that social media has become as important as other sources of information. for product choice, up from 27% in 2015, according to a GfK survey cited by eMarketer.
As the influence of social media grows, social commerce is becoming an increasingly important channel in online shopping. Consumers have used social media to learn about products and brands and find inspiration for more than a decade; the term "social commerce" was introduced by Yahoo! in 2005.
Social Commerce, its great importance in ecommerce
However, in recent years, platforms have been working to eliminate the friction of buying a product elsewhere after discovering it on social media, adding purchase buttons and digital wallets, for example, so that users can make purchases. direct.
In the Social Commerce Report, Business Insider Intelligence estimates the current size of the social commerce market, forecasts its future growth, and examines why its growth has stalled so far, as well as why that is going to change. We also look at the social commerce offerings of the major social media platforms and analyze the future of each company in the space.
Growth and arrival of new customers
In this general context, it should be noted that the growth in the adoption of social commerce has stopped in recent years due to concerns about the security and legitimacy of the canal.
But adoption and usage are poised to increase thanks to the popularity of social media, its influence, and the improving business capabilities of social platforms.
Major platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat have improved their shopping offerings in hopes of becoming hubs as social commerce takes off.
Analysis in its entirety
Either way, the value of the US social trading market is forecast for the next five years. For them, it is necessary to undertake the following actions that we are going to list from now on:
Examine the barriers and growth drivers to the adoption and use of social commerce.
Cover the trade features that are being introduced by Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat and discuss their various strategies, strengths, and weaknesses.
Examine companies with different participation in social commerce, including markets and payment platforms that use social tools and how they fit into the social commerce market.
Are you really interested in knowing why Social Commerce is a trend in ecommerce in 2020?
The continuous increase of social commerce
Brands that are optimizing their digital experiences across multiple channels, such as social media and e-commerce, are establishing a strong competitive advantage. This is still the case, with 55% of online shoppers making a purchase through a social media channel, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest in 2018.
There are clear signs that social commerce will continue to grow. The North American e-commerce agency Absolunet has identified the following key statistics:
- 87% of ecommerce shoppers believe that social media helps them make a purchase decision.
- 1 in 4 business owners are selling through Facebook.
- 40% of merchants use social media to generate sales.
- 30% of consumers say they would make purchases directly through social media platforms.
In any case, we must highlight three major trends in social commerce:
Mobile - Social media sites are now predominantly mobile, and users expect an experience that allows them to browse and shop on their mobile devices.
Visual - Brands looking to make an impact on social media must embrace the trend of "instability" and become visually driven, relatable and authentic.
Trust - Brands looking to get into social commerce should look for ways to build trust and create an online experience that demonstrates clear value in browsing and shopping online.
While these trends are still valid, I wanted to take a closer look at five specific areas of social commerce that brands should pay attention to and consider as part of their go-to-market plans in 2020.
Increase in embedded e-commerce projects
As social commerce continues to gather momentum, some of the more established platforms are looking for ways to improve their e-commerce capabilities. Instagram and Snapchat are just two examples of platforms working on built-in ecommerce projects, hoping to keep pace with cutting edge social commerce apps.
In March, Instagram launched a new ecommerce payment feature to address the ongoing challenge of delivering an end-to-end in-app ecommerce experience for users. Instagram Checkout allows Instagram users to complete product purchases without leaving the app, and in the process save the purchase information for future payments.
Social commerce will expand beyond established channels
As social media continues to evolve, so will the number and range of platforms that people will connect with. Even if new entrants may not have advanced e-commerce platforms like the ones mentioned above for Instagram and Snapchat, consumers will still expect to be able to view and purchase products within the spaces in which they spend their time.
The short video app TikTok has started experimenting with social commerce. According to TechCrunch, TikTok has started allowing some users to add links to e-commerce sites (or any other destination) to their profile bio, as well as offering creators the ability to easily send their viewers to websites of purchases.
This TikTok move is considered particularly significant because it will give brands the opportunity to reach the younger Gen Z audience, which makes up a large portion of the app's 500 million global users.
Influence marketing will continue to persuade
Businesses seeking to excel in social commerce should seek to leverage new and / or existing relationships with influencers to improve reach, association, and affinity with their brands.
The challenge of standing out on social channels is a constant battle for consumer attention and brands must find new and different ways to raise awareness. According to GlobalWebIndex, nearly a fifth of Internet users say they use social media to follow celebrities, reaching a quarter of Gen Zers where they are most effective.
The popularity of influencers means that 14% of digital consumers find out about new brands through endorsements from celebrities, and another 14% through blog posts by celebrities or women. product reviews, which is above alternative sources of discovery such as film, radio, and newspapers.
Take advantage of the most beautiful visual and video content
The rise of social commerce has been driven in part by younger consumers (Gen Z and Millennials in particular) looking for new, interesting, and convenient ways to browse and shop online.
According to eMarketer, more than 55% of US Gen Z internet users - who do half of their fashion purchases online - said their most recent fashion purchases were inspired by media browsing. social. And almost as many millennia said the same:
Fashion shopping inspired by social media
And these young demographics are also driving demand for richer, more visual content, including video. According to the 2018 IAB Video Advertising Spending study, all market sectors have seen an increase in investment in digital and mobile video advertising. Since 2016, total video ad spend has increased by 53% and is likely to continue to rise.
Growth of private messaging services
In 2019, eMarketer expects 2.52 billion people worldwide, or 87.1% of smartphone users, to use a mobile messaging app at least once a month:
Mobile messaging applications around the world. This growth in the use of messaging apps, which includes Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger (the latter owned by Facebook), may further influence how consumers engage with brands in a mobile environment.
The general trend towards messaging apps and the evolution of business tools (such as Messenger ad templates and the business catalog on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, respectively) indicate that this may be a key focus area in 2020. In fact, the WhatsApp Business Catalog is an interesting development, as it will not only help users to connect with relevant companies, but also allow them to see what is available from companies without having to leave the platform.
Business catalog
As social media continues to grow and evolve, social commerce will follow, giving consumers more options and ways to browse and shop within the different social channels. While major platforms have optimized their social commerce offerings, new entrants such as TikTok are beginning to test and experiment, reaching a growing number of younger consumers who are moving away from current leaders.
Brands looking to explore social commerce in the next 12 months should look to try and learn using different platforms, but also remember to look beyond just including 'buy' buttons. According to GlobalWebIndex, buyers are increasingly using a multitude of channels when shopping online, and therefore social channels should be used in conjunction with, and complementary to, other commerce channels to provide a consistent consumer experience across every stage of the shopping journey.
Social media platforms
Social media platforms are highly dynamic, with constant technology changes, earnings evolution, and feature advancements being made to deliver an ingenious and superior consumer experience. Similarly, consumer demands are also ever-changing and volatile, making it difficult for social media platforms and businesses to cope with them. Consumers are looking for a one-stop shop where they can meet their browsing and shopping demands.
And social commerce has emerged as a countermechanism to meeting these consumer demands through the integration of shopping experiences with social media navigation.
Social commerce is the unification of online shopping and social browsing where social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are exploited as a means to promote and market products and offers of a company.
Social commerce is a very necessary element in today's world as it shortens the buyer's journey to research, find, compare, evaluate and buy a product from different web pages and websites. And it turns the point of inspiration into a point of sale, allowing users to buy it in real time with a minimum of clicks through social networks.
The main benefit of social commerce is that it addresses the issues of high bounce rates, low conversions, cart abandonment, and low engagement that businesses face across the digital spectrum. It has been claimed that 30% of social media users, or 500 million users per day, want to buy products directly from the social platform. And this is proof of why social commerce is important for online commerce.
We have listed some social commerce trends that you can master this year. It will help you attract leads, get better conversions, amplify awareness, drive engagement, and increase revenue.
High quality product images
The integration of high-quality product images, live videos, product review videos, and user-generated visual content instantly captures users' attention and hooks them for long-term business engagement.
We have all experienced this at some point in our life when we want to buy something that we find on social media but we didn't know where to look for it.
Social commerce simplifies it for us by linking visual attractions of products with the purchase option, making the consumer's life much easier and simpler.
Integration of purchasing channels
With the growing influence of social media on people's lives and their decisions in real life, social platforms have further commercialized their channels to make them more attractive and interesting.
The content that can be bought is that which is automatically collected from the photos and videos generated by the user with products, through hashtags, tags and mentions of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, which allows visitors to buy the product directly from the posts.
Instead of promoting the products through the content and then redirecting the interested parties to the product page or website. They should sell it directly from the promotional content.
This will save time, money and effort for both businesses and consumers. Plus, it's a walk in the park to make any post affordable through easy-to-use and implement social commerce tools.
Promote social proof through UGC
Social campaigns with UGC get 50% more engagement, especially brand marketing through UGC content gets almost 7 times more interest and engagement. However, in recent years, platforms have been working to remove the friction of buying a product elsewhere after discovering it on social media, adding buy buttons and digital wallets.
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