Chances are, even if you have never heard the term ‘social commerce’ before, you will have landed across it in your daily lives without even being aware.
Think about the ‘TikTok water bottle’ how many times have we all had the famous 99p viral product taking over our scrolling?
East-Midlands creative agency think3, dive into exactly what social commerce is and why your business should be making the most of it.
What is social commerce and how is it different from e-commerce?
Social commerce is defined as selling products or services directly through social media channels.
In a way, social commerce and e-commerce are interlinked and used together, e.g., products shared on the Instagram shop are then redirected back to your website for the customer to complete their purchase.
Social media algorithms will make sure that your products are reaching the right audience. In other words, the process is about providing the entire buyer's journey and making their purchase as simple as possible from the discovery of a product to the sale.
Social commerce vs e-commerce
E-commerce
- E-commerce is a product or service which is sold through a website or mobile app.
- There is a cart abandonment rate of 75% on desktop vs 85.65% on mobile that’s a 15.9% difference.
- Building custom apps is a great way to increase sales but isn’t an easily accessible option for all businesses.
- Mobile apps convert 43% more than desktop alternatives.
Social Commerce
- Social commerce is buying a product/service within a social media platform.
- Taking mobile-first one step further.
- Setting up a store on Facebook or TikTok can be much more easily accessible for some businesses rather than having to develop a mobile app.
- Social media algorithms make it much easier for you to reach your audience, where they are already ‘hanging out’ online.
Basically, social commerce and e-commerce are very similar and have sales as their end goal, the main difference being the way in which they sell to their audience. Both methods will continue to work closely together moving forward as the online world expands even more.
The convenience of social commerce
Social commerce exists due to the growing number of customers making purchases via their mobile.
Providing cost-effective access to your products through social media apps provides an easy check-out process for your customers.
Reaching your target audience where they already are
Social media algorithms are a huge benefit for social commerce. If your audience can interact with your brand on their favourite social media channels, discover new products and services, and make a purchase right there and then, why wouldn’t businesses make the most of this?
Social media platforms where social commerce is already making waves
Facebook – The social media giant operates on a mammoth scale with 1.6 billion user visits to the platform each day. Facebook shop is easy to set up and sell products/services on. It has an easy sync integration with partnered e-commerce platforms, to easily sync your inventory.
You can also make use of Instagram product tags, which turn your content into a shoppable product or service.
Pinterest – Pinterest isn’t exactly what we would consider a social commerce platform however, they do have tools which can help with sales of your products. Product Pins redirect your audience to a set landing page and the pin itself includes product information and live pricing.
There is also a Shopify integration, which allows adding your product catalogue to your Pinterest page.
Most Pinterest users are looking for inspiration, so, although it isn’t exactly a social commerce platform, your customers can find what they are looking for quickly and can be easily direct to a landing page where they can complete their purchase.
TikTok – The latest addition to the social media world has created waves in the social commerce space.
Not only does TikTok have a top-notch algorithm, but they are also able to segment their user based on certain sub-communities which means your products reach the right people without having to pay additional for Ads.
Update: TikTok are dropping their plans to expand the live shopping features. Due to a lack of customer interest & internal problems.
think3’s thoughts on social commerce
The growing presence of social commerce isn’t something that your business should ignore, with an ever-expanding focus on making the buyer's journey as simple as possible and reaching your audience where they are already online.
Platform giants are focusing more and more on expanding social commerce tools, leading us to believe that this is just the beginning.