Social commerce is a part of the broader e-commerce ecosystem resulting from the combination of a 16.4% growth in social media usage year-over-year and the need for companies to reach customers wherever they are. In short, social media platforms today help businesses turning customers’ dependence on images and video into shopping activity, providing them with an immediate purchase experience.
Instagram and Facebook are leading the social commerce trend worldwide. Recently, Shopify partnered with the two platforms to connect more than 1million merchants with a potential daily customer base of 500 million and 1.9 billion users, respectively. As reported by eMarketer, in the US, 58% of Millennials said social media are an important source of information when making shopping decisions. Shopify’s customers can discover products while navigating on their favorite social network and interact directly with brands via messaging and Livestream shopping. After that,, they can complete orders by paying on the social platform through Shop Pay.
Pinterest also offers a visual interface that is ideal for social commerce, but unlike other platforms, 97% of the top searches on Pinterest are for unbranded goods. This unique marketplace is a great advantage for small and medium-sized businesses because their content can gain visibility based on the quality of their product and not by brand awareness. In addition, Pinterest’s most distinguishing feature is the use of Augmented Reality on its platform: When users see something in the real world, they can take a picture using the Pinterest camera and run a visual search for similar products. Or again, through an AR feature called "Try On", users can try on different makeup, save for later shopping, or buy through the retailer’s site.
According to Statista, Social Commerce is currently worth $89.4B, but it is expected to skyrocket to $600B in the next seven-year, as more people grow accustomed to buying online. With evolving technologies and the increasing use of smartphones, social networks are a key distribution channel for companies to both find new customers and boosting sales.
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