Social media + E-commerce = ?
- VR
- Mar 5, 2017
- 2 min read
What is social commerce? Have you ever heard about it? Maybe yes, maybe not. Well, it is defined as “the use of social media, in the context of e-commerce, to assist with buying and selling products and services online. It evokes the fusion of two big digital trends, e-commerce and social media.”(Sau-ling, 2010)
But which social media own the best e-commerce space where you can make your purchases from there, without even visiting the company’s website?
On Facebook store, anyone can sell products to consumers from his page. Its easy use and its online checkout are two features that make them preferable from others. The usage of Messenger as a tool for interaction with customers before and after the realization of the purchase “is the company's ticket into the wider world of online retail”(Mac, 2015) Numbers speak! “An average of 85% of all orders from social media belongs to Facebook” (Macdonald, 2013)
A survey conducted a year ago, in which 2017 persons over 18 years old answered, showed “that Facebook is the most popular site for direct purchasing, with 19% of all respondents selecting the platform.” (Chahal, 2016)
So, what is the difference between e-commerce and social commerce? “Social commerce is a trusted environment of which prospective consumers make buying decisions based on the advice of a network of friends and family, not strangers they don’t know or trust”. (Sau-ling, 2010) It’s a space that they trust and they easily share the product they like to get feedback from their intimate friends. It’s a fact that “regardless of where the purchase is made, many shopping decisions involve more than one individual’s input, be it a couple, parent and child, or friends”, as Heidi Cohen said. (Mullin, 2016)
Dan Virgillito (2016) mentions that people love both shopping and social networking. They also like the convenience, as with social commerce they can skip some steps for their order. There will be a large evolution on social commerce and as he says “will only boom in the upcoming years”.
Let’s see which social commerce trends 2017 will bring us. Stay here, on Monkey Business.
References:
Chahal, M. (2016, October 21). Social commerce: How willing are consumers to buy through social media? Retrieved from https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/03/23/social-commerce-how-willing-are-consumers-to-buy-through-social-media/
Mac, R. (2015, March). Facebook goes all in on e-commerce by bringing businesses onto messenger. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/03/25/facebook-goes-all-in-on-e-commerce-by-bringing-businesses-onto-messenger/#5be56f8821c6
Macdonald, M. (2017). Which social media platforms drive the most sales? [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://www.shopify.in/blog/12731545-which-social-media-platforms-drive-the-most-sales-infographic#DisqusComments
Mullin, S. (2016, June 09). Social commerce: What it is, what it isn't and why you should care. Retrieved from https://conversionxl.com/social-commerce/
Sau-Ling, L. (2010). Social commerce – E-commerce in social media context. Retrieved from http://waset.org/publications/2123/social-commerce-e-commerce-in-social-media-context
Shopify. (2017, February 20). Facebook store. Retrieved from https://apps.shopify.com/facebook-store
Virgillito, D. (2016, March). 5 social commerce trends to watch out for in 2016. Retrieved from https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/5-social-commerce-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2016
Comments