The Emergence of Social Commerce

Social commerce is forecasted to grow 3 times faster than e-commerce. According to Accenture's report, shopping on Social Media Platforms is expected to reach $1.2 trillion globally by 2025, overtaking e-commerce. What has provoked such fast growth of social commerce?

In fact, there are several factors that influenced such a significant rise. The first of them is the demographic one. Supposedly, the accelerated growth will be driven by Gen Z and Millennial consumers. Those groups will account for 62% of global social commerce spending by 2025.

Another reason is the fact that social platform development created a shopping revolution and changed the entire shopping experience. 78% of consumers claim that companies' social media posts impact their purchases. That is estimated to reflect nearly 2 billion social buyers globally. Furthermore, 74% of buyers rely on social networks in making purchase decisions. The average user spends 2.5 hours on social media daily.

Benefits of social commerce

Social commerce has several benefits that facilitate the buyer's journey and help companies engage with customers on social platforms.

Social media are changing very fast, and their mechanisms and algorithms are constantly developing and improving. Thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, brands can obtain real-time data on consumer behavior.

On the customer side, social media platforms provide all the information they need to research the product, get inspired, compare the prices, and choose the brands they want to buy from.

Furthermore, the products on social media are often presented more natively than in regular online stores. Being promoted by influencers or being part of the aesthetic feed on Pinterest doesn't create the impression that the user entered the online shop. Social media provides tons of opportunities and creative expression for brands to make an advertisement unobtrusive.

"Social commerce is a leveling force that is driven by the creativity, ingenuity, and power of people. It empowers smaller brands and individuals and makes big brands reevaluate their relevance for a marketplace of millions of individuals."

Oliver Wright, global Consumer Goods, and Services lead at Accenture.

In fact, social commerce goes beyond just shopping via social media platforms.

Optimization of social commerce.

The numbers speak for themselves. Social commerce, the same as social media, which constantly grows its audience and develops, will be with our generation for a long time. That would be the right moment to start optimizing social media, knowing the positive forecast for the near future. Here are several tips that could help to optimize social commerce for the brand.

Choosing the right content.

No doubt that content, especially visuals, is important for social media. As we know, social media are highly saturated with competition. Therefore, the content will help you stand out from the crowd and demonstrate your uniqueness to the buyers. From the customers' point of view, the users came here to consume the content. That is why it is important that behind your content, there will be a certain value that will draw the attention of the people.

Visual is the priority in social media content. Visual trends are constantly changing in customer behavior. That is why it's essential to keep up with the new lead-ins to keep along with competitors.

The video, same as the images, was turned vertically for a convenient view from the phone. At the same time, video content mustn't be longer than 15 seconds. It is important to catch customers' attention in the first 3 seconds of the video. That is enough for the average customer to make their first impression and make a decision to continue watching the video.

When your advertisement is seamlessly integrated into a video, it's essential to ensure that the content aligns with your product. Our recent product, PXLSTRM, harnesses the power of generative AI to methodically evaluate and categorize a wide range of videos. This assessment encompasses numerous criteria, such as dialogues, channels, metadata, engagement metrics, links, and various other elements. With PXLSTRM, you can easily identify specific keywords, celebrity names, locations, actions, objects, and corporate logos.

The text would have to be short and contain no more than 100 characters or less for headlines/titles and no more than 500 characters for descriptions. At the same time, the text should be separated into several paragraphs for more comfortable reading.

Use the influencer's help

Influencer marketing has remained one of the most efficient marketing methods for several years. The study has shown that people trust influencers more than the information provided by brands.

Another trend in influencer marketing is micro-influencers. Sometimes, an account that has several million won't bring the same effects as those with 10K–100K followers. Despite the small number, those influencers can have a loyal audience and provide great engagement. At the same time, brands can save money by purchasing the services of the micro-influencers. If the brand has a limited marketing budget, micro-influencers would be a suitable option in this case.

It's crucial to match the appropriate content with the right influencer to avoid any contradictions that could harm your brand. PXLSTRM, for example, can seamlessly analyze the individual featured in a video, streamlining the process of strategically placing the right product in the video at the perfect moment.

Storefront with Instagram

60% of buyers discover the products on Instagram. Moreover, the shoppers claim that if they are getting inspired by something on Instagram, they want to learn more about the product and make a purchase right away. Hence, if you have a Facebook Shop, the good news is that you can connect it with Instagram! Moreover, connecting Instagram with Facebook will allow to broaden the audience and sell the products on the 2 platforms at the same time.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

One of the crucial parts of social commerce is to leverage the social proof from user-generated content (UGC). That could be, for instance, reviews, customer service feedback, and different kinds of endorsements.

Why is it important? For the last several years, UGC has proved to be very beneficial for the brands. That allows the users to understand the brand identity from the customers' point of view. Another benefit of the UGC is that it helps to alter people's perceptions since it was created by other customers and not by the brand alone. That straightens the trust between the company and the buyers.

How to generate UGC? The easiest way would be to encourage the customers to post a review, a picture/ video with the product. As a rule, people like to share messages containing UGC.

Low-cost products first

It is important to remember that people who use social media don't see social shopping as a priority. The users are here for communication and, as we mentioned before, consuming the content. That is why users are less likely to make a big purchase via social media. And therefore, it would be more useful for the brand to prioritize low-cost products.

Choose the top few bestselling low-cost products that will be promoted. The lower the price it has, the greater the probability that people will consider purchasing.

Those are just a few tips for social commerce optimization. As we noticed above, social media changes the same fast as user behavior in the frames of that social media platform. That is why it is important to keep updated about the trends and innovations in social commerce. That will help to remain connected to your audience and keep up with the competitors.