Social Commerce:
In the digital world the combination of the two major platforms social media and e-commerce known as the social commerce, like today’s generation spend most of their time on the social media to discover more, for business establishment or growth and also they can purchase their daily life necessities from these platforms. In this article we will talk about the social commerce, its ways of growth, development, the challenges we can face in the social commerce and also about the advantages that it will give us when we use it in a better way.
We can grown our small business by using the social commerce to the global brand over the world wide , as these platform introducing new features like online shops, live streaming shops, AI power personalization through which you can connect your business with your customers that give a beneficial and useful effect on your business, basically Social commerce is mainly refers to the selling and buying your product by using the social media platforms.
What is social commerce?
Social commerce basically refers to integrating the most of the social media platforms with online shopping, discovering more about your business or skills and you can also use all these platforms to promote your business that can enable the possibilities to make your business as a brand of social world. E-commerce is only based on the selling or the buying of the products as the traditional marketing but the social commerce is also enable their users to react on the uploads such as they can like their product or post, comment their experience about the product or post and you can also recommend it or share it to your friends that feature is also beneficial for the brand or business owner.
In the social commerce there are some famous social media platforms like instagram, facebook, tiktok, pinterest and snapchat, on all these platforms you can comment on the product post, like it or also shop by these shoppable posts. The innovation on these social media platforms make the users purchase the product, recommend it to your friends by sharing through that platform you purchase.
How does social commerce work?
As we tell you on the start of this article that social commerce is the combination of the social media and e commerce so, here are the methods through which you can use it in the proper way:
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- Product discovery: users can discover the product through the shoppable post, ads like images and videos
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- Interactive shopping: This platforms provides you tools like product tag, live shopping events and shopping post away form one click of the users
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- In-app purchase: Through this feature users can send the transaction amount by using the payment system of the application
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- Social proof and engagements: reviews, rating on the product and the user content help to purchase the product
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- Personalized recommendation: you can share your experience of using product to other or the behavior of the brand owner
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- Seamless integration with e-commerce tools:social commerce platform also offers you the tools or features of e-commerce for better shopping experience
THe rise of social commerce:
Social commerce basically refers to integrating the most of the social media platforms with online shopping, discovering more about your business or skills and you can also use all these platforms to promote your business that can enable the possibilities to make your business as a brand of social world. E-commerce is only based on the selling or the buying of the products as the traditional marketing but the social commerce is also enable their users to react on the uploads such as they can like their product or post, comment their experience about the product or post and you can also recommend it or share it to your friends that feature is also beneficial for the brand or business owner.
In the social commerce there are some famous social media platforms like instagram, facebook, tiktok, pinterest and snapchat, on all these platforms you can comment on the product post, like it or also shop by these shoppable posts. The innovation on these social media platforms make the users purchase the product, recommend it to your friends by sharing through that platform you purchase.
How does social commerce work?
As we tell you on the start of this article that social commerce is the combination of the social media and e commerce so, here are the methods through which you can use it in the proper way:
- Product discovery: users can discover the product through the shoppable post, ads like images and videos
- Interactive shopping: This platforms provides you tools like product tag, live shopping events and shopping post away form one click of the users
- In-app purchase: Through this feature users can send the transaction amount by using the payment system of the application
- Social proof and engagements: reviews, rating on the product and the user content help to purchase the product
- Personalized recommendation: you can share your experience of using product to other or the behavior of the brand owner
Seamless integration with e-commerce tools:social commerce platform also offers you the tools or features of e-commerce for better shopping experience
The rise of social commerce :
The growth of social commerce increase by the following factors:
Extensive use of social media
Billions of users use social media every day and according to the statistics that 4.3 billion people are engaged toward the social media platform to promote their business by using the different strategies and possibilities.
Changes in consumer behavior
Customers in this social world change their way of shopping and now they can use the online stores to purchase the products and also suggest the products to others that is beneficial for the product owner in that way the online shopping or the business experience is rising day by day.
Advances in technology
A lot of innovations are occurring in the social world like the addition of the AI, AR are the tools that make your experience with the social world more understandable which make a clear connection to the social platform.
Epidemic driven E-commerce
In 2019 the pandemic of coronavirus can increase the use of social media because at that time people are usually free in their houses and their attention toward the social towards increase, most of the start their small business and they also get the positive response
Advantages of Social commerce
Seamless shopping experience: Social commerce can make it easier for customers than past years, now people can easily buy or sell their products on the social media platforms and they can also give their reviews about the product that help other users to buy the product.
Increase engagement: Social commerce make the faster connection between the customers and brand that is also make the engagement for the content and the influencers
Increased discovery capability
Authenticity and Trust: Social commerce can engage the user generated content that can make the authenticity and the trust to build the relation between the customers and influencer which can build the trust also.
Data-Driven Insights: social media platforms provides analytic tools that can enable the business to get engagement and also the audience behavior can be matter in the online business
Challenges in social commerce
Platform Dependency: In today’s world the business is mostly depend upon the social media so its is become difficult to engage the business toward the audience that way it become challenge for every business owner
Data privacy concerns: As the social media platform is use by everyone but the privacy concern due to every platform demand personal so the maintenance of everything is become a little bit challenging
Tough competition: As the social media commerce use become very common among the every so it is also become like a tough competition
Maintaining authenticity: striking a balance between the promotion content and the authentic content seem to be difficult
Technical limitations: payment system among the small business owners is risky because it is a technical system and sometime it has catchless disorder that make limites for the small business to use it
Strategies for succeeding in social commerce
Create high-quality content: if you want to make attractive content then you have to use the high quality content, a high quality video become more attractive than a low quality content
Embrace live shopping: Host are streaming live show of shopping through which the customer can see the quality of the product and appearance directly
Optimize for mobile: Most of the users attract toward the social media through their mobile so, that you have to check and balance that the content or the checkout process is mobile friendly or not
Use AR and AI: The artificial intelligence can make the online shopping experience more interesting, these tools can also help to engage the business and other social media content
Prioritize social proof: Rating, highlight reviews are the proof that can help to easily analysis the product or the content
Analyze and adapt: Leverage analytic tools help to analyze the content and identify the trend that can help to grow your content
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:1 Which social media platform can support social commerce?
Ans: Today’s most popular social media platforms such as facebook, instagram, tiktok, pinterest and snapchat can support social commerce because these platforms integrate with shopping features that will be helpful for the users and influencers to choose the product.
Q:2 How does the social commerce work?
Ans: The social commerce works by the integration of the shopping features, adding the list of the products, making a specific features business that can attract the customer toward it and posting the stories, images & videos of the product that can engage the users.
Q:3 How do I start selling on social media?
Ans: For starting a business you have to first done these steps:
- Choose the specific platform on which you can want to sell the product
- Then you have to link you e-commerce platform with that platform
- Strat uploading picture or videos of your product on that platform
- Mention all the detail of your product under every post or in the bio portion of the profile
- As the users will attract towards your post and they will show engagement
Conclusion
We are live in the world that is gradually become as the busy based life so for that everyone wants to use the easy ways in the life, in this case the online shopping mode is become the most popular habit among the every one because it save that time we will waste in the shopping malls. Now the advancement in social commerce can make a big difference because it gives the new trend ideas and engages the content by using the new ideas investing in the social media platform also in the business. However, like every social media platform, social commerce is also facing the challenge in the social world because in the last year everyone is converting their business towards the online platform so as everyone is transforming so it becomes challenging for every user.