Rise Of Social Commerce: How Social Media Is Shaping Future Of Online Sales
Social media evolved from a basic information exchange platform into a key medium for interaction without boundaries. 50 per cent global population today are active social media users, reflecting the immense reach of the medium. Capitalising on this strength, businesses are leveraging the medium to reach a vast and diversified audience. This adoption was accelerated during the pandemic as businesses explored different mediums for improving customer reach.
Today, the potential reach of ads on the top four social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, is 60 per cent of the total active user base, making it a strategic and cost-effective branding tool to unlock markets and improve reach.
Exploring the realms of social commerce to enhance sales potential
Built on the strengths of social media, social commerce is a new approach to enhance the customer shopping experience and boost business sales. It is a sub-division of ecommerce where merchants and brands showcase and sell their products directly through social media platforms, by providing a more interactive and stimulating experience to prospective customers.
Recent research estimates 97 per cent of Gen Z customers use social media as their top source for shopping. Following are some advantages of social commerce:
Social commerce has its challenges, for example, cybersecurity threats, privacy issues, and payment fraud. To mitigate these, the platforms are deploying various measures such as identity validation and secure payment gateways to make social commerce a safe medium without impacting the customer shopping experience.
After achieving early popularity in China, the adoption of social commerce has gained momentum worldwide. Many brands and businesses are planning out their content, experience, and networking strategies as well as reaching out to opinion leaders and opinion customers to better utilize the medium. A few notable examples of different engagement models of brands on social media include live shopping, the use of augmented reality, and seamless checkout.
Technology-driven, new-age social commerce trends to augment shopping experience
Technology has been one of the foundations of social commerce and shall remain a key driver in shaping the future roadmap for the medium. Platforms and businesses are trying new-age technologies to offer more customised and personalised digital experiences to customers that shall transform the future of social commerce and online shopping. Some recent initiatives include the use of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and metaverse.
The evolution of these emerging trends with the availability of high-speed internet is expected to accelerate their adoption. The future is expected to have more immersive three-dimensional content and realistic AR filters for customers to experience a virtual-shopping mall. We may also witness the emergence of customer avatars for shopping in the Metaverse who would purchase digital clothing for these avatars; all under the social commerce umbrella.
Social commerce revolution for future-proofing business
As social commerce gains momentum globally, market reports suggest the opportunity size reach USD 2 trillion by 2025. Therefore, brands and businesses should make the most of this opportunity and tap into the medium by making social commerce an essential component of their marketing and sales strategy. For those who are yet to venture into the vast realm of social commerce, “Now” is the time to seize this opportunity.
_20240617000602_original_image_49.webp)
