Social media significantly impacts people’s tastes, opinions, and desires. Throughout the pandemic, India has adapted well to social media. Indian users now account for a sizable portion of global social media platform users and are a key target market for these platforms’ expansion.
The definition of influencers in our social circles has evolved from a one-on-one personal connection to a more social media-based interaction that caters to style, fashion, footwear, and home utilities. The evolution of how we interact and are influenced has given rise to social commerce.
Social Commerce Statistics
According to a new Accenture report, social commerce will grow three times faster than traditional commerce, reaching $1.2 trillion by 2025.
In 2021, 64% of social media users reported making a social commerce purchase, which means they researched, discovered, and checked out a product via a social media platform such as Facebook.
More than half of social buyers (59%) supported small and medium-sized purchases through social commerce, and 63% said they would shop with the same seller again, indicating that social buyers value loyalty.
How Social Commerce Is Taking Charge Of Online Sales
Social commerce can help boost online sales by:
- Increasing brand awareness
Social media platforms allow DTC companies to reach a broader audience and enhance brand awareness, which can lead to more sales.
- Providing a seamless buying experience
Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have built-in e-commerce functionality, making it effortless for customers to browse products, make a purchase, and complete the transaction all within the platform.
- Enhancing product discovery
Social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have features like hashtags, user-generated content, and influencer marketing that allow customers to discover new products and brands.
- Encouraging customer engagement
Social media platforms allow DTC companies to interact with customers in real-time, which can help build stronger relationships and improve customer loyalty.
- Creating a sense of community
DTC companies can use social media platforms to create a sense of community around their brand, which can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat sales.
- Utilizing targeted advertising
Social media platforms offer detailed analytics that allows DTC companies to target their advertising efforts to specific demographics, increasing the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and leading to more sales.
- Influencer Marketing
Social media platforms allow brands to connect with influencers who can help promote the brand and their products to a large, engaged audience. This can increase brand awareness, boost sales, and drive website traffic.
Benefits Of Social Commerce
With the advent of social media, the line between e-commerce and social media has become blurred, leading to the rise of social commerce. Social commerce offers numerous benefits to businesses and consumers alike.
An effective way of engaging with customers
Social commerce allows businesses to showcase their products more engagingly and interactively, providing consumers with an immersive shopping experience.
By leveraging social media, businesses can connect with their customers more personally, creating a sense of community and trust.
This can help build brand loyalty, increase customer retention, and drive sales.
An opportunity to reach new audiences
Social media platforms have hundreds of millions of active users, and businesses can use these platforms to expand their reach and target new customers. Social media widgets help users to display their social media feeds on their website. This can help businesses to increase user engagement & and high increase in conversions.
Social media algorithms can be used to target specific demographics, allowing businesses to tailor their marketing messages to specific groups of people.
This can be particularly effective for businesses targeting younger demographics who are more likely to use social media as their primary source of information and entertainment.
Increases conversion rates
By providing a seamless shopping experience within social media platforms, businesses can reduce the friction associated with traditional e-commerce transactions.
For example, by enabling customers to make purchases without leaving the social media platform, businesses can reduce the likelihood of abandoned shopping carts and increase their conversion rates.
Offers valuable insights into customer behavior
Social media platforms provide businesses with a wealth of customer data, including browsing and purchasing habits, interests, and demographics.
This information can be used to optimize marketing strategies, improve product offerings, and enhance the overall customer experience.
Reduces marketing costs
By leveraging social media platforms, businesses can reach a large audience relatively cheaply.
Social media advertising can be highly targeted, allowing businesses to maximize the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and minimize waste.
Additionally, social media influencers and content creators can be used to promote products to their followers, providing businesses with a cost-effective way of reaching new audiences.
Wrapping Up!
Although social commerce is new to the online business world, it will undoubtedly become mainstream before we know it.
While expensive campaigns were once reserved for larger, multinational brands, it is now far more accessible for brands of all sizes to experiment with social commerce and use it to grow their businesses.
Finally, many of the most successful businesses have a strong omnichannel strategy that integrates all business channels, both online and offline, to create a consistent, engaging customer experience. And one important way to do so is to use social commerce.
