Social media platforms provide a great way to increase business branding by digitally promoting, marketing, and selling their products online. It also offers businesses direct access to a vast audience. Social commerce is currently present in large numbers on social media platforms to make a product profitable through motivating and engaging content.
Social commerce simply helps e-commerce businesses in order to make them available on social media platforms. This assists businesses in widening brand audience and customer reach. Its advanced features are creating new opportunities for brands big and small. Social commerce platforms favor the marketing-driven revenue of companies taking assistance from it.
What Is Social Commerce?
Social commerce can be defined as a segment of e-commerce in which merchants sell products directly through social media platforms. It allows potential customers to interact with brands, browse goods and make purchases at any instance. Additionally, social media platforms are built to be mobile-friendly, it is a highly accessible way to reach a variety of audiences.
It also benefits customers with different user-friendly options such as the option to check out goods directly from social platforms. In some cases, the social platform may contain links that lead directly to the business website or retailer’s product page where the customer can also complete their purchase.
Social commerce brings the store to the customer, rather than redirecting customers to an online store. It removes unnecessary steps and streamlines the buying process, by letting the customer checkout directly through social media platforms. This creates a more frictionless journey for the customer and more sales for businesses.
Some of the leading social media platforms that lead the way in social commerce functionalities include Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tiktok. However, every platform serves a unique purpose and targets a niche audience, each one offers comparative strengths that shape its approach to social commerce.
Social Commerce Vs E-Commerce
Social commerce and e-commerce sound very similar, but they have some basic differences. E-Commerce refers to a shopping experience using an eCommerce site, online store, or dedicated branded app. It provides one-way communication with the customers. In e-commerce, the number of business partners and enterprises are limited.
Whereas, social commerce allows the customer to make their purchase within their social media experience. It provides two-way communication between the customer and businesses. Also, social commerce is collaborative which offers a large number of business partners or promoters such as social media influencers.
Benefits of Social Commerce
Social commerce assists businesses to increase their sales. It has positively impacted the overall market growth. In addition to this social commerce has many benefits and some of them are as discussed below.
- target potential customers
Social commerce makes use of social media to target potential customers through content engagement. Brand reputation also depends on the buying experience. It is just as important as the product itself. Social commerce helps to streamline that first purchase, which will create a winning customer experience that people want to repeat.
- Convert customers where they are
Social commerce helps businesses to meet their customers where they are, by increasing engagement on social media. It removes a step in the buying process which can reduce friction in the sales funnel.
- Increase reviews and recommendations
Social media algorithms help to pass on relevant content to more potential customers with engagement growth. Social media platforms also offer customers to leave reviews on products and other target audiences can use those reviews as recommendations to check out and buy such products from certain businesses. This helps businesses to keep the audience in the loop with new launches and sales.
- Gather useful data on your customers’ social habits
Social commerce features provide businesses with direct access to customers’ social profiles. Retailers or sellers can use this information to enhance their social media presence by offering better content and improving the consumer experience.
Conclusively
Businesses are also showing interest in adapting and leaning into change to scale more sales. To match new-age technology and the needs of changing urban lifestyles, retailers are opting for ways that can help their businesses grow. Social commerce offers assistance to businesses by providing a shopping experience that encourages discovery and personalization to build authentic connections between consumers and the brands they interact with.
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