Why social commerce will rule social media in 2022

Social commerce has been the talk of the town for quite a while now! The impact it has created looks massive. For those who miss the social aspect of a day out at the mall, social commerce might just be the next best thing.

Before we come on to judgments and conclusions, it’s very necessary to know the meaning of Social Commerce, and why it has been in talks! What are the consequences of social commerce and how does it work?

Let’s get started on understanding the meaning of Social Commerce:

Social commerce is the process of selling products directly on social media. With social commerce, the entire shopping experience — from product discovery and research to the check out process — takes place right on a social media platform. Currently, social apps that allow for social commerce include Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Examples of social commerce include customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals, social shopping tools (sharing the act of shopping online), forums and communities, social media optimization, social applications and social advertising. Technologies such as Augmented Reality have also been integrated with social commerce, allowing shoppers to visualize apparel items on themselves and solicit feedback through social media tools.

Here, consumers can easily consult with their friends on purchases, show off those new hightops, comment on their friend's new “I Love My best friend” tee, review comments from other savvy shampoo shoppers, and interact directly with the beauty brands they love.

Facebook has doubled down on social commerce. Companies can create entire “Shop Now” stores, and Messenger is being used by companies to interact with consumers (both pre- and post-sale). With a Facebook store, you can upload products and product information, Curate and customize your shop’s product catalog, Sell directly from your Page, Manage orders, Run a Facebook ad to promote one of your products and Get insights.

Some 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery—at least that’s what Facebook data reveals. It’s no surprise that Instagram introduced Instagram Shopping, a feature that allows users to tap on images and stories to view products featured on it.

With evolving technology, notably increased use of smartphones, and social media platforms, online shopping is changing and becoming more social. 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide their purchase decisions. As a result, it’s a no brainer to sell where your customers are rather than trying to lure them to your site.

Last year when the entire populace was busy discussing the unseen virus, social media usage got elevated, bringing in a rapid increase in e-commerce. Traditional e-commerce is giving a new path to social commerce by building trust, creating engagement, reducing customer acquisition cost, and more is yet to come. According to industry estimates, home-grown social commerce start-ups have raised $100 million funding by having 10 million resellers on board. As technology has taken a center-stage in this D2C model, the scope for social commerce expansion and evolution is high.