Social commerce, once a buzzword with a vague meaning and an even vaguer real-world application, is now almost as ubiquitous online as social media itself. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that consumers can now access the Internet and shop from their desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets.
The main reason, though, is that social commerce is a natural extension of an activity that the majority of Internet users engage in on a daily basis: interacting with their friends on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Essentially, social commerce works because:
“Liking” (or “plussing” or “tweeting,” etc.) content online has become second nature for many people, and can be used to show preference for a news story, a funny photo, and even individual products within an ecommerce storefront.
Once people see that their friends like a product, they may be more inclined to read reviews of the product, visit the website and social media pages of the store that sells the product, and ultimately, to purchase the product. If they can complete this last step directly from an ecommerce store’s social media profile, this makes for an even more integrated social shopping experience, and segues directly into our next point.
Put simply, social commerce, particularly in the form of an integrated Facebook page, allows social media users to transition into ecommerce customers quickly and easily once they have found a product that they are interested in buying.
Clicking on a product takes them to the online storefront where they can purchase it, eliminating the need for the customer to leave the store’s social media page to search for the product themselves.
Social media users are now used to interacting directly with the people behind the social media profiles of both companies and celebrities. Once this happens, a company stops being a faceless corporation and begins to be viewed a social media “friend.”
As a result, loyalty naturally increases, announcements about online sales, promotions, and new store arrivals are easier for consumers to keep track of (since they are automatically notified of them). Social commerce bridges the gap between liking and recommending products online and actually purchasing them. In today’s increasingly Internet-based society, that is a valuable gap to bridge.