Fast Take On: Social Commerce
By MEC
What Is Social Commerce?
Any commerce that is inherently social in nature.
Example: Bonobos did a “Flock to Unlock” program on Twitter in which participants retweeted the offer 49 times within 24 hours to unlock a discounted sale price.
Commerce that takes place on a social platform.
Example: The ability to gift a Facebook frienda Starbucks Card for their birthday.
Benefits Of Social Commerce
Customer Acquisition:
Social Commerce allows customers to easily share offers and purchases with friends and followers – all whom are potential new customers.
Move fans along the customer journey:
It’s not difficult to argue that social media drives consideration, but to drive sales via social activities is every marketer’s dream. Social Commerce brings brands closer to proving the ROI of social media. It also helps close the customer journey loop by driving advocacy through social’s earned potential.
Personalization:
In a time where big data rules, it would be a miss not to take advantage of social data to deliver a more customized consumer e-‐commerce experience that has the potential of driving increased sales.
Targeting:
Both Facebook and Twitter have extraordinary targeting capabilities. Facebook and Twitter ads with buy buttons have the ability to deliver the right products to the right people at the right moment – and help brands achieve tremendous scale.
Feed impulse buying:
With group shopping growing ever more popular and the ubiquitous use of social media on mobile devices, consumers are more apt to making impulse-‐based purchases, potentially spending more.
Current State Of The Social Marketplace
Mobile Friendly:
With 78% of US Facebook users accessing the social network via mobile*, long gone are the days of Facebook Stores, previously built as customized tabs within pages. Companies like Soldsie are coming to the forefront, allowing brands to monetize comments on posts across Facebook and Instagram.
Content-rich:
Visual platforms are becoming major drivers of purchase intent. Many brands are reporting sales driven by Instagram and Pinterest although neither platform has direct purchasing functionalities. Companies like Blucarat are beginning to explore ways to make images more shoppable.
Social as currency:
Mentions and Likes are increasingly being exchanged for products. From food to fashion brands, companies are trading goods and services for tweets and Instagram posts.
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