The Rise of Social Commerce: Shopping Through Social Media

Social commerce makes shopping an in-app experience, bringing it directly to social sites like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. This has gradually overhauled the whole e-commerce landscape, as now products can be discovered, browsed, and bought within the app, making shopping even seamless and more interactive.

The Meaning of Social Commerce

In contrast to the conventional e-commerce experience, wherein people are sent to other websites to carry out their shopping, social commerce lets people shop wherever they scroll. For example, finding a product in an Instagram post and, rather than leaving to go and buy it, you only have to click on the item, select your options, and then check out—all within the app. It combines social interaction with online shopping, allowing for an undisturbed path from the discovery of the product to the actual procurement of it.

Why It's Popular

Social commerce is on the rise because it is very convenient. Because people spend hours in their daily life on social media, adding the ability to shop within their feeds saves them a lot of time and eliminates several barriers to buying. The ability for brands to convert followers into customers through instant sales, just with a tap of the finger on a shoppable post or video, can make a difference in converting time at scale.

The key difference it has is in the factor of impulse buying. A user would have liked a product in their feed for the sake of making an unplanned purchase, mainly when the voices they trust buzz around the product - meaning both influencers and peers. This, therefore, increases the chances of such spontaneous buying .

Platforms Leading the Way

Starting with China, which was at the forefront of social commerce, platforms like WeChat and Douyin, which is TikTok's Chinese version, achieved high-end sales. In 2023, the Chinese social commerce market is expected to grow to $351 billion. The U.S. has been playing catch-up, with the introduction of features such as shoppable posts, stories, and ads by Instagram and Facebook— features that, among others, allow users to make a purchase without leaving the respective platform. Meanwhile, TikTok has been on its toes, aggressively investing in building out a shopping experience directly tied to its short-form content.

Social commerce, therefore, cuts across directly to a business's target audience, with the algorithms on social media driving home potential buyers. Data analytics provide the brands with better insights into consumer behaviors and, hence, the consumer personalization of marketing. Additionally, the real-time manner of the interaction through these chat features on social media means branding is able to deliver support at that very moment, making the shopping experience even more consumer-centered.

Meanwhile, there is a frictionless purchase journey for the consumers who easily access the reviews and contact the brands directly. They will even have the opportunity to view how certain products work either through influencer partnerships or by the new live shopping events, thereby increasing the context and authenticity compared to a normal product listing  .

The Future of Social Commerce

With the recent developments around native shopping features and other technologies, such as that of shoppable videos or augmented reality becoming common, the social commerce is all set to take major lead in online purchase. It doesn't just emphasize convenience but an immersive and engaging shopping journey that brings brands and consumers together in new, interactive ways.

In other words, social commerce is changing the way we shop and embedding the store directly in our social feeds. With the platforms continuously innovating, the potential for both brands and consumers is huge. And this trend is not going to slow down anytime soon; in fact, it's just about to pick up some major speed.