Social Commerce Takeover — the global trend in 2020
Clicking through quite a few links that dive into Digital trends of 2020, I’ve found that seems to be on every other list; Social Commerce. A concept named ‘shoppable posts’ is explained as an interactive ad on Social media sites such as; Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Essentially, what this means is that brands will be able to ‘tag’ their items in pictures posted on these sites and that tag will show the item’s price. Clicking the tag will lead the customer to the brands' official website which makes the buying process much easier and faster.
Changes
The numbers of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest users are growing daily. According to Instagram, the number of active users on their platform is 1 billion and 90% of those users are following shopping brands. Given this fact, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the impact social media can have on e-commerce businesses is great. Internet users spent an average of 142 minutes per day on social media, up from 90 minutes in 2012 and that number keeps increasing yearly. This makes social media a major influence on consumers' purchasing habits.
Research shows that Generation Z spends 2–3 times more shopping on social platforms that the average consumer. With Generation Z connected online almost constantly, mainly on social channels (scrolling through Instagram, or posting snaps), the importance of social commerce is more than obvious for brands who want to keep thriving and expanding.
Social Media
One of the primary drivers of why social commerce has become so successful is the shift from Facebook and towards platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and, of course, Instagram.
These platforms have one important thing in common; short-form video content that has been dominating online content. Research shows that 91% of consumers prefer interactive visual content, such as video, over conventional static media. Consumers prefer short videos or very short sentences (Twitter) over long posts on Facebook that used to work. YouTube has become huge over recent years, and the second-largest search engine behind Google.
Why should you choose this approach?
Shoppable posts would fit right in with the fast-paced lifestyle that consumers are accustomed to. Watching your favorite YouTuber talk about a topic you are interested in while they are wearing a shirt that you like and having the opportunity to purchase something that your favorite influencer is wearing is appealing to a lot of young consumers.
- Shoppable posts allow users to shop for items (make-up, clothes, home products) without leaving a video or photo.
- Shoppable posts have the potential to change the way people shop. Up until recently, links were the only organic way for e-commerce stores to drive traffic from social media posts onto their official websites.
- Shoppable posts give brands the opportunity to turn their Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook accounts into visual stores by adding product tags and information to their images and linking to product web pages.
Brands could use shoppable posts as an opportunity to reduce their customer journey and to expand their reach overall. It removes the process of a customer logging onto the official site, looking for the item they are looking for and then checking out.
Conclusion
Given the fact Instagram and other social media platforms have been used to spark inspiration in people who follow fashion, there is no doubt in my mind that Shoppable posts would increase brand sales. In my own personal experience, I can remember quite a few times where I found an item on an Instagram post that I really liked, but couldn’t be bothered to look it up on the brands' official site. Consumers these days love the easy access and getting things fast, so the instant gratification one could get from seeing an item they like on a post or an Instagram story and instantly being able to attain it is promising enough.
Resources :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2019/06/25/inevitable-rise-of-social-commerce/#76da79d53031
https://www.businessinsider.com/social-commerce-report
https://mention.com/en/blog/social-media-marketing-trends-2020/
https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/topics/customer-engagement/instagram-shoppable-posts-2018/
