Social media e-commerce is in its early stages but it’s gaining traction day by day. While social media marketing redirects people to an online store, social e-commerce sells directly via social media sites.
As a rapidly growing popular trend, social media e-commerce is providing loads of opportunities for shopping to netizens. Social media companies have started pondering over the possibility of social networks becoming the first-choice e-commerce platforms.
Could social media throw off big e-commerce names such as eBay and Amazon for some time? We will get to know the answer in the upcoming years. But, now we want to discuss the present scenario.
What is Social Media E-commerce?
Many e-commerce stores are utilizing social media channels to market their store. This practice is called social media e-commerce. Social media e-commerce facilitates building brand awareness, appealing to online users, and making online sales.
Digital marketing companies employ social media to share content about their client’s business, profile, and products or services on the internet.
Social Media E-commerce and Facebook
According to Mark Zuckerberg, more than 300 million shoppers visit Facebook and Instagram shops every month. He further stated that Facebook’s platforms have over 1.2 million shops. It’s evident that both sellers and customers have welcomed this new e-commerce feature of Facebook.
Small startups can easily create a Facebook shop for free which is very appealing to them. Facebook shops enable sellers to establish a single online shop for both Facebook and Instagram users. This convenience gives social e-commerce an edge over Amazon and similar platforms.
Moreover, over 160 million small businesses already have a social media presence. It’s easy for them to now just set up a shop on the social site. We all know that Facebook has a treasure trove of user data that it has been gathering for a long time. This user data helps it to show ads to suitable customers.
Facebook shops enable businesses to leverage two social sites with two different demographics. And they only need to set up and update the shop once every time.
Social Media E-commerce and TikTok
Nowadays brands are partnering with TikTok creators to get overnight street cred for them. This is a successful social media marketing strategy. Platforms like Amazon and eBay don’t have this advantage.
Now companies can sell their products to TikTok users as TikTok has swiftly created an e-commerce capacity. Using a link on a seller’s TikTok profile, customers can buy items directly on the app.
Tiktok has also partnered with Square and Shopify. Big brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Manly Brands have signed up for this program.
Social Media E-commerce and Twitter
Twitter users can show tweets that redirect people to e-commerce product pages if they click a link. It is similar to the product page of a Shopify store.
In 2022, Twitter launched a new e-commerce feature called Twitter shops. By setting up a Twitter shop, sellers would be able to curate a list of up to fifty items to display on their Twitter handle.
By increasing the number of products a seller can show in their profiles, twitter aim to make shopping on its platform easier. This will, in turn, help merchants drive sales.
This free feature has a mobile-friendly design. It allows people to transition from talking about items on Twitter to clicking the link to check out the brand’s collection and finally make a sale. Consumers can hit the buy button on an item to land on an in-app browser. Here, they can check out the brand’s website.
The best part for merchants — Twitter doesn’t take any share of the revenue generated through Twitter shops. Social media marketing has risen to the next level with these e-commerce features.
Advantages of Amazon
Amazon has decades of experience in the e-commerce arena. The platform has been trying and testing to improve itself and the shopping experience since its inception. Therefore, startups don’t usually face issues on amazon.
Buyers can trust amazon as their A – Z guarantee safeguards them when they buy products sold and fulfilled by a 3P or third-party vendor. It means that they will get their money refunded if the product is faulty.
Furthermore, Amazon can ease storage and shipping issues for sellers. It helps vendors in succeeding with a sophisticated infrastructure. With numerous revenue teams, Amazon can fund new projects to enhance customer and seller experiences.
Social media sites don’t provide as many advertising options like Amazon to help businesses succeed irrespective of their marketing budget. And amazon offers consumer data to help social media companies target new and returning buyers for their clients easily.
Bottom Line
E-commerce was present on various social platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram before this trend started. TikTok is trying to become the default option for shopaholics most recently. According to news source Bloomberg, TikTok has selected a handful of streetwear brands to experiment with e-commerce features in Europe.
Social media sites are happy to test new e-commerce features that allow users to find out and connect with products they like.
