With technology evolving, notable increase in the use of smartphones and social media, the ecommerce you used to know is changing. Selling products has evolved from brick-n-mortar stores to e-commerce websites, and now to social media.
eCommerce is getting social!
I’m double sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that social media is literally turning into a marketplace. More and more Nigerians are setting up social media stores, sweeping the thought of having a website under the carpet, carrying out transactions and making sales through social media.
This new trend, which is becoming a threat to the existence of traditional ecommerce is called, ‘Social Commerce’., and it’s growing rapidly.
In an interview with SLA, Omowumi Kolawole of Shoepify, one of the growing number of social media stores, revealed that about 90% of the sales she makes come from social media, and most of these sales are made on Twitter.
See a prognosis released by Statista for worldwide social commerce revenue from 2011 to 2015.
More and more people are cashing in on Social Comerce, taking advantage of the free opportunity, as against spending money to set up ecommerce websites. It’s also enabling retailers to make sales and market their products at the same time, and in the same place.
Right now, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are dominating the Social Commerce space.
See how it works on the platforms:
Facebook is going big on Social Commerce. They have rolled out features that make pages almost like ecommerce websites, making it easier for retailers to increase sales. Retailers can create “Shop Now” stores, where they are able to upload products and product information, curate and customize the store’s product catalog; sell directly from the page, manage orders, run a Facebook ad to promote one of a product and get insight. Also, messenger has made it easy for buyers and sellers to interact.
As in the picture above, Facebook groups can be specifically created for retailers to sell their products and services.
Nigerian Twitter is actually the real marketplace.
Here, retailers just create pages for their businesses, upload products and simply promote by engaging with not just followers, but the Twitter community. With mentions and retweets, retailers are able to drive engagement fast, which in turn means the platform has the potential to record more sales than all other platforms.
People are moved by what the see. Just like you would stop by an offline shop to check out a product that was displayed outside, Instagram has the potential to move people to make purchase. Its highly visual nature makes it a good place for retail.
For many retailers who have set up shops on this platform, they upload and promote their products on the platform. The call and email feature available for business pages, allows potential customers to easily reach sellers.
Why Social Commerce is KING….
- Product recommendations are great. As a retailer, you want your product to get recommended, and at the same time, potential customers are looking for product recommendation. Social Commerce gives this freely.
- In traditional ecommerce, relationships are always one-way. The customer enters the store, makes a purchase, and waits for the order to arrive. In social commerce, the customer enters the store, makes comparisons, asks questions, talks to sellers before making a purchase, and this communication clearly strengthens his or her brand preference.
- For traditional ecommerce, the criteria for changing products/updating inventory is largely dependent on visits, but social commerce makes measurement possible. Retailers can find out what is being said about the products and why users believe that they are better or worse than other products in the market. You can really qualitatively measure what is being said by the community or critical mass.
- Social Media is where potential consumers spend a large part of their time. And bringing the products to directly to them is a no brainer.
Shopping is, by its very nature, a social activity—people always want to know what other people are buying or discuss what they’ve bought themselves with friends and other shoppers. But eCommerce websites? They are not so social by nature.
Although they are still very much in the game, and people are not turning to social commerce in droves yet, the industry is growing, and you should jump in now before it gets saturated.
