The growth of social commerce in 2020

Since the popularization of eCommerce over a decade ago, business owners are eagerly looking for new and effective ways to attract customers and make the best of the available market opportunities. Among the numerous ways employed by the business owners to target market dominance, a good social media strategy proves to the most competent one. But is it really that effective across the real world userbase? Read along to find out for yourself.

How big is the social platform?

If we just talk about the numbers, there are more than 3.6 billion active social media users worldwide. This means you have a readily available customer base that mostly comprises of adults from 18- 45 years of age group. With a correct social media strategy in place, your business can find a readily available target audience that can bring your sales records and visibility to soaring heights.

Studies show that about 37% of internet users in the USA falling in the age group of 18 to 34 have once or more used social media platforms to purchase their desired product. In a recent market survey, every 1 out 4 internet users in the USA falling between the age group of 25 to 34 have used the "shop now" option on Facebook to buy a certain product they found while scrolling. This is a pretty huge number, considering the population demographics and the state of popularity by which the social media users are growing.

As of now, the market for social commerce has grown past USD 89.4 billion and will soon attain the USD 600 billion mark with a percentage increase of more than 500% in the coming 7-8 years. As more and more customers shop through social media, the competitiveness across this field will also increase. Here, the key would be to find the target audience and implement a social strategy that is relevant, effective, and useful for the potential customer. A lot of user data including age, gender, education, and income comes into play while analyzing the adequacy of a certain strategy across a region.

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Why is Social media important for eCommerce?

The answer to this question can be best explained by analyzing the net worth of the world’s largest social media platform, Facebook. It alone hosts about 63% population of social media users followed by YouTube with 61% of the share. Over the past 10 years, Facebook’s net worth grew manifold and as of December 2020, it lies at a staggering mark of USD 784.85 billion. The platform alone has over 2.74 billion monthly active users and about 1.82 billion daily active users. These stats make it pretty obvious that social media is a very powerful marketing platform and is crucial to the modern-day eCommerce marketing strategy.

However, considering social media for just its reach and visibility would belittle its actual sales and marketing potential. One of such underrated factors is the referral power that social media platforms engender. Studies by eMarketer show that in the past couple of years, referrals generated through social media platforms have grown up to 110%, beating any and every referral channel by a huge margin. Statistics show that over 92% of consumers trust referrals from their close ones and B2B companies score about 70% better conversion on a lead driven by a referral channel. It’s easy to understand how big of a role do social media channels play when it comes to eCommerce sales. However, only a profitable social media strategy can help your business gain a competitive lead in the market.

Shop social

The trend of social commerce has seen a pretty great response in the past couple of years, allowing users to shop directly from the social platform they are surfing without switching between shopping apps. This trend of offering a one-tap shopping experience has essentially removed the hassle of switching apps, allowing users to skip searching for their favorite products and ordering them directly from the same platform. By making a user’s digital media experience shoppable, businesses are not just improving on customer experience but also gaining increased conversion and revenue flow. A great example of social commerce can be seen across Facebook and Instagram, where users get an in-app shopping experience for friction-less purchase.

Here are 4 benefits of social media for your eCommerce business.

• 1. Reach beyond your territory

  Apparently, more than 71% of internet users are active on social media channels, making it an Eldorado for customer reach. eCommerce retailers can easily make use of the data available across these channels to study the behavioral demographics and make better profits out of it.

• 2. Be more accessible and visible

  Investing in a good search engine optimization strategy can help you gain good traction around search engines and with PPC campaigns. Though highly crucial, an SEO strategy can only offer visibility when a user is searching for a specific product. However, with a social media strategy, you can fill the gap and be visible to your customer right at their favorite places online.

• 3. Less formal, more friendly

  All social media platforms are inherently informal and are generally looked at as a very effective way to engage. Businesses can easily turn this in their favor by using this as an advertising channel and engaging with their potential customers by sharing interesting info and marketing gameplay.

• 4. Help your brand get shared online

  By looking at the statistics on referrals, it's safe to say that it is one of the best ways to attract customers and build up on sales conversions. With a good marketing strategy, you can easily gain more and more customers by literally changing your existing customers into your brand advertisers across the social media channels.

To conclude

A powerful social media strategy is built with effective, engaging, and sharable campaigns that allow your customers to discover your brand, find products they love, and shop without any hassle involved. This is especially very important for smaller businesses and startups, as it helps them create a unique shopping experience and for their customers. Looking for eCommerce development company to grow your eCommerce business beyond limits, get a free consultation from our eCommerce experts and see your brand skyrocket across the newfound customer base. Reach out to us now!