Social commerce: how can brands keep up?
With over 57 million users in the UK, social media is baked into most people's daily habits. This has opened the doors for social commerce, but do brands understand how to engage consumers correctly? Christina Miller, Chief Social Officer EMEA at VML, finds out.
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The marketing landscape is changing. There are new channels. New behaviours. New technologies.
Brands and consumers are evolving at pace with the wider world. Values are becoming as important as value. Purpose is closing in on price. And social is shortening the distance between businesses and customers.
Our timelines have become mirrors of our passions and our personalities.
In the UK, there are over 57 million social media users - equating to 84.4 percent of the total population. Instagram and TikTok are baked into the daily habits of audiences across demographics. Our timelines have become mirrors of our passions and our personalities. And part of this reflection is found in the influencers we follow.
Above: In the UK, there are over 57 million social media users - equating to 84.4 percent of the total population.
Social media is fuelled by two things; people who create content, and people who consume it. There is a meaningful bond between creators and their audiences and, through social commerce, brands are now able to positively influence this relationship.
The rise of social media has opened the doors of social commerce. Globally, social commerce is set to become a $1.2 trillion industry by 2025. Southeast Asia has long been the leader of the pack, where it is already worth more than $13 billion, but the biggest, more recent, gains are being made in Brazil and India. The $2 billion to $3 billion social commerce market in India today is estimated to hit $70 billion in value by 2030, empowering around 40 million small entrepreneurs.
The rise of social media has opened the doors of social commerce.
In the West, adoption has been slower, and a bit more up and down. Instagram launched shoppable posts for brands back in 2018 with some success. But Meta shut down live shopping after a muted launch in 2022, citing a lack of momentum for “more advanced” forms of social commerce - which was followed by TikTok delaying its full roll-out of TikTok Shops in the US for the same reasons.
But today, the momentum is back and now these Shops are officially live. Accenture predicts that social commerce will grow three times as fast as traditional ecommerce. So how can brands take advantage of this?
Above: Influencers work as a channel for driving brand awareness because their audiences willingly give them their attention.
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People and products
Marketing is changing quickly, but how we work as humans changes much more slowly. And, in a new landscape, an old marketing adage stands true; 'people buy people before they buy products'.
Marketers know the importance of trust, and this is exactly why influencer commerce is one of the most common routes for brands to test social commerce. Influencers work as a channel for driving awareness because their audiences willingly give them their attention. It’s a more authentic connection to your brand than just through advertising alone.
In a new landscape, an old marketing adage stands true; 'people buy people before they buy products'.
This connection can go even further through User Generated Content (UGC). When done correctly, audiences can sell a product for you. We see this in its most natural form happening organically on platforms like TikTok with “TikTok Made Me Buy It” trends. These are real, direct references from people who then encourage audiences (which can potentially be in the millions, if the algorithms work in your favour) to go and try it too.
And as much as brands are finding ways to become a useful part of the relationship between influencers and their audiences, they are also becoming creators in their own right. Community engagement has never been so important. One-to-one communication with customers, helping with Q&As and guiding people through the sales funnel is a fundamental part of existing as a brand on social.
Just like influencers, brands need to nurture their communities and build connection through personal communication.
Above: Social commerce isn’t just slapping a 'buy now' button on a post.
Human at heart
Social commerce isn’t just slapping a 'buy now' button on a post. Social works when you create stuff people want to tune in for. Content which pops out of the feed, and the same is true for social commerce.
Brands need to understand the trends and conversations their audiences are having on social, evaluating the cultural opportunities and building a relevant commerce experience around this insight. The best social commerce is creative, rooted in culture and a deep understanding of how your audience is engaging within these spaces. Without these foundations, social commerce falls into the trap of just being another digital catalogue, completely missing the value that social media can add to shopping.
The best social commerce is creative, rooted in culture and a deep understanding of how your audience is engaging within these spaces.
Without creativity, it’s just an ad. Have a strong brand POV and persona, as you would with regular social media activity, and let that POV shine through in commerce just as you would with regular social content.
The recipe for success is seemingly simple; meaningful engagement paired with frictionless commerce experiences, as well as growing and nurturing a relationship through content and conversations that have deep understanding of your audience. Get this right and it’ll create easy opportunities to convert.
People buy people before they buy products, and that is why great brands are human at heart. Understand who you are selling to, what they expect and what they care about and then create content that feels like it belongs on social, and not just like a catalogue in a newsfeed.
