An empty prediction
Many predicted 2016 to be the year where social commerce booms. However, now that we’re looking from the other side, we can see that most sales have not improved. Despite the lack of positive results, marketers are still investing in social commerce as a vital tool to reach consumers.
What is social commerce?
Social commerce is essentially a way for ecommerce companies to use social media interactions for research and to get consumers to buy more. Many businesses have looked to this method as a way to engage with their customers based on their behaviors online. In addition, it drives customers to return to your site because they are finding what they need there.
You can provide your consumers with all of the information that they need to know about your brand, and thus they choose to buy from you over your competitors.
Combining efforts
All of these factors give businesses the confidence they need to keep investing in the future of commerce.
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It is estimated that most marketers budget for advertisements via social media rather than social ecommerce. However, according to Jess Jacobs, Director of Marketing of the online home goods market Wayfair, both social ads and ecommerce are “joint efforts that support one another.” She says, “in some ways all of our social activity is social commerce.”
The websites we visit, the things we “like” and the places we follow all inform these companies on how to market to us.
Don’t give up just yet
This, perhaps, is the reason behind why retailers continue to embrace social commerce, though a larger majority of their profits come from their physical locations. In addition, apps like Instagram are adding features so that posts can display multiple products and prices. Their idea is to show consumers more information about products early on, in the hopes to reel them in before they visit other sites.
Regardless of seeing only slight improvement in revenue, most marketers will continue to utilize social commerce as a way to keep their businesses growing. Plus, they don’t want to jump off the bandwagon just yet, in case it ends up benefiting them in the long run.
