Social Commerce – An E-commerce Trend for 2020

03/12/2019 | Share:

The Next Shopping Revolution

E-Commerce is constantly developing and it’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends in order to still benefit. When E-commerce began to take off in the late 90s, with events such as the launch of Amazon and eBay, it was the beginnings of a revolution in the way we shop. Brick and mortar stores were no longer the only shopping experience.

As e-commerce resulted in more and more success in the 2000s and beyond, plenty more people became comfortable with the idea of shopping online. In fact, it completely changed our shopping habits and paved the way for online digital advertising as we know it.

Today, managing an e-commerce store is great, but it’s now something that a lot of people can do very efficiently – it’s now no different than owning your own little shop. And sooner or later, you’ll likely be able to obtain degrees solely in e-commerce. If you’re looking to take things to the next level and profit from the next revolution in e-commerce, then social shopping is something you shouldn’t miss out on.

How does social shopping work?

As more businesses and brands progressively increased their presence on social media channels, it became the standard for any business wanting to be seen or heard. It has become just as important as SEO for discoverability.

With all of these brands and businesses on social media with something to sell or an online store to visit, the social media giants such as Facebook worked on making this experience more seamless for their potential customers. As a result, we can now see shoppable posts in our social media feeds, particularly on the popular platforms of Facebook and Instagram, who are really working hard to make social commerce happen.

A shoppable post allows social media users to click on a product image shared to the social network and be taken directly to its corresponding product page on the linked e-commerce store. What’s great is that it is dynamic, meaning that it links with the online store to show the current price. For Instagram, it is especially useful, since you cannot create links within the text of a post.

These linked products are also stored within a shopping tab on your Facebook or Instagram page, allowing people to browse products as if it were its own store.

Taking It A Step Further

Whilst this has enabled a more fluid experience on social media, Facebook is still rolling out more improvements. Very soon, the company will bridge the gap between social media and e-commerce even more with the introduction of in-app checkouts.

Users will be able to provide Facebook with their payment details on their first purchase and store them securely for any future purchases. Customers will also be happy to find out that they don’t need to sign up

Why it’s a Game-changer

It changes the e-commerce game in a number of ways.

With payment details already entered and set up, the order process is simply a click of a button, making it much easier to make a purchase. In addition, despite a few data breach scandals, people are more likely to trust Facebook with their information (just as they have been doing for many years now) rather than a retailer they may not have heard of before.

With the payment details secure at Facebook’s end and a vetting process for sellers on the platform, it means people are even more likely to spend their money.

Eventually, with easier transactions taking place on social media and status updates on orders sent directly via the platform, the need for high-quality e-commerce websites could decline. Being able to check out through the app prevents friction that is caused when switching from the app to a site.

What You Can Do

Anyone with inventory will be able to buy and sell on Facebook and Instagram, so if you’re focused on making it big via social media, it’s definitely worth becoming familiar with it as soon as it launches, whilst it’s still new.

For now, make sure your store is linked to your channels as much as possible and your promotional posts are shoppable. This is not just applicable to Facebook and Instagram, but for channels such as Pinterest as well.

If social selling is not something you’re focussed on, ensure you still stand out in 2020 by maintaining a great website for Google searches and SEO.

Regardless of which route you decide to focus on, ensure your store is able to deliver in good time with Ogden Fulfilment. We store, pack and deliver goods, complete with customer tracking capabilities. Get in touch today.