7 Important Social Commerce Trends for 2023
Glory-Anna Oshafi
As the world inches closer to becoming fully digitized, stats show that social commerce is gaining significant momentum globally. A study projects that by 2025, US retail social commerce sales will total $79.64 billion.
Leveraging social commerce, which facilitates selling products straight through social media channels, allows you to engage a larger audience and provide a customized shopping journey for your clients. However, it is crucial to note that social commerce is continuously adapting, making it necessary to stay current with emerging trends to remain at the forefront of the industry.
From the rise of shoppable videos to augmented reality, these trends are changing how consumers interact with brands and make purchasing decisions.
Regardless of whether you are a small business proprietor or a marketing expert at a sizable enterprise, it is essential to comprehend these emerging patterns to outpace competitors and connect with your desired audience through novel and inventive approaches.
Let’s dive into the exciting world of social commerce and the major trends to watch out for in 2023.
What Is Social Commerce?
Social commerce unites social media and e-commerce, empowering businesses to employ social media networks for offering their products and services directly to consumers. This process might also involve users clicking on social media links that redirect them to product pages for immediate purchases.
Social commerce has become a game-changer within the e-commerce domain and is anticipated to experience further expansion in the upcoming years. The escalating number of individuals engaging with social media platforms is a primary factor driving this growth.
The number of social media users is projected to reach 4.89 billion in 2023 alone, according to Statista. Businesses use this growth to their advantage by getting their products in front of potential customers on social media.
Another factor contributing to the growth of social commerce is that social media platforms have also made it easier for businesses to sell their products. We can significantly attribute this to the built-in shopping features that allow customers to make purchases without ever leaving the social media platform.
Social commerce presents itself on various social media platforms, including but not limited to Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Facebook. Among these, you can choose the platform that suits your goals and target audience.
The Importance of Social Commerce in E-commerce
Social commerce is an important component of e-commerce and offers several benefits to businesses.
Here are some of the key reasons why social commerce is vital in e-commerce:
- Improved Customer Experience
Social commerce lets customers conveniently discover, and purchase products within their social media feeds, streamlining the shopping experience. Additionally, it establishes a direct communication channel between your business and customers, enabling prompt responses to inquiries, delivering support, and fostering stronger customer relationships.
- Increased Reach
Social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest host billions of global users, and social commerce enables you to showcase your products directly on these platforms.
Reaching people on social media can be challenging. Still, when you consistently post engaging content, leverage social media advertising, and work with the best social media management tool, you can build an online community in no time.
- Boosted Customer Loyalty and Retention
Social commerce entails more than just selling your products and services online. It also involves building strong relationships with your customers. Customers can easily communicate with you in your DMs or through the comment sections on social media platforms.
When you communicate with customers—providing answers to their queries or solving their problems—you can build trust and boost customer loyalty and retention.
- Gain Data-Driven Insights
Social media platforms offer a wealth of data-driven insights that can help inform your social commerce strategies. You can easily obtain and analyze metrics such as engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. This allows you to effectively measure ROI, better understand your audience, and tailor your social commerce efforts to meet their needs.
- Improved Brand Awareness
According to a report, the average time people spend on social media daily is about 2 hours and 31 minutes. This statistic implies that people will always check their social media accounts. With social commerce, not only will you reach potential customers, but you can also make your brand the “catchy tune” in your niche.
Additionally, a word about your brand can spread far and wide through user-generated content. Ultimately, more people will become aware of your brand and recognize it for a particular solution.
Top 7 Social Commerce Trends for 2023
Social commerce is set to continue its growth and become an even more critical part of the e-commerce landscape. Here are the top 7 social commerce trends to watch out for in 2023.
Increased Use of Shoppable Videos
A shoppable video is a type of video content that allows viewers to make purchases directly within the video itself. Shoppable videos usually include clickable links that show the viewer product information or enable them to add products to their shopping cart without leaving the video.
The future of shoppable videos in social commerce looks very promising. They are becoming increasingly popular as a way to drive engagement and sales.
Since the inception of this technology, it has proven to be an effective way to engage customers. In fact, according to Statista, over 50% of correspondents who watched shoppable videos made a purchase. Additionally, the result of a survey showed that 41% of viewers added a product to their shopping cart while watching a shoppable video.
Overall, shoppable videos will continue to rise in popularity as they effectively deliver the best online shopping experience.
The Power of Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers have established a large and engaged following on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media channels. These influencers are often considered experts or authorities in their respective fields and are trusted by their followers.
Businesses are increasingly leveraging the power of social media influencers to promote their products, and experts expect the influencer marketing industry to reach $21.1 billion in 2023.
Influencer marketing lets you tap into the existing fan base of influencers and gain access to a highly engaged audience. This marketing approach is even more so with micro and nano-influencers because they promise higher engagements due to more personal connections with their followers.
Influencers can use their social media presence to promote a product or service, showcase it in action, and give their followers an authentic and personal endorsement.
Influencer marketing has proven to be a highly effective strategy for social commerce. A recent survey shows that businesses are making an average of $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
If your business goals align with the benefits of influencer marketing, you can hop on this trend and make the most out of it.
Increased Use of Chatbots
Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversations with human users online. They can be integrated into social media messaging platforms to provide automated customer service, answer questions, and even complete transactions.
Chatbots offer several benefits for businesses operating in social commerce. They can provide 24/7 customer service, handling inquiries and resolving issues at any time of day or night.
They can also help you scale your customer service operations, handling a high volume of inquiries without the need for additional staff.
In addition to customer service, you can also use chatbots for marketing purposes. They can provide personalized product recommendations and promotions based on the user’s browsing and purchase history.
Based on a report from Statista, approximately $80 million was generated in revenue from the chatbot industry in 2021. This figure is expected to get to $454.8 million by 2027. As of 2018, there were over 300,000 bots on Facebook Messenger alone.
Other social media platforms are adopting this technology, and e-commerce businesses are embracing it to provide a better shopping experience for users.
Growing Popularity of Detailed Live Streaming
Detailed live streaming involves the host showcasing and explaining a product’s features and advantages in real-time. This form of live streaming is gaining traction in social commerce, enabling audiences to engage with the host and product in real-time, pose questions, and receive immediate responses. Furthermore, it offers a sense of authenticity and transparency that helps build trust.
By embracing this trend, you allow your audience to learn more about your business, forge a deeper connection, and ultimately boost sales through social media.
Adoption of Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging trend in social commerce, enabling businesses to enrich their customer’s shopping experiences by integrating digital components into the physical environment. AR technology superimposes digital content, such as images, text, and animations, onto the real world, resulting in immersive and interactive experiences for users.
One of the key benefits of using AR in social commerce is that it allows customers to see products more realistically and interactively before purchase. For example, customers can use their smartphones or other AR-enabled devices to see how a piece of furniture would look in their home before purchasing. This helps to boost customer confidence when they shop online and reduces the likelihood of returns or exchanges.
AR technology can be used to create unique and memorable customer experiences, such as interactive product demonstrations or virtual try-on. You can also use AR to make unique filters or effects on different social media platforms.
These experiences can help to build a stronger emotional connection with your customers, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business.
Expansion of Social Payment Options
One of the reasons why social commerce is rapidly growing is that the team behind each social media platform is working on adding new features that enhance a seamless shopping experience. One of the remarkable ways they have achieved this is by including a payment option so that the users can shop without leaving the social media app.
These payment options are usually secure and convenient, allowing customers to make purchases with just a few clicks, like the Zara shopping experience below.
Examples of social payment options include Facebook Pay, Instagram Checkout, and Twitter Buy Buttons. With this trend, social commerce platforms are becoming all-in-one hubs, offering a more streamlined process for selling your products while creating a more seamless customer experience.
Rise in Popularity of Voice Commerce
With the rise in the use of voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri to perform tasks such as setting reminders, people are also adopting this technology to make purchases.
Voice commerce in social commerce allows customers to browse and buy products through social media platforms using their voice without the need for typing or clicking. This aspect provides a convenient and hands-free shopping experience for customers.
Many social media platforms have already started to integrate voice commerce into their platforms. For example, Facebook Messenger allows customers to use voice commands to purchase products from select retailers.
Voice commerce is likely to become more prevalent as voice assistants become more advanced, and customers adopt them for shopping.
Stand Out Where It Matters, Work With Juphy
One of the essential ways to make the most out of social commerce in 2023 is to work with exceptional social management tools that provide you with useful social features.
Swiftly attending to customer tickets and inquiries can be all the difference your brand needs to stand out among the throng of other businesses on social media that offer the same value as you. With a highly effective social media tool like Juphy on your side, your customer satisfaction is assured.
Juphy provides a unified social inbox that brings all the conversations, queries, inquiries, and engagement on your social media accounts together in a single dashboard. It is fully integrable with over eight most popular social commerce platforms. So, why switch back and forth between multiple platforms?
Instead, sync all of them in this unified dashboard and get real-time notifications when an interaction from a potential customer comes in. With Juphy, you never miss the chance to make a sale or meet customers’ needs on time. It’s the perfect tool for social commerce, and you, too, can start making the most of all its exciting features right now. Take advantage of this 7-day free trial; sign up now to get started!
FAQ
Social commerce is the fusion of social media and e-commerce, where businesses use social media platforms to sell their products and services directly to consumers. It may also entail clicking on social media links that take users to your product pages, where they can make an instant purchase. Social commerce is possible on various social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Facebook.
There are many reasons why social commerce is important when doing business online. Some of the reasons include the following:
An improved customer experience, loyalty, and retention
More reach to bring in your target market
An increase in brand awareness
Access to data-driven insight for business growth
The social commerce sector is likely to have a huge array of trends in 2023 due to its continued growth. Here are a few to be on the lookout for:
There’ll be an increase in the use of shoppable videos and chatbots
Social media influencers will pop up even more on the scene
Descriptive live-streaming sessions will be prevalent
Augmented reality will be used to enhance shoppers’ experiences
There’ll be more social payment options on social platforms
Related Article – Top 8 Social Commerce Platforms of 2023
Make the most of social media platforms. Explore the top social commerce platforms and their benefits for your brand with Juphy. Read more now!