What is Social Commerce: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities in 2024

Social commerce, often abbreviated as S-Commerce, has become a pivotal marketing and sales mechanism in today's digital communication landscape. This evolution stems from brands' strategic shift to leverage social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, not merely as advertising venues but as vibrant marketplaces. This blend of traditional e-commerce and the interactive nature of social media platforms has birthed social commerce, distinguishing itself through a lively and engaging shopping journey.

As an effective tool for brands to get ahead in increasing competition, social commerce relies on many strategies to stand out among dozens of brands by creating a more personal and interactive shopping opportunity. Many brands are trying to merge e-commerce platforms with social media platforms, positioning social commerce at the center of digital marketing strategies.

How to Create a Social Commerce Strategy?

Social commerce offers numerous opportunities to sell products/services through social media platforms, reach a broader customer base, and create a successful brand perception. Several factors must be considered to enhance this new generation shopping experience. When creating a social commerce strategy, selecting the right platforms, producing content to increase organic interaction, and managing customer relations are crucial.The steps required to create an effective social commerce strategy include:

• Create campaigns
• Actively use your social media channels
• Do detailed targeting, especially in ads
• Engage with your followers
• Facilitate customer communication
• Adapt to change
• Keep your store up-to-date

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat are the most effective social commerce sales platforms. Each platform, with millions of users, provides numerous opportunities to promote, interact, and sell products and services. Especially with visual and video content, the chance to reach and increase interaction with the target audience increases. These platforms can increase sales by providing access to a broad user base for implementing social commerce strategies.

What are the Advantages of Social Commerce?

It hasn't been many years since we started meeting many of our needs, from clothing shopping to ordering food, doctor appointments, and online education with our phones. However, for a significant portion of the population in Turkey and the world, this has become a very ordinary and routine habit. Considering that we spend a large part of our daily phone usage on social media applications, the advantages offered by social commerce are also increasing. The benefits of selling through social media platforms for brands and businesses include:

Reaching Large Audiences

Social media platforms increase the potential customer base by providing access to a wide customer base.

Increasing Interaction

Customers can interact with products without leaving the platform, which improves the relationship between the brand and the customer.

Opportunity to Increase Sales

With the right strategy and targeting, social commerce can increase sales.

Low Costs

Reduces advertising costs and lowers marketing expenses. Additionally, it allows for better targeting of the audience.

Customer Interaction

Brands can create a solid and affordable purchasing strategy by interacting with customers and creating a personalized experience.

User Reviews and Feedback

Customers can comment on products and services on social media. By evaluating and analyzing these comments and feedback well, both the brand image can be improved positively, and products and services can be developed according to customer expectations.

What are the Challenges Faced in Social Commerce?

Social commerce has significantly evolved into a modern digital marketplace with the rise of social networking sites. For consumers, social commerce offers:

• A more effortless shopping experience,
• The chance to buy a product or service cheaper by benefiting from competition between brands,
• A personalized process according to preferences.

Moreover, social proofs, like comments and recommendations from friends and influencers, also help in decision-making.

However, in this era of increasing competition and very rapid changes in trends, there are also many different challenging aspects of social commerce for businesses.The biggest challenge is the constantly changing algorithms. Brands and businesses must continuously adapt to changes in social media algorithms and platform policies. Creating engaging, relevant content and always being creative can also be a burdensome process. Navigating the fine line between product promotion and organic content may take work. Content focused solely on sales can drive consumers away.

Data privacy and security are also concerning issues. With increasing scrutiny on how personal data is used and stored, businesses must comply with regulations and maintain consumer trust. However, increasing cyber-attacks can make this very complicated.

What Awaits Us in Social Commerce in 2024? Trends, New Technologies, and More

The technological innovations that have stood out in the past five years have the potential to significantly affect the social media experience and, therefore, social commerce. Many experts agree that the future will offer more personalized shopping opportunities. Continuously evolving algorithms and advancing data technologies have already started to make it possible to create a new virtual world for each customer.

Technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which companies like Apple and Meta are trying to lead, could open up new doors in digital shopping.

Generative AI, especially one of the most significant and exciting technological developments in recent years, could make e-commerce, specifically social commerce, much more customer-centric. From customer relations to product recommendations, the dizzying development of AI tools could have effects we can't even imagine very shortly.

Influencer Marketing Will Become More Important

Lastly, influencer marketing will continue to play a significant role in social commerce. The power of influencers to impact consumers and their connections is crucial for brands and businesses. In the new era, especially micro-influencers, who appeal to a smaller follower base but establish closer connections, will be at the center of brands' social commerce strategies.

Sources: 1, 2