Social commerce is on the 2021 agenda

Social commerce is a trend we’ve seen grow alongside the development of app-based platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., and the obvious benefits have encouraged many retailers to give it a try. This explosion in mCommerce made for an easy transition to another popular, but still developing shopping tool, social media.

Over the holiday season, smartphones accounted for over a third of U.S. digital holiday spending, with $1 billion in retail purchases on Thanksgiving and surging to $3.6B on Black Friday.

Endorsements of small businesses on social media may be worth as much as an estimated $197 billion for the U.S. small business economy.⁹

Whether using Facebook Shops, where you can sell items and checkout directly via Facebook, or Instagram, where shoppers can buy directly from posts or stories when connecting Shopify to their accounts, it is clear that consumers appreciate the ability to browse and buy products via different digital channels.

Sprout Social found that consumers and brands interacted much more on social media than they did pre-pandemic. For many, the appeal of shopping via social media is instant gratification. Retailers hoping to grow their business and online presence should optimize their social marketing plans, focusing closely on creating an intuitive and easy-to-navigate checkout experience.

⁹ Source: Associated Press