Social commerce has come of age. Its impact on the way people shop and purchase products has reached a level that rivals the success of traditional mass media of decades past.
Today, retailers and brands use social media to directly interact with their audience, making it a key component of their business model. But even as social retail engagement gains unprecedented reach and influence, some businesses are still struggling to implement strategies that work for them.
In this blog post, we will explore social media's impact on consumer purchase behavior and retail advertising by looking at quantitative and anecdotal proof of the shift toward social commerce — and how the changing landscape benefits both buyers and sellers.
Social commerce already plays an integral role in the digital economy, and it’s only going to become more important as Gen Z spending grows.
In 2021, consumers around the world spent nearly $600B on purchases made through social platforms. By 2024, that number is expected to crack the $1T mark. By 2028, it’s expected to be over $3T. (Social commerce in the United States, Statista)
Over 35% of American internet users made a purchase via social commerce. (Social commerce in the United States, Statista)
Of social media users in the U.S., 55% admitted having bought a product they discovered on social. (Social commerce in the United States, Statista)
Here's how consumers are using specific social platforms to discover brands and purchase products:
Of U.S. social media users, those on Facebook and Instagram were most likely to make purchases. (Social commerce in the United States, Statista)
Pinterest users said they were 59% more likely to discover products on Pinterest than on other channels. (Social commerce in the United States, Statista)
By now, most major U.S. social media platforms offer at least one retail-specific program. For years now, Facebook has dominated on both sides of social commerce, ad spend and consumer spending. But TikTok is growing fast and the other networks are working to carve out their piece too.
Here is how each social channel is prioritizing retail-specific advertising on its platform:
Meta’s Commerce Manager powers a variety of shopping programs on Facebook and Instagram. Commerce Manager, which is Meta’s central tool for all selling activity across its properties, give merchants the ability to manage product catalogs, run dynamic product ads (DPA) to their website, set up Shops, view sales activity, and use checkout.
Facebook DPA uses product feeds to serve its users' dynamic listings on Facebook and Instagram that link to products on the merchant's website.
Shops let merchants create storefronts within Facebook and Instagram so users can search, discover, and purchase products without leaving the platform.
Live Shopping on Facebook is a way to sell and advertise products while live streaming.
Instagram Shopping lets merchants create real-time and pre-made content to advertise products.
Pinterest shopping ads help users discover products related to the pins they browse and share. Pinterest collection ads let merchants create slideshows and videos to help Pinners discover products related to their interests.
Help shoppers discover your products with ads that use Pinterest’s simple yet effective vertical or square image format.
This visually engaging video story format is designed to capture shoppers’ attention. Best for product ads with a strong visual story.
This format lets merchants transform product Pins into shoppable ads. Works with product catalogs. Shopping ads show one image at a time and send shoppers to product URL included in the catalog. Shopping ads are formatted to the same specs as Standard Product Pin Ads.
Presents shoppers with swipable multi-image ads. Best for collections or to showcase a product with a variety of captivating images.
Collections lets merchants mix formats to give shoppers the full lifestyle imagery and video. Collections Ads appear as one main image above three smaller images.
TikTok shopping gives merchants the option to launch product ads on TikTok while managing everything from product upload, point of purchase, shipping, and fulfillment within the platform. TikTok's product links, on the other hand, let merchants call out products within their videos so users can click to purchase. TikTok shopping merchants can even link to products from their shopping catalog to let shoppers make purchases right then and there.
Product Links gives merchants the ability to link to specific products shown within their content. Merchants can link to one or more products from their catalog.
With TikTok DSA, merchants can create personalized ads based on product catalogs. TikTok DSA are customized video ads, which are created programmatically using ad templates that pull the product’s information like titles and images via data feed. DSA allows merchants to automatically promote thousands of products with video ads that are targeted to their audiences’ interests based on activity.
Collection Ads let merchants to include product cards in their content. When shoppers click on a product featured in a card, they're taken to an instant gallery page within TikTok where they can browse and purchase from the merchant’s collection of items.
TikTok’s LIVE Shopping is similar to Facebook and Instagram’s live shopping formats, but with a TikTok twist. In TikTok, shoppers can click on pins that pop up over the live stream to add products to their cart. LIVE Shopping makes it easy for merchants to sell via livestream by tapping into the product information that’s already in their TikTok Shopping ads (see above).
In Q1 of 2022, Twitter announced a new program dubbed (what else) Shops. According to the announcement, Twitter Shops will allow merchants to create product collections of up to 50 SKUs. Collections will be showcased on the merchant’s profile.
The feature is currently free to use and TechCrunch reports that Twitter is not currently monetizing it while in testing.
As platforms go all-in with features specifically designed for retail advertising and tools that make marketing more intuitive and engaging, we can expect it even more consumers to buy in. Great news for brands who are already investing in their social commerce strategy.
But what about merchants who are still putting all of their ad budget and marketing time into long-established ecommerce methods like search ads and marketplaces?
In the next part of this series we dive into the process of developing and launching a future-proof social commerce strategy.
Bryan is a digital marketer with roots in journalism and creative writing. Over the past decade, he's helped hundreds of online retailers develop and implement ecommerce marketing strategies. When he isn't educating retailers on ecommerce, he's out exploring South Florida and stalking local breweries.
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