Be it any social issue or marketing an online store, social media plays a big role of bringing in an entire mass of people on the same podium. The most fascinating and intelligent application of social commerce is marketing online shopping stores and creating huge sales. The reason for this is that web stores now have a firm presence on social networks.
Statistics suggest that there are 10 million small businesses registered on Facebook and 89% businesses advertise and market their business through social media. 2015 will be the year when revenues due to social commerce would reach a $30 billion mark.
These impressive numbers suggest the success of social commerce, where these online stores avail social networks to create sales. It is one of the fastest growing platform for B2C (Business to Consumer) business model. Its features of online marketing can be leveraged for creating exceptional online advertising campaigns for alluring customers. Online business stores attract customers through their social media pages.
Some of the most striking forms of social commerce are as follows:
- Network driven sales: Established networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest are finest platforms for eCommerce stores to pull more traffic and referral sales.
- Social shopping: Forum and chats availed to exchange shopping advice from friends and networked group. Fashism, Motilo are best examples of such sites.
- Community markets: Platforms like eBay, amazon, Etsy are perfect online markets things are sold directly by one individual to another. These sites are very effective and popular.
- Participatory commerce: In this, the consumers get directly involved in the production by voting and funding for designing products. Eg. Threadless and CutOnYourBias.
- Peer recommendations: Big stores like Amazon and Yelp reward individuals for sharing, purchasing and recommending products to their social media friends.
What does the future has in store for social commerce??
Still in its infancy, this paradigm has given wings to many eCommerce stores by making them popular amongst customers. Online retailers find new ways of creating strategies to bring in peer-to-peer interactions, group shopping and purchases due to recommendations. In the future, social commerce would be one of the most popular method of shopping.
It has yet not succeeded to bringing in retailers on board but there is nothing to get surprised if we find a nexus of retailers making huge sales through social networks. Let’s just wait, watch and buy! So get your hands on social commerce and start attracting online social community to your ecommerce stores now!