For the past 20 years the rise of the web and technological advancement have modified our lives drastically. From day by day weather check, news reading and communication to education and work – there is nearly no aspect of our life that may stay untouched by the ability of the web. The reason is apparent, the web makes our lives easier, simplifies our mundane routines and simply saves loads of time. Moreover, the spread of the web went hand in hand with the advancement of technologies, especially smartphones which led to such unavoidable results as transferring some parts of our lives into the web world.
One of these features is shopping, which has transformed for the last couple of many years significantly. If previously people needed to go from shop to buy so as to purchase even probably the most basic necessities and spend hours on it, now all of the shops are only one click away whether you need to order food or purchase clothing. Additionally, shops even personalize their product offer specifically for each customer taking into consideration their buying experience and preferences, saving much more time for consumers. On top of that, they add extra discounts or coupons for ordering online, send ‘thanks for shopping with us’ gifts and provide special offers for loyal customers. Therefore, customers save each time and money and have their purchases delivered right to their doorstep prefer it’s Christmas every single day.
As more and more people prefer online shopping, the e-commerce business is expanding rapidly. It is predicted that within the upcoming years the worldwide e-commerce market will grow to unprecedented numbers reaching USD 26.59 trillion by 2027. The driving force behind the expansion of online shopping is increasing adoption of digital technologies, changing consumer behavior and the rapid expansion of web access worldwide. One of the crucial roles in e-commerce is played by so-called social commerce which increasing popularity is decided by increased usage of smartphones for consumers’ day by day tasks and online shopping.
So, what’s social commerce and how is it different from online shopping? Social commerce is a form of e-commerce that takes place on social networking web sites reminiscent of Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and others. Products and services are promoted and sold on these networking web sites where people also can comment on them, put likes, share and repost them. Marketers also use different tactics to advertise their products/services and make ad campaigns more successful. Some of them include using videos, user-generated content, hashtag ad campaigns, collaboration with celebrities and influencers, gamification and interactive video ads (IVA) produced by Multiplayer Agency which is one of the recent tactics utilized in social commerce. So, let’s look how social commerce became so popular and what role gamification is playing in it.
Let’s begin with online shopping and its growing popularity amongst different groups of people worldwide.
There are over 2.14 billion internet buyers on this planet and, in line with the numbers provided by Statista, global retail e-commerce sales reached nearly 6 trillion U.S. dollars and is projected to proceed growing over the approaching years. By the 12 months 2027 it is anticipated that the numbers will grow 39 percent and surpass 8 trillion dollars.
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These numbers indicate that the recognition of online shopping is undoubtful and, taking into consideration how impressive the numbers are, more improvements and developments will be expected within the e-commerce sector.
Currently it’s difficult to search out a one who has never ordered anything online and there may be extensive research and studies explaining what the explanations for this phenomenon are. But even just taking a look at our consumer experience we are able to see that the essential two reasons for this are convenience of online shopping and unprecedented usage of smartphones.
As indicated within the report “The Next Billion Consumers: A Fast-growing Opportunity for Digital Commerce” provided by Accenture, consumers globally now prefer online shopping attributable to the broader product selection, higher pricing and overall convenience.
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Moreover, 80% of surveyed consumers indicated that they use different online channels reminiscent of social networks, engines like google and other online services to research products before buying them. Additionally to purchasing online, persons are also influenced to purchase products by social media and other online platforms. 76% of respondents admitted that ‘likes’ and ‘good comments’ on social media influence their buying decisions.
Interestingly, mobile devices are playing an important role in online shopping now although they were considered not more than a wireless device for connection just 20 years ago. However, now the bulk of the population worldwide cannot imagine their day by day life and not using a smartphone. When it involves shopping, in 2023 over 70 percent of all retail website visits around the globe are accounted for by smartphone users. It vividly demonstrates that smartphone integration into shopping will proceed shaping the shopping experience in the long run.
One more essential think about the spread of online shopping is the effect that social networks have on people. Everyday people spend hours on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, see dozens of ads and posts by influencers using some services or products. This content naturally creates a sense amongst those that they should “sustain with the Joneses”. 40% purchases are made because people were influenced by social media although they may need probably not even considered buying anything.
The presence of business online can also be underlined by the proven fact that 63% of shopping occasions begin online, whether or not the patron finally ends up making their purchase online or in-store.
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Therefore, having products and services presented on different platforms including social networking web sites is just not only helpful in terms of establishing online presence, but additionally essential for capturing customers’ attention in the course of the earliest stages of their shopping journey.
We can see that the event of smartphones, web and social networking web sites is a match made in heaven that naturally led to the creation of social commerce and its impressive growth. For a few years we’ve got witnessed that commerce goes to ‘probably the most crowded places’ – from newspapers, to TVs, to web sites, to social networks, attempting to get the eye of as many individuals as possible. So, it’s not a surprise that such platforms as Facebook and Instagram which have billions of users worldwide became the subsequent big thing on this planet of online shopping.
Social Commerce – Next Big Player?
According to a report by Straits Research and verified by Statista, the revenue of social commerce across the globe has reached $913 billion for the past 12 months and is predicted to grow by 31.6% a 12 months reaching $6.2 trillion by 2030.
Social Networking Sites – a Bridge Between Customers and Commerce
The most widespread platforms for social commerce are Instagram, Facebook and TikTok where the overwhelming majority of brands can present their products and services and use the platforms in line with their needs.
Instagram offers a number of tools that may significantly boost the net presence of a business and result in a more enjoyable customer experience. Instead of clicking the links and trying to search out the specified products on an internet site, customers can directly access it in the intervening time of discovery attributable to the interactive clickable content.
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Products can be tagged in posts, stories and ads, making the access to them easy and providing a protected checkout.
Facebook has similar functionalities to Instagram attributable to being owned by Meta. Shops will be found on the business Facebook page, in posts and stories where the products are tagged. Users can save the products they liked and even proceed with checkout without leaving the app.
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TikTok took one step even further in social shopping providing each customers and sellers with a number of useful and effective tools.
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They provide probably the most seamless integration of products into the content of the app without disrupting the general user experience. On the one hand, users can benefit from the content they like without being bombarded with countless unskippable ads. On the opposite hand, users desirous about discovering recent products can easily find them attributable to integrated products, shoppale videos and interactive ads.
Driving Forces of Social Commerce
But what are the driving forces behind the social commerce that makes it take over the world? Market specialists underline several essential aspects that push social commerce revenue to such highs.
Firstly, because it has already been mentioned above, the technological advancement allowed consumers to have access to their favorite products and services throughout their smartphones making customers just a pair of clicks away from the products they need. The number of smartphones is currently around 5.25 billion around the globe and growing. So, so far as the trends go, there isn’t any doubt that social commerce will keep rising together with it reaching $3.44 trillion by 2027. However, it is just not only about having a smartphone, it’s in regards to the amount of time that users spend on mobile devices. According to numbers, within the US alone, day by day people spent almost one hour more in 2023 than they spent 4 years ago. While in 2019 on average users were spending 225 minutes every single day on smartphones, it increased by almost 23% by 2023.
Of course, a considerable amount of time is dedicated to browsing through social network platforms. As of 2023, the number of social media users has increased to a record 4.9 billion users worldwide.
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What’s more, these users will not be tied to a single platform only, their digital footprint spreads across six to seven platforms a month. That is why we are able to see the increasing multi-platform marketing bombarding, turning social networks right into a one-stop shop.
Unsurprisingly, social networks are taking their fair proportion of attention in relation to commerce. On top of that, it created the entire industry of influencers, product placement and marketing tricks so as to provide you with probably the most effective strategy to sell products and services. Even though social commerce is a comparatively recent phenomenon, it has already gained significant trust amongst consumers. Thus, 50% of millennials place their faith in social media influencers’ recommendations and 88% highlighted their appreciation of authenticity they’ll find in reviews on social media platforms.
As for the brands’ owners, the probabilities that social networks offer are astonishing. The combination of social interaction, sharing, commenting, learning who’s using what and the flexibility to show social signals into potential e-commerce conversions is bringing online shopping to a brand recent level.
The Allure of Gamification in Social Shopping
Gamification arrived to the marketing and e-commerce domain as the reply to the essential challenges that marketers and sellers had faced. Even though the abundance of online shops and the simplicity of the shopping process appear to drive more sales, there are some problems that make sellers seek ways to avoid them and keep customers interested. Some of the challenges include:
Abandoned Carts
According to the Baymard Institute, the common documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70,2% which constitutes about $260 billion price of lost orders.
Brand Loyalty
It is comprehensible that buyers at all times try to search out the very best offers so as to purchase the products for a greater price. Therefore, brands and shops provide a spread of discounts and special offers for his or her customers, so switching from one brand to a different that gives higher options is a totally normal consumer behavior. However, from the brands’ perspective, such behavior is a challenge, because luring recent customers is each time and money consuming. It costs 5 times more to accumulate a recent customer than it does to retain a returning one. Moreover, loyal customers spend 43% extra money on their favorite brands. Therefore, keeping customers interested is another challenge that is important for online commerce to deal with.
Customers attention
As it has been mentioned above, the abundance of brands, shops and products caused the problem to draw the eye of customers. Taking under consideration that on average an individual is exposed to 4 thousand advertisements a day, it’s unimaginable to expect that folks will attentively scrutinize each of them. Therefore, finding the ways to make a brand stand out is a big challenge that corporations must overcome to succeed.
Therefore, we are able to see that gamification elements are being utilized more and more so as to address the common issues that brands face. Even though we are able to see some gamification elements within the physical world, reminiscent of an interactive brochure of a automotive company Peugeot, the actual power of gamification became apparent with the advancement of smartphones and web technologies. Gamification gave a begin to the spread of such efficient marketing tactics as loyalty programs, reward systems, interactive challenges, limited-time offers, flash sales, augmented reality (AR) experiences and others. Let’s have a look at them a bit closer.
Loyalty Programs and Reward Systems
Loyalty programs and rewards are powerful tools within the arsenal of brands attributable to the number of benefits they provide to customers. Firstly, they supply individuals with financial advantages: they should buy goods and services with discounts or special prices. Secondly, it affects the general customer experience, since it makes customers feel an element of a much bigger community giving them a vital feeling of belonging. 81% of consumers agree that a loyalty program membership influences their likelihood of making a purchase order. Moreover, it is helpful for brands not only in terms of sales, but in terms of understanding their customers’ purchasing habits, thus, making their offers simpler. The list of corporations that provide customers loyalty programs is long including such brands as Starbucks, Sephora, Mac, Nike and others.
For example, Sephora’s ‘Beauty Insider’ loyalty program provides their customers with special offers, points collection, recognition and special titles for achievements.
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In 2023 they began utilizing the complete power of gamification creating challenges to encourage participants earn more points. Tasks include online and offline activities in addition to non-purchase tasks.
Overall, such gamified experience engages customers, makes them more desirous about following brand’s offers and news, increases overall interaction with a brand leading to higher brand-customer relations.
Livestream Shopping
Livestream shopping first appeared in China in 2016 as an attempt of a famous Chinese platform, Alibaba, make customers more involved within the Single’s Day shopping.
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The idea of livestream shopping is analogous to the programs broadcasted on TV where a number would exhibit products and everybody could call and order it. However, like anything you transfer from TV to digital, the interactive options are much broader: users can click on a product and buy it, send comments and reactions, ask questions and be an energetic participant of the livestream. Liveshopping had an incredible success in China and demonstrated impressive results. For example, in 2020, the primary half-hour of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day presales campaign on Taobao Live generated a formidable $7.5 billion in total transaction value. It vividly illustrated the ability of making customers energetic participants of the shopping experience telescoping their journey from discovery to buy. As for the leading categories of livestream shopping, unsurprisingly, they’re the products that will be easily demonstrated reminiscent of apparel and fashion items.
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After such an incredible success, livestreaming was destined to spread to Western countries and soon after such social networking platforms as Instagram and Tiktok began working on adding this function to their platforms. Even though Meta has recently stopped liveshopping, they proceed to supply livestreaming tool that brands and influencers can use to attach with their customers and promote products.
For example, popular fast-fashion retailer, Shein usually conducts livestreams providing customers with the data on the newest trends, demonstrating products and discussing them within the live stream. Customers can watch it on such social platforms as Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and others and receive bonus point and discounts for participation.
But not only big brands depend on the ability of live streaming, small businesses also profit from the boost that livestreaming can provide because the revenue stream. A pre-owned designer handbags business called Bagriculture is one of them.
When learning about livestreaming the CEO of Bagriculture decided to transfer his business from physical to digital world. While physical shops were making $100 thousand, livestreaming allowed them to achieve a broader audience and generate $100 thousand a day. By livestreaming at several platforms concurrently, the business could establish higher connections with customers by answering their questions and demonstrating products, thus, providing higher quality customer experience and reaching recent customers at the identical time. “All the metrics exceed another form of shopping I’ve seen – period,” Velez, CEO of Bagriculture, said.
TikTok can also be one of the social platforms that creates and provides tools for commerce growth. Taking under consideration that on average a TikTok user spends 858 minutes per thirty days on the app, it represents a lucrative opportunity for businesses to catch the eye of a considerable number of users, especially amongst Gen Z.
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In December 2020, Walmart and TikTok partnered to pioneer a novel shoppable live stream experience for the U.S. market. This collaboration, targeting the wonder segment, yielded impressive results, showcasing the potential of live commerce to interact audiences and drive sales.
The initial live stream event exceeded expectations by 700%, garnering significantly higher views than anticipated. Additionally, Walmart’s TikTok follower base witnessed a remarkable 25% growth, demonstrating strong audience engagement and brand awareness.
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Capitalizing on this success, Walmart hosted a second live stream event, the “Spring Shop-Along: Beauty Edition,” in March 2021. This iteration featured renowned beauty influencer Gabby Morrison alongside other creators, offering an interactive experience brimming with fresh product recommendations and shoppable tutorials.
The event showcased a various selection of national, private, and Black-owned beauty brands, catering to a wider audience. Viewers gained invaluable insights through product demonstrations and trend-focused makeup, skincare, and haircare routines. The seamless shopping integration throughout the TikTok platform facilitated quick product purchases, enhancing the general experience.
Along with live streaming , TikTok offers a spread of additional options for businesses. They will be entitled to being probably the most advanced networking platform in terms of business tools and customer experience. They are one of not many platforms that provide interactive and gamified tools for brands which include:
- Live shopping adds;
- Interactive add-ons;
- Dynamic showcase buttons;
- Call to motion buttons and many more.
Therefore, by providing businesses with these creative and efficient solutions, TikTok increases the chance of customers visiting a physical store by 350%, buying a product – by 150% and visiting an internet site or app – by 40%.
Augmented Reality (AR) Experiences
Augmented reality is a comparatively recent technology that has already had a big effect on the world and people’s lives. In the world of commerce AR is taken into account to be the brand new step in advancement of consumer experience attributable to its ability to encourage customers to interact with a product.
According to Deloitte’s AR Report, 56% of shoppers agree that AR gives them more confidence about product quality and over a half of people need to use AR technology to evaluate products allowing for a risk-free ‘try-before you purchase’ experience. Additionally, AR interactions result in 94% higher conversion rate and 25% decrease in product returns.
A number of brands have already began utilizing the AR technology so as to provide customers with a more personalized and quality shopping experience. From IKEA’s Place AR App to Nike’s ‘Nike by You’ AR filters AR technologies little by little winning the hearts of each businesses and consumers.
Luxury brand Gucci took a daring step into the long run by partnering with Snapchat for the primary ever global AR shoe try-on campaign. This marketing strategy of Gucci was an progressive move, aiming to generate excitement for his or her recent sneaker collection and it definitely delivered. The campaign was focused on awareness and engagement, but the outcomes exceeded all expectations.
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The AR filter allowed users to virtually try on shoes selecting from 4 available styles. The filter also included the ‘Shop now’ button that made a purchase order process much easier leading users straight to the Gucci website. This immersive experience wasn’t just impressive – it was effective. Many users went straight from virtual try-on to buying their favorite pair. Not only did the AR try-on experience catch many Snapchatter’s attention, it also kept them engaged, which further translated to sales. The shopping AR experience generated positive ROAS and 18.9 million unique reach.
The Future of Social Commerce: Gamified, Immersive, and Irresistible
The rise of social commerce, fueled by the advancement of smartphones, social media, and gamification, is fundamentally reshaping the retail landscape. This “match made in heaven” offers fascinating experiences, fosters deeper brand connections, and drives impressive sales growth. As we glance to the long run, several key trends will define the evolution of social commerce:
1. Gamification as Standard Practice
Gamification’s ability to beat common challenges like cart abandonment and low engagement positions it as a necessary tool. Loyalty programs, reward systems, interactive challenges, and livestream shopping will turn out to be widespread, offering customers exciting journeys tailored to their preferences.
2. Livestreaming Takes Center Stage
Livestreaming transcends passive product display by transforming viewers into energetic participants. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok provide businesses with powerful tools to showcase products, engage audiences, and generate sales in real-time. This interactive format builds trust and community, fostering enduring brand loyalty.
3. AR for Hyper-Personalized Experiences
Augmented reality empowers customers to virtually interact with products, try them on, and visualize them of their space. This personalized experience builds confidence, reduces purchase risk, and increases conversion rates. As AR technology evolves, its impact on social commerce will only grow.
4. Social Commerce Goes Phygital
The boundaries between online and offline shopping are blurring. Social commerce platforms will increasingly integrate with physical stores, offering features like click-and-collect, in-store AR experiences, and live-streamed events from physical locations. This phygital fusion will provide seamless, omnichannel customer journeys.
5. Building Communities, Not Just Sales
Social commerce goes beyond transactions. Brands that leverage the ability of storytelling, user-generated content, and influencer partnerships can foster passionate communities around their products and values. This emotional connection translates into brand advocacy and long-term customer loyalty.
In conclusion, the long run of social commerce is brimming with possibilities. By embracing gamification, immersive experiences, and community constructing, businesses can tap right into a vibrant and engaged audience, driving sustainable growth and creating truly remarkable shopping experiences. As technology continues to evolve, the boundaries of social commerce will further expand, offering exciting opportunities for each brands and consumers alike. This future is just not nearly selling products; it’s about connecting with people and shaping the very nature of how we shop within the digital age.
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