Social shopping 2022: trending apps for network connection

As taking advantage of social media, social shopping is a kind of e-commerce that looks for involving people with similar interests in online shopping experiences.

E-commerce has been a driving force for social media sites. As one of the latest adventures in the e-commerce world, social shopping is a powerful tool for brand building and pulling customers on a larger scale.

The leading social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok are establishing themselves as a new channel of e-commerce. These platforms have introduced shopping features and functionalities that make purchasing quick and easy while creating social and shopping experiences. 

Social shopping combines e-commerce with social media, allowing users to purchase products from social platforms like Instagram and Facebook. In America, end-users spend two hours a day browsing social media on average. By which it builds potential growth for online retailers. Social shopping takes advantage of enormous social media user backgrounds by effectively setting your storefront right on the platform. In this post, we have provided statistics and what are social media marketing strategies for online shopping? Let’s get started.

Social shopping 2020: A brief introduction 

Social shopping definition 

Social shopping is an e-commerce channel, sharing shopping experiences on social networks with friends and other relatives. Social shopping has impacted customers’ buying process to take advantage of social media networks to share and suggest products or services. The idea behind social shopping is that the tastes of customers’ relatives or friends have influenced their purchase experiences and given recommendations.

Here are some examples of social shopping sites such as My It Things, Open Sky, Polyvore, Wanelo, etc. Meanwhile, these social shopping networks have impacted your brands, allowing brands to add more products. Thus, social shopping is more than that. Social shopping is a blend of social media and shopping experiences. Moreover, social shopping networks allow social media to find reviews and suggestions about products and services. People use those reviews to influence customers’ decisions. So you are perhaps wondering why people should care about social shopping?

Social media shopping statistics 

In the United States, the social commerce market growth will rise from $29.3 billion US in 2020 to $84.2 billion in 2024. It has an annual growth rate of 47%. As McKinsey notes, there is a shift of customers to omnichannel and digital shopping as pandemic outbreaks. The United Kingdom and the United States have experienced over 30% growth in most areas of online retailers, and France has witnessed significant growth. With many consumers exploring social and shopping online, brands need to review their marketing and commerce strategies.

Stackla’s surveyed in 2019 to see how the media networks help social shopping. It has found that:

• 73% of people said that their brand had created an emotional connection with consumers. It would help them achieve better success with social shopping on media platforms.
• Creating a meaningful social content strategy makes retailers struggle with most, about 44% of respondents.
• 62% of retailers use social commerce, which helps improve communication with clients.
• 92% of customers prefer social platforms for social shopping such as Instagram, Facebook (77%), Twitter (57%), and Pinterest (47%).

Due to the pandemic, the trend toward social shopping will not be diminishing soon. Clients are finding what they need when they can’t source from retailers. If retailers want to catch sales during the pandemic, they need to use social shopping. Developing marketing strategies in various social media platforms and analyzing data insights to create content will encourage people to buy more.

What makes social shopping different from e-commerce

E-commerce refers to a business owner developing a custom app, website, and even both through which clients can buy goods. The business owner will hire software outsourcing services for their custom software development project. Maybe they also develop a local marketplace app for customers to purchase goods easily.

Social shopping brings the business to social media platforms, which helps cut out the middleman. It is not buying goods only but engaging your products in social media. As users share, like, and review these products through social media platforms, it may impact other decisions on buying something.

How social media impacts online shopping

Are clients on board with this social shopping? About 30% of consumers confessed that they would buy goods directly from social media platforms. It is not a small number; however, it does not show the endorsement by customers. Due to the pandemic outbreak, the trend towards social shopping is changing in this regard. Facebook and Instagram have been moving to make their social media platforms to be local marketplace apps.

For example, Instagram has emerged marketing strategies for many products and services with the prominence of KOLs and Influencers. Besides, around 87% of customers believe social media platforms influence their shopping decisions. 50% of retailers are trying to align social media platforms as social shopping networks with overall marketing strategy.

According to the figure of social media shopping statistics, social media is one of the most popular channels that encourages clients to buy products. Social shopping takes it one step further by selling directly on social shopping networks.

What are social media strategies for online shopping?

There is no specific marketing strategy that works for every brand. For instance, a social shopping experience for athleisure looks different from a marketing campaign for electronics. Nevertheless, all brands will use KOLs or Influencers, boost customer calls to action, and content to successfully compete in the social shopping market.

Moreover, phrases such as “swipe up to purchase,” or “store link in bio” have been popular calls to action. It improves social shopping experiences regardless of purchasing the items or services on advertisements running on their newsfeeds. Besides, user-generated content is an essential part of marketing strategy, for example, Tik Tok and hashtag challenges add value for brands. This content combined with feasible call-to-action steps is a boon for marketers and advertising-runners. Additionally, brands are hiring software outsourcing services to develop a local marketplace app for promoting their products or services. Companies should consider KOLs and Influencers when planning social shopping campaigns.

In 2019, Instagram gave KOLs and influencers the ability to have shoppable posts using checkout on Instagram. Meanwhile, Snapchat selects top-tier influencers with a shop button. Tik Tok taps the social shopping market, which announces the partnership with Shopify (2020). According to the GlobalWeblndex’s survey (2020), 70% of users in the United States who have regularly watched Livestream were likely to purchase products suggested by Influencers. We will forecast about 67.9% of American marketers from brands will use influencer marketing in 2021.

Best social shopping apps to boost conversion rate

In this post, we have listed the best social shopping networks and social shopping apps that you leverage to turn social media into a shoppable experience. These social shopping examples are providing brands with business opportunities to get more sales.

Taggbox Commerce

Taggbox Commerce is one of the most popular platforms to enhance shopping experiences. It enhances local marketplace apps with their shoppable galleries such as shoppable UGC, Instagram feeds, social feeds, etc. These features bring memorable social shopping experiences to customers while staying on the local marketplace apps. Besides, they have new features, called the shoppable hotspots that allow them to add product tags. It helps customers reach the product’s page without going to the entire website.

Instagram

As a loved social media platform, Instagram has come up with shoppable Instagram features. It allows brands to turn their business accounts into storefronts. The brands upload images of their products like they used to; however, they tag these products as shoppable. Customers click on these tags and go to the description page.

Facebook

As the most reliable social media platform, Facebook introduced an entire marketplace until 2018. Facebook shops focus on small businesses and create customized and branded storefronts through the messenger app. Facebook provides a perfect social shopping experience and gives valuable insights.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a new social shopping network with AI technology that makes filters look realistic. Business owners create filters for their products and services along with product links. Besides, users try these filters if they want to see products. It creates possibilities for makeup brands that focus on the face. Moreover, it enables the relatives and friends of users to click on the link too.

Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the best social shopping networks that offer inspiring and influential content to users and allows brand discovery. This social shopping app has introduced Pinterest buyable pins. It is similar to Instagram’s shoppable posts, and businesses can tag their product pins as shoppable.

The Bottom Line

Social shopping has taken off the last few years, even during the pandemic. As brands are developing their social marketing strategies, social shopping will be an essential element for e-commerce software development. Social shopping targets key audiences in approaches that digital channels do not, and clients feel comfortable with the prospect of buying products.

Besides, social shopping networks improve customer relationships and engage customers directly. As a custom software development company in Vietnam, Adamo Software has experience developing local marketplace apps for brands to present their products and other services. Hopefully, our sharing will provide essential information about social shopping trends.