The rise of social commerce (infographic)

Post by Luke Fernandez

Today it seems that our smartphones have become our lifeline or a digital Swiss Army knife that people can’t seem to detach themselves from them. Believe it or not, people will spend an average of three hours on their phones every day, while the top 20% of people spend nearly five hours on their phone. Due to the fact that people are becoming more and more dependent on their smartphones and technology in general, companies are taking notice of this trend and are adjusting their marketing efforts to reflect this. That being said, companies are merging their social media presence and their online shopping platforms to retain, attract and increase their audience and revenue, ultimately creating the social commerce industry.

What’s social commerce? It short, social commerce is the use of social networks to facilitate online commerce.

More and more of us are now purchasing products and services from businesses through social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and many more. Now that our lives are becoming more social every day, businesses realize that these social platforms are where their consumers are spending the majority of their time, and they’re finding innovative ways to take advantage.

Crafting a smart social media marketing campaign can help your business get exposure, communicate more effectively with your audience and generate more revenue. When businesses properly integrate a social commerce strategy, they can expect to see a boost in customer loyalty, retention and sales.

Here’s an infographic we crafted on what social commerce can mean for your brand:

Businesses have yet to fully understand how powerful social commerce can be. Using these social media platforms will allow businesses to better understand the immediate wants and needs of their consumers and also predict and prepare for the future when they analyze consumer trends and purchasing habits. Notably, in the past two years social referrals to retail ecommerce sites have grown by 110%. This is a clear indicator that investing in social commerce can be a catalyst for the expansion of your audience and an increase in your business’s profitability.