These days, online shopping and social media have become almost inseparable. It’s no longer just about scrolling through your feed and double-tapping—now, you can actually buy stuff directly on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Welcome to the world of social commerce!
Now, you might be thinking, “Isn’t that a bit risky? In other words, do I really want to be handing over my payment info on social media?” And you’re not alone.
According to a recent survey, almost 4 in 10 shoppers hold back from buying on social media because they’re concerned about how platforms manage their personal data.
But there’s a way to get the best of both worlds. Using an eCommerce solution lets you seamlessly connect all your social selling channels to your online store. This way, you can take advantage of the power of social commerce strategy without compromising on that all-important trust factor.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Table of Contents
- What is Social Commerce?
- The State of Social Commerce
- Top Social Commerce Platforms
- Leveraging Social Media with CS-Cart eCommerce Platform
What Is Social Commerce?
Social commerce is the seamless integration of social media and eCommerce, allowing brands to leverage the power of social networks to drive sales. It’s about creating a personalized, back-and-forth shopping experience that taps into the social nature of how we discover and buy products today.
The State of Social Commerce
Most Popular Social Media Channels, 2023
First, let’s talk about why social commerce is such a big deal. According to the eMarketer study, US adults are expected to spend a whopping 17.9% of their digital media time on social platforms in 2024. That’s a lot of eyeballs, and it represents a massive opportunity for brands to reach their customers where they’re already spending time.
But it’s not just about reaching them—it’s about making the shopping experience as frictionless as possible. With social commerce, interactions on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram become seamless revenue opportunities, keeping customers within the digital environment.
Product Discovery vs Buying Usage of Social Channels According to eMarketer, June 2023
The stats speak for themselves—in 2024, there will be 110.4 million US social commerce buyers, accounting for 42% of all internet users and nearly half (50.3%) of all social media users. And get this: US retail social commerce sales are projected to pass the $100 billion milestone in 2025, representing a 22.4% growth from the year prior.
Benefits of a Social Commerce Strategy
By seamlessly integrating your online selling efforts with social selling, brands can unlock a world of benefits that can truly transform their business. Let’s dive into four key advantages of embracing social commerce strategy.
#1 Wide Reach
One of the most compelling reasons to invest in the social commerce sphere is the sheer size and diversity of the audiences you can tap into. With billions of active users across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more, the potential customer base is virtually limitless.
But it’s not just about the numbers—social media also allows you to laser-focus your efforts on the right demographics, interests, and behaviors. Want to reach fashion-savvy millennials? Instagram has you covered. Looking to connect with the Gen Z crowd? TikTok is where you’ll find them. The ability to hyper-target your social commerce strategies means you can maximize your impact and drive better results.
Social commerce offers access to billions of diverse users and the ability to hyper-target specific demographics, maximizing impact and results.
#2 Authentic User-Generated Content (UGC)
In today’s increasingly skeptical consumer world, trust is the new currency. And what better way to build that trust than by showcasing real-life product experiences from your customers? UGC has become a cornerstone of successful social commerce strategies, giving potential buyers an authentic, unfiltered look at how your products perform in the real world.
Whether it’s Instagram posts, TikTok videos, or product reviews, UGC humanizes your brand and adds a level of social proof that can’t be replicated by even the most polished marketing materials. By curating and amplifying this valuable content across your social selling channels, you’ll not only boost engagement and conversions, but you’ll also deepen the connection between your brand and your audience.
User-generated content (UGC) builds trust by showcasing real-life product experiences, making it essential for successful social commerce strategies.
#3 Valuable Data Insights
The best social commerce strategies are those that are fueled by data. And the beauty of integrating eCommerce and social media is the wealth of insights you can gather to optimize your efforts.
Social commerce allows eCommerce businesses to better understand consumer behavior and consumer relationships, and create content that resonates with their target audience and potential customers. By integrating a product catalog and shopping ads directly into social media apps, brands can streamline the purchase process and provide users with direct access to their offerings. This integration can lead to increased conversions and serve as a valuable marketing strategy for businesses looking to reach consumers where they are most engaged—on social media platforms.
The best social commerce strategies are data-driven, allowing businesses to understand consumer behavior and relationships, optimize content, and increase conversions by integrating eCommerce with social media platforms.
#4 Dynamic Shopping Experiences
Static online stores and linear shopping journeys have become obsolete. Social commerce has ushered in a new era of dynamic, immersive shopping experiences that keep customers engaged and coming back for more.
Think shoppable Instagram posts, live shopping events on Facebook, and viral TikTok videos that seamlessly integrate product discovery and purchases. By blending entertainment, education, and seamless checkout, social commerce allows you to create shopping experiences that feel less like a transaction and more like a natural extension of your customers’ social media habits.
The result? Increased dwell time, higher conversion rates, and ultimately, more loyal, satisfied customers who keep coming back to your brand.
Top Social Commerce Platforms
Social commerce has transformed consumer behavior, turning social media platforms into modern-day shopping malls where discovering, engaging with, and purchasing products are seamlessly integrated. Just look at the numbers from a recent Shopify study: Instagram boasts the highest average order value ($65) among the major social commerce platforms, while Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the only ones with conversion rates over 1%. Let’s take a closer look at the leading social networks.
Facebook Marketplace: Leading the Pack
Facebook may have started as a social media platform for sharing updates with friends, but these days it’s a veritable eCommerce juggernaut.
According to a recent eMarketer forecast, Facebook is expected to have the largest social commerce buyer audience, reaching 64.6 million users in the US by 2024. Its massive user base and robust social commerce features make it a prime destination for brands looking to reach a wide, diverse customer base.
Facebook Marketplace — a dedicated platform for social selling and buying everything from secondhand goods to new products. While businesses can also set up shop through Facebook Shop, Marketplace’s community-driven, peer-to-peer approach has been a major driver of Facebook’s dominance in social commerce.
Instagram Shopping: the Visual Powerhouse
With 46.8 million social buyers projected for 2024, Instagram is a powerful player in social media marketing. Its visual nature makes it ideal for showcasing products in an engaging way.
Enter Instagram Shopping—a feature that allows businesses to tag products in their posts and stories, making it easy for users to discover, learn more about, and purchase those must-have items without ever leaving their social media apps. And with Meta (Instagram’s parent company) pushing to make in-app checkout the norm, the social shopping experience is only going to get more streamlined.
TikTok Shop: the Gen Z Frontier
If there’s one social platform that’s captured the imagination of the younger generation, it’s TikTok. And with 40.7 million projected buyers in the US by 2024, the platform is quickly becoming a hotbed of social commerce activity.
TikTok Shop, the platform’s integrated commerce solution, allows brands and creators to offer products directly to their viewers. Whether it’s through short-form videos or dynamic live shopping events, TikTok is blurring the lines between entertainment and eCommerce business in a way that’s resonating with its Gen Z audience.
How CS-Cart eCommerce Can Help You Sell on Social Media Storefront
Now, let’s talk about this silent killer—fear of making purchases on social media. As mentioned earlier, the solution is to integrate social media with a dedicated eCommerce platform to handle transactions and bank credentials.
Here’s where CS-Cart comes in. As eCommerce software, CS-Cart gives you the tools to set up a robust online store, complete out of the box with all the features and functionality you need to sell your products effectively. But what really sets it apart is its suite of social media add-ons, which allow you to seamlessly integrate your store or marketplace with the major social platforms.
CS-Cart makes it easy to incorporate social sharing into your eCommerce store. The platform comes with pre-built social media features that allow you to quickly and easily add buttons for the most popular platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
For example, with the Twitter add-on, you can easily display a Twitter button on your product pages or throughout your store. You can customize the button size, choose whether to display the tweet count, and even attribute the tweet to a specific user account.
Urbankissed, a CS-Cart-based store with Twitter and Pinterest buttons
Northskull, a CS-Cart-based store with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest social buttons
On the Facebook side, you can add a “Like” button that allows customers to show their support for your products right from your store. You can customize the button layout, choose whether to include a “Share” button, and even set the language and color scheme to match your branding.
Having all these social sharing features, you can still maintain that all-important control over the checkout process, giving your customers the peace of mind they crave when it comes to their data and security.
In our next article, we’ll delve into real-life cases of social commerce, providing you with inspiration and ideas for your own projects and strategies. Stay tuned!
Want to step on the road of social commerce success?