Online Marketplace Trend to not miss out in 2024 – Social Commerce

What is Social Commerce?

Online shopping has become social. Imagine scrolling through Instagram, socializing through LinkedIn, and browsing through Facebook, you find something you love and you complete your purchase within the app and avoid navigating to a product landing page. That’s exactly what social commerce offers. It simplifies customers’ purchase journey by eliminating extra steps and makes consumers more likely to complete their purchases.

In 2022, $45.7 billion in goods and services were purchased through social-commerce channels in the USA. By 2025, that figure is expected to swell to nearly $80 billion, or 5 per cent of total US e-commerce and Globally, the social-commerce market is expected to grow to more than $2 trillion by 2025.

Social commerce is now more than just a new shopping experience. For consumers, it represents a shift in how they interact with brands and where, when, and how they shop. Whereas for D2C brands, this creates new opportunities for a much more interactive, entertaining, and experiential journey.

How Social Commerce is Growing 

A large number of individuals often spend the majority of their day on social media. The list of applications that a digital consumer interacts with during a given day is endless. First, we have traditional social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Communication applications such as WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram are used for much more intimate forms of communication. Then there are other social media channels such as Quora, Pinterest, and Reddit where individuals often spend time learning about a certain topic. A brand website or a multivendor marketplace is useful if the consumer is deeply invested in the brand and therefore visits the online marketplace to check out products or information. Otherwise, it is pretty straightforward that the best place to interact with your consumers is social media.

We have seen the proliferation of social platform-based online marketplaces, with Meta being the leader in monetizing their target audience through an in-house marketplace. There is great potential for other platforms to replicate the success of Meta. E-commerce functions differently from a consumer perspective, and to make such a use case successful, it is extremely crucial for the social platforms to make sure that online marketplaces feel like a part of the social platform. To make this happen, content and a smooth user experience can be extremely helpful to make sure that consumers are not feeling as if their data is being misused. 

With an increasing number of consumers purchasing through social media channels, it is extremely important for online marketplaces to tap into the social ecommerce channels to increase their customer base and brand recall.

The types of social commerce that your multivendor marketplace can use to distinguish itself from its competitors

1. Native social media shopping solutions (Facebook and Instagram Shops)
2. Marketplace Sales (Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, eBay)
3. Curated shopping lists (Shopping Lists on Pinterest)
4. Live shopping events (Facebook Live)
5. Shoppable AR filters (shoppable Lenses on Snapchat)

Exploring Some Social Commerce Channels for your multi vendor marketplace

Facebook: Offers an easy and free set up for your Shopify marketplace through the Facebook Business Suite. It provides seamless inventory sync inventory and the opportunity to be discovered organically by clients.

Beautitude, a luxury online marketplace on Shopify designated to India’s best handwoven and handcrafted designer sarees, dupattas, ethnic wear, jewellery, designer blouses and more.

Instagram: It is the most used social media platform for sale as customers are encouraged to buy directly after looking at the product using the Instagram product Tag. It has also launched the “Instagram Live Shopping” feature where influencers can live stream and can sell real time. Instagram has very easy integration options for your marketplace on Shopify.

Zouk, a 100% Vegan & Proudly Indian online marketplace making laptop bags, handbags, women’s office bags, female wallets, mini wallets, sling bags, bucket bags, backpacks, travel pouches for women & men. 

Pinterest: The complete product catalogue of your Shopify marketplace can be uploaded through the Pinterest Business Center and also allows you to tag products on pins so customers can directly reach the shop page from pins. Its feature “shopping list” automatically saves shoppable product pins for users and shows them product reviews and price updates.

YouTube Shops: Brands can use YouTube to sell products through live streams and videos from their Shopify store marketplace integration with Youtube.

Snapchat: Has encouraged augmented reality (AR) that has interesting social commerce possibilities. Snapchat calls its AR lenses. Users can take selfies using a lens that helps them digitally try on makeup and sunglasses. Indeed, they can now virtually try on any type of clothing. 

Flipkart, a leading online marketplace using Snapchat for business. 

How can social platforms integrate online marketplaces as a part of the user’s journey?

1. The majority of D2C brands would like to shift the user to their marketplace on Shopify, where they are in control of payments, customer data, and the user experience. A streamlined user experience that cuts across all categories and caters to brands must be used to build the marketplace and its features. The social platforms need to provide autonomy to the online marketplace to establish their own identity on the marketplace as well as the platform and provide the final push for the consumer to make the purchase on the platform itself

Social platforms need to develop tools which can help brands sell on social media platforms. One of the biggest innovations in the space of social commerce has been the advent of shoppable ads on TikTok. While running an ad is a way to increase sales but also providing the consumer the option to buy the product in a single click can be a game changer for many brands

2. Deliver the right kind of content to the right audience at the right time. Social media platforms are thriving due to the amount of content that is churned out every day by brands, content creators, influencers, and users. Finding ways to integrate marketplace, product, and brand content for users who are actually interested in a manner that does not feel intrusive can make purchase decisions for consumers easier

3. Utilizing technology to build new ways to present content can be a game changer for D2C brands. AR/VR is supposed to be the next big thing in social media and content. Even small additions like a catalogue feature for brands and links to the marketplace store on brand content can make users consume more on the social platform itself

 

 The essential components of a social commerce platform

1. A large part of building a marketplace would depend on the type of social platform. Instagram has been a great enabler for D2C brands, especially in the domains of fashion, apparel, luxury, and travel. LinkedIn has become a tavern for business leaders to exchange valuable insights, and we can often see the availability of digital products in the form of PDFs on LinkedIn. For creating a marketplace website that best suits the social platform, technology has to be utilized in such a way that it suits the products that will be sold the most. An online marketplace for Meta would require software that can handle millions of vendors at the same time while being able to process orders and dispatch them. Choosing to have this kind of capability in-house is a huge task, and D2C brands can perhaps lend a hand when it comes to these bits.

2. Payments and commissions can often make or break the popularity of any Shopify marketplace. Online marketplaces often find it convenient to direct their users to their website so that they can enjoy a greater margin. Social platforms imposing high margins can be a deterrent to brands encouraging users to convert on the platforms. Social media has been infamous for scams, and getting a consumer to transact on social media can become an extremely tedious task. Making sure that the consumer feels safe and secure has to be a priority for social channels, while selecting the correct payment gateway to suit their needs is a close second

Social commerce is nascent and fragmented currently and would require the brightest minds to piece together the correct processes, models, and technology. A vital part of building social commerce will be technology. Some of the key technologies that will shape social commerce in the next decade are:

1. AR/VR
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Metaverse

All these technologies are enhancing the user experience of the consumer, which highlights the importance of CX in the digital world.

Conclusion

Social commerce is the new frontier for online marketplaces to grow to it’s full potential. D2C brands and Shopify marketplaces now indulge in an omnichannel strategy that connects all business channels (both online and offline) to create a consistent and engaging customer experience. And social commerce does exactly that. It is the new secret weapon that lets multivendor marketplaces distinguish itself from its competitors and grow further. While social and creator platforms are rapidly incorporating innovative technology for buying options, consumers are sure to follow them. The time for your marketplace to act on social commerce is now.

Customer experience plays a vital part in making sure that the consumer feels at ease when buying on any social media platforms.

Have you been successful in building a marketplace but are still looking to engage with shoppers using social commerce and turn customer conversations into sales? 

Shipturtle, the best marketplace app for converting your store into a Shopify store marketplace offers great integrations with new age partners to encourage social commerce within your online marketplace.

Gupshup is one of our partners which specializes in building AI-based chatbots that can make social commerce easy, safe and secure for users. If you’re an e-commerce technology provider, you can visit our marketplace growth solutions page to check if we can partner to make E-commerce more accessible. Click here to register as a partner. 

Schedule a call with our social commerce experts to learn more. 

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