We wrote about it in one of our previous blogs what is hidden behind the new option of scheduling a Live stream on Instagram and that what actually Instagram wants to develop is buying products live – live stream shopping events, that is, encouraging and increasing purchases within the platform.

What is Social Commerce?

Social networks have long been used for various purposes – for reading news, online communication, monitoring trends, reviewing video content and the like, and more recently for purchasing products. Given that the nature of social networks is to share different experiences, recommend products to friends, they actually shorten the path of customers when making a purchase. With that in mind, the possibility of purchasing products directly from social networking platforms appeared as a completely logical step.

Just such a purchase within a platform (without leaving the application) is called Social Commerce , and social networks have already become a very powerful tool for the development of such an opportunity.

What do the studies say?

Based on research done by The Influencer Marketing Factory agency, on a sample of 1000 users from December 2021, the following results were obtained:

• 82% of respondents searched for products on social networks and made a purchase directly from their phone
• 57% have purchased something during a live stream , while 39% of respondents said they like to research new products during live streams .
• 58% used the option “buy now, pay later” ( Buy now pay later).
• 41% said they use special discounts offered by influencers
• 42% say that they prefer to buy directly within the platform, as opposed to buying on the website.
• 29% of respondents buy something through Social Commerce at least once a week
• 22% of respondents buy mostly clothes, while 15% of them buy Beauty products.

When looking between influencers, business profiles/pages on social networks and family/friends, it turns out that on Social Commerce the social media profile/page is the most influential. For that reason Social media management should be included in the marketing strategy as one of the main marketing tools.

During the holidays, at the end of November and in December, 76% of respondents bought at least one product directly from one of the social networking platforms.

The research was conducted in America, but the results show that Social Commerce is the present and will slowly become a global trend, as well as a serious competition to third-party sites.

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