The Rising Tide of Social Commerce For Small Businesses

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July 15, 2022 Business

Small businesses can be excluded from some trends, but in the era of dominant digital technology it’s much easier for them to get a slice of the same pie that big corporations are feasting on without being held back by costs.

Social commerce is a great example of this, and it’s even arguable that smaller companies and sole traders are doing a better job of capitalizing on this than the major players.

Let’s unpack the part that social commerce has to play in the marketing and sales landscape today, and explore how this applies to up and coming companies.

An introduction to social commerce

Put simply, social commerce is the process of leveraging social media to build brand presence, promote products and services, and most importantly to convert casual users into loyal customers.

Given that more than half the planet’s population are on social media, it’s a ripe opportunity for creating connections even if your budget is modest.

So how does social commerce manifest itself? Well, in some cases it’s a straightforward case of platforms offering built-in ecommerce functionality, so you can sell directly to users without needing to take them anywhere else.

Another aspect is the integration of social elements to separate sales sites. Including customer reviews and ratings on product pages, and making these sharable elsewhere, is a powerful move, for example.

The reasons it is rising to prominence now

One of the key advantages of social commerce is that the impact that it has is entirely measurable, and the metrics offered give businesses insights into how well their strategies are working, and whether there’s room for improvement.

For example, with tools like Untappd for Business, rich analytical data can be called upon so that performance of campaigns can be assessed, and in turn tweaks can be made based on clear facts, rather than mere speculation.

This is doubly important for small businesses that don’t have endless amounts of cash to throw at the problem of promotion, but instead have to be sparing with their ad spending.

The inevitability of the social media craze

Another reason behind the rise of social commerce is that of plain necessity.

While in the past consumers could be relied upon to use search engines to find products and services, things have shifted to the point that platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are now their first port of call for all sorts of things, eCommerce included.

If an individual wants to find out about a brand, look up a particular item they’re interested in purchasing, or chat with others about their pastimes, their social feeds are the wellspring for all of this information.

Furthermore, people prefer not to be redirected elsewhere if at all possible. They’d rather stay put and get everything done within the same ecosystem.

That is not to say that tried and tested strategies like SEO are entirely redundant, but rather that with social commerce gaining traction, they must be integrated alongside newer tactics and tools as well.

The likely shape the future will take

A lot of small businesses might worry that the trend for social commerce being touted as the top tech to take note of will eventually fall from its current peak.

What does seem likely is that the popularity of some social platforms will shrink, while others will rise to take their place.

Thankfully the principles of social commerce should still apply regardless of the context in which they are used, which makes developing a marketing strategy involving them worth doing whatever the size of your organization.