Introduction: During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media has become one of the key places for consumers to buy goods. A previous survey of 3,373 British shoppers included 18 percent of Gen Z, 71 percent of Gen Gen, 10 percent of Gen X and 1Introduction: During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media has become one of the key places for consumers to buy goods.
A previous survey of 3,373 British shoppers included 18 percent of Gen Z, 71 percent of Gen & Gen, 10 percent of Gen X and 1 percent of Baby Boomers.
The results found that more than three quarters (79 per cent) of people said they were more influenced by shopping on social platforms now than they were a year ago. Sixty-four percent have bought something on Instagram in the past year, followed by Facebook (45 percent) and TikTok (24 percent).
In addition, there was a 214 percent increase in the number of people who said they "always" used their smartphones to shop, and a 146 percent increase in those who "always" shopped from social media.
Ed Hill, senior vice president of Bazaarvoice, said the impact of COVID-19 on social commerce was huge. Over the past year, commerce has become a cornerstone feature of social platforms as consumers spend more time on social applications.
Consumers are now more likely to see and be influenced by brand ads, user-generated content (UGC), and influencer posts, and companies and brands that recognize this opportunity have been successful.
It has to be said that social media plays a key role in encouraging shoppers to try out new brands. Seventy percent tried out a new brand in the last year through social media, and 49 percent chose a new brand because of social media. When asked what encouraged them to buy a new brand on social media, 47 percent said relevance, followed by product benefits, features or ingredients (41 percent), visual brand content (27 percent) and price (27 percent).
But when shoppers were previously unaware of the brand, they were most likely to be swayed by a product's benefits, features or ingredients (45 percent) rather than relevance (43 percent) and price.
To stand out on these platforms, brands and retailers must distribute content everywhere shoppers find their products. This varies from in-store to search to social, and retailers can start from a product inspiration and discovery perspective by incentivizing consumers to buy their products on social media.
This is all the way to buying, so consumers don't even have to leave the app. Social commerce is more than just making posts shoppable. Retailers need to make the transition from just online shopping to real online shopping through engaging and inspiring shopping trips.
As for social platforms, the survey data shows that the fastest growing social platform is TikTok (+ 553%), whose sales are growing faster than the more mature Pinterest (+356%), Instagram (+189%) and Facebook (+160%).
2021.6.3
