Social Commerce Market Size, Share, and COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Business Model (Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Consumer (C2C)), By Product Type (Personal & Beauty Care, Apparels, Accessories, Home Products, Health Supplements, Food & Beverage and Others), By Platform/ Sales Channel (Video Commerce, Group 0062uying, Social Reselling, Social Network-Ied Commerce, Product review platforms), and Regional Forecast, 2024-2032

Social commerce refers to e-commerce platforms that use networking websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as vehicles to promote and sell products and services. A social commerce campaign’s success is measured by the degree to which consumers interact with the company’s marketing through retweets, likes, and shares. Furthermore, social commerce professionals create and post messages and interactive features that promote online sales and other e-commerce initiatives. Social e-commerce inspires social shopping tools such as forums and communities, where buyers and sellers discuss their online shopping experience and compare notes.

• For instance, Coca-Cola personalized its labels on bottles in stores and invited social media users to post photos of their name-branded soda with the hashtag #ShareACoke.

Social commerce has evolved into a powerful sales channel. It help buyers to have a faster and effective route to instant shopping experience, where brands and businesses can develop a meaningful relationship with these social users. Moreover, enormous growth in adoption of 4G enabled smartphones, expanding deployment of 4G networks and subsequent rise in number of users accessing online multimedia content over mobile handsets are also rising market prospects for online shopping and social commerce. Strengthening global sales of smartphones coupled with widespread consumer acceptance of M-VAS (Mobile value added services) such as Mobile internet browsing, mobile social networking, mobile learning, mobile wallet, mobile payments and mobile Location-Based-Services (LBS), bode well for social eCommerce.

Social e-commerce is most popular in the fashion industry, advancing with the addition of advanced technologies such as augmented reality that permits shoppers to visualize themselves wearing the apparel they wish to purchase and also solicit feedback using social media tools.

For instance,

• July 2020- Snapchat announced a launch of brand profiles “A Native Store” (powered by Shopify) to enable users to browse and purchase from app.


• January 2022 – Almost 60% of social buyers believed they were more likely to buy from a small business when shopping via social commerce versus online, whereas, 44% were predicted to buy a brand they had not previously encountered.

Briefly, social commerce creates a mini-shopping experience directly onto the user’s social pages and motivates them to shop by integrating with the products and services. Consumers can directly buy products, share them with their friends and followers, or review them directly on these social vehicles.

Therefore, the notion of social commerce market is to engage online shoppers by offering reliable advice and support from online experts regarding their purchases.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Social Commerce Market

The market prompted users to spend more time on social media platforms, which pushed retailers to increase their investments in advertisements. As a result, businesses has led brands to extend their reach to new customers and varied product categories. Furthermore, due to restrictions in 2020 and pandemic-induced lockdowns has triggered a behaviour shift among in-store buyers, including non-digital communities.

Additionally, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has led to rising adoption of social commerce for encouraging consumers to shop via online channels offering personalized shopping experience and combating the risk of the coronavirus infection. Furthermore, users tend to spend more time on social media platforms as they become more comfortable and confident while spending time and money in a digital environment, thereby paving the way for market growth.

Moreover, several retailers are leveraging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, and blockchain to improve customer loyalty and retention in social commerce market. Increasing adoption of digital services in business process and changing market trends are prompting the application of social commerce for B2B (business-to-business) purchase and sales of products and services across the globe.

With the advancement of technology in the market, any misuse of consumer data can lead to financial and personal losses. Social media users are worried about illegal access to the data as many social media sites are not shielded against the risk of cyberattacks. Therefore, data privacy issues are expected to be resolved.

Key Insights

The report will cover the following key insights:

• Micro Macro Economic Indicators.


• Drivers, Restraints, Trends, and Opportunities.


• Business Strategies Adopted by the Players.


• Impact of COVID-19 on Global Social Commerce Market.


• Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players.

Analysis by Product Type

Based on type, the market is categorized into personal & beauty care, apparels, accessories, home products, health supplements, food & beverages and others.

The clothing and apparel industry is more significant than any other online product as it has significant popularity and demand on social media platforms. During the pandemic, many users were shopping online, spending and exploring maximum time online on different social commerce sites, and fashion retailers discovered ways to develop new types of shopping experiences, engage influencers/ creators, and connect in new ways.

• For instance, in September 2022, Amazon marked a spectacular entry in India unlike Reliance, Meesho says wealth management e-commerce firms.

Additionally, personal and beauty care brand marketers and owners prioritize data for a rich global audience and international markets without acquiring or hiring local sellers and distributors.  Sellers on various platforms are offering cashback, discounts, EMI options, and click & collect options, same-day or next-day deliveries and many more services that make easy online shopping rather than offline buying. Furthermore,

• In September 2022, Vogue firm partnered with Snap to caste a new lens on traditional runway. It will enable users to enhance the event via augmented reality lenses.

Regional Analysis

The global social commerce market is divided into five regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. Asia Pacific is the largest growing region with a rising investment in telecommunication infrastructure, proliferation of internet and smartphones and widespread reach of social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Furthermore, China favours regional market growth with rise in number of smartphones.

North America is expected to be the second largest market. With the rise in number of social media users, the number of social commerce sales and companies using various social media platforms promote their products and services to users contributed the segment growth.

The distribution of the global social commerce market by region of origin is as follows:

• Asia Pacific –49%


• North America –26%


• Europe – 16%


• The Middle East and Africa – 6%


• South America – 3%

Key Players Covered

The key players in the market include Etsy Inc., Fashnear Technologies Private Limited (Meesho), and Meta Platforms Inc., Pinduoduo, Pinterest Inc., Poshmark, Roposo, Snap Inc., Taobao, TikTok, Trell Shop, Twitter Inc., WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Yunji Sharing Technology Co., Ltd and others.

Segmentation

Key Industry Developments

• July 2022: Roposo's video-sharing social media firm will launch 3 to 4 D2C brands with top creators and celebrities to enhance the customer journey from consumption to discovery.


• September 2022: Ecommerce giant, Flipkart announced the launch of its interactive and Metaverse-themed virtual shopping platform, Flipverse, during the ongoing ‘Big Billion Days Sale’.