Social commerce is on the cusp of going mainstream. Social sites are investing in infrastructure and systems, and users seem primed to take advantage of more shopping opportunities on social. An infographic from e-commerce solutions provider Sumo Heavy explores the evolution of social commerce and examines the current state of affairs.
Social commerce made big advances in 2014 and 2015, with services like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook all implementing buy buttons and expanding into payment systems, native shops and brand partnerships. Overall, it seemed like social networks were making commerce a core part of their platforms.
And social commerce seems well positioned for growth. More than one-half of Facebook?s monthly active users in the U.S. and just under one-half of Twitter’s and Pinterest?s MAUs follow brands for product details. Indeed, users are engaging with brands, browsing products and generally doing a lot of window shopping on social media. Unfortunately, social commerce solutions have been met with mixed results and resistance among consumers. Twitter shut down its e-commerce development team earlier this year, while Facebook?s efforts remain in beta and only available to certain user and brand groups. On Pinterest, more than 10,000 merchants currently employ buyable pins. Social commerce may still be in its infancy, but it certainly has a future.
For more information on the impact of livestreaming and commerce through chat bots, view the infographic be...