Introduction

The blending of social media and e-commerce has led to a world where a huge number of people every day do their shopping through social media. Social commerce has seen stratospheric growth worldwide, and this trend isn’t likely to stop any time soon. The growth of social commerce will likely only continue, particularly as many social media platforms re-orient their features to accommodate this trend.

According to HubSpot, social commerce sales in the US surpassed $36 billion in 2021, which marked 31% growth. In China, social commerce sales were more than $351.65 billion. It is a massive global industry, and many platforms are trying to optimize their product to become more shoppable to attract a more significant share of consumers’ spending.

Platforms become more shoppable by integrating e-commerce features into their social platform. It is easier for customers to do online shopping, and they then attract a larger share of social commerce sales. Most major platforms have pivoted in this direction, hoping to make it easier for social media users. Let’s dive into some of the changes big social media networks have made to become more shoppable.

TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop has launched in some parts of the world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. It is currently testing in the United States. TikTok Shop is intended as a way to integrate social commerce more actively into TikTok. It’ll help influencers and brands create shoppable posts that are linked with product pages, and consumers will be able to make purchases directly through TikTok.

TikTok is one of the biggest social media companies on the planet, and by implementing easier purchasing into the social media content, they’ll drive up sales. The TikTok Shop features will also make purchasing from live video much easier.

Instagram Shopping

Before TikTok Shop was announced, Instagram had already leaned into e-commerce with their Instagram Shopping features. These were designed to allow brands to create fully immersive Instagram Shop stores on the platform. Purchases can be made directly from the Instagram platform, and there is a separate tab where users can browse products and brands. It is a full social shopping experience.

There are also features where users can tag products in their pictures or posts. People can show off what purse is in their Instagram post, what snacks they’re biting into, and more. Essentially, the line between social media and shopping is disappearing. People will both browse their friends’ photos and discover new shopping options at the same time.

Twitter Product Drops

When it comes to social commerce, Twitter has mostly fallen to the wayside. It is hard to compete with highly visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram when Twitter primarily focuses on short-form text. However, Twitter is looking for a way to compete with its competitors and up their social commerce abilities. That’s why they’ve added new social media shopping tools to become more of a shoppable platform.

Twitter recently announced that they’re implementing tools to allow users to subscribe to product launch notifications from brands on the platform. Once subscribed, they’ll get an update when the product is ready for purchase and will receive a product details page with reviews and information on what they’re trying to buy. They’ll then be able to make a purchase directly through that page. This makes it easy and effective to buy new products directly from Twitter.

How This Benefits Influencer Marketers

The pivot towards shoppability will only benefit brands that use influencer marketing. The easier it is for people to make purchases from social media platforms, the likelier people will do it. Social networks are now going to make it incredibly simple and intuitive for users to purchase directly from the social app. It will also offer new techniques and social media posts that influencer marketers can explore.

Influencer marketers will be able to prompt users to follow the product drop pages on Twitter, purchase directly from live videos on TikTok, or shop branded pages on Instagram. These are only some innovations that major social media channels are implementing. Every platform has started to see the impact social commerce can have on their business. They are now transforming the features on the platform to cater to the vast number of people that use social media to fuel their shopping decisions.

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