Harnessing the hybrid shopping opportunity
Our co-founder Joel Davis has been going over the future of retail and online shopping and looking closely at Social Commerce. Below is an excerpt from the article he wrote for WARC.
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We didn’t realise it at the time but prior to 2020 and the pandemic there was a defined line in most consumers’ minds between social networks and shopping websites.
Furthermore, whilst this line blurred at times, there was also a sense that bricks and mortar shopping offered a more exciting experience than ordering on Amazon. And, of course, retail shopping represented legacy investments that retailers were loath to undermine. As a consequence, neither retailers nor their customers had much of an incentive to shun them – that is until COVID-19.
What occurred last year has been recorded and analysed by businesses of all ilk around the world – the pandemic’s impact sent shock waves that flattened many and offered new opportunities to others. Social media platforms rose to the challenge and a cascade of disruptive models started emerging.
Facebook, which counts some 160 million small- to medium-sized businesses as users of its apps, rapidly re- arranged priorities as restrictions called for physical shops to shut. By May 2020, Facebook Shops was set up to enable businesses to manage a single online store on its core social network, as well as on Instagram.
By November, Instagram had introduced Reels and Shop to promote short videos and online retail, whilst WhatsApp started communicating with businesses on its platforms, which may eventually be used for sales.
A month later heralded Walmart’s ‘Holiday Shop-Along Spectacular’ on TikTok that allowed viewers to buy some of its fashion items worn by celebrities directly via the video app.
Social commerce
What we are witnessing is a new form of retail architecture: social commerce. Whilst this has been prevalent in China for some time, now it has only just started surfacing in the West and is rapidly gaining momentum.
Meshing livestreaming, short-form video and social networking allows brands to show a product either being crafted or demonstrated. Influencers can take this further by showcasing how the item is worn or used, while friends might review it on social media, leading to a network of real-world businesses delivering the purchases.
Everything we have ever experienced is being turned into a digital platform, from shops, entertainment venues, food courts and games arcades through to locations for public gatherings – entire shopping malls can now be replicated in digital form.
Read the full article on on WARC.com