Social commerce to triple eCommerce growth, according to Accenture

It makes no sense to turn our backs on a channel that is constantly growing. Selling on social networks is and has been a priority since we saw them emerge. The fact of concentrating so much audience was and continues to be an opportunity for conversion, but this reality had not settled on yet. Until now.

 

Networks were not originally designed for e-commerce, but this is something that has been progressively changing. Even so, what is Accenture basing its assurances that social commerce will triple the speed of eCommerce growth? What are its strongest points? And its weakest?

 

Let's take a closer look.

 It is unquestionable that social commerce is a channel to be exploited in the short, medium and long term. But what is not happening - nor does Accenture say so - is that it is displacing "conventional" eCommerce.

 

It is simply that it is growing much faster, which makes sense because eCommerce has been growing steadily for many years. Although this is best seen in concrete numbers.

 

The consultancy's forecast states that social commerce will generate a global turnover of 1.2 trillion dollars. It is impressive, no doubt, but in 2021 alone, according to eMarketer, eCommerce generated almost 5 trillion dollars. The same study predicts that by 2025 online stores will generate $7.4 trillion.

You will not be surprise to know that, according to the aforementioned Accenture report, 62% of this expected growth will be in a segmentation that includes mostly Millennials and members of Generation Z.

 

They are "digital followers", so their experience with networks is something that comes naturally, organically. They are very easy to use since its creation, and therefore it is an ideal place to discover and buy products. The mechanism of searching on one site and buying on another is not efficient in their case.

 

By the way,In this discovery process, influencers play a very relevant role, as they are consolidated as dynamizers of the Customer Journey both in the initial and evaluation phases.

Despite Facebook's efforts to keep a leadership position, new users are also looking for new platforms and have a different way of interacting with them. Selling on Instagram is important for any company, but let's not lose sight of the progress made by platforms such as TikTok or Twitch and those that will come after.

 

The best example of this we commented on is how video streaming is being successful around the world as a platform for selling.  

These are networks in which the new audiences we mentioned in the previous point stand out, but which are being joined by previous generations in an increasingly active way.

Facebook was also a pioneer in this regard. Integrating eCommerce catalogs in our profiles or using sales tools such as shoppable tags marked the beginning of a trend that has been progressively joined by the rest of networks: from Pinterest to TikTok.

 

Networks business has gradually ceased to be exclusively advertising to join the e-commerce business in a more active and direct way.

It obviously has weaknesses, some of which are very difficult to overcome. The most important is the distrust of the platforms.

 

Facebook does not exactly have a reputation for transparency or security. Being permanently in the media has not helped them to clean up their image, and the "anything goes" advertising policy (rather of their advertisers) that can be found on their platform also makes the buyer skeptical.

 

In the rest of the platforms highlighted, TikTok has the handicap of being a Chinese service, with all that implies from the point of view of transparency in the use of data.