Social networks have become essential parts of people’s lives. By 2027, the number of social media users is forecast to increase by nearly a billion, to 5.85 billion. On average, those users are spending an average of 2.5 hours a day scrolling and interacting with content on social networks. And as more people spend more of their time online, they increasingly spend more of their money there too.
Enter social commerce. From Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat and TikTok, all the most popular social networks are experimenting with ways let people sell on their platforms.
Social commerce has emerged as a way for users to seamlessly buy items without the hassle of leaving their social network of choice. And it’s created opportunities for businesses – from big brands to individual content creators – to sell their products to a huge number of engaged potential customers.
All those hours spent on these platforms offer plenty of opportunities to put products in front of them, and may go some way to explaining why social commerce sales are set to grow so rapidly – by a CAGR of 23.9% to reach $2.9 trillion by 2026.1
But the rise of social commerce hasn’t all been plain sailing. Efforts by the big platforms have come and gone ever since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg heralded social commerce as the next big thing back in 2010.
There are plenty of pitfalls to avoid for businesses looking to use social media platforms to sell their products. And for innovative payment providers, there are many aspects of social commerce to understand if they are to really seize the opportunity that these platforms are creating.
To read more about navigating the pitfalls and spotting the opportunities of social commerce, download our special report.
1. Statista
