2020 September Social Commerce Updates

2020-09-14 Dan D. Kimmoney

Back in August, I made a post about social commerce. It was basically about how influencer-driven online shopping will be the future of e-commerce.

It already is, to a certain extent, but it’s about to get a whole lot crazier.

In this post, I’m just going to list out some quick facts and updates.

Updates

TalkShopLive is approaching 2 million users, not huge, but their sales are up 700% since COVID-19
Brandlive expects revenue to double in 2020
CommentSold saw a 50% increase in spending per viewer in 2020 so far, and more than 300% jump in retailers adopting streaming. Annual sales made over the platform are expected to rise from $326 million to $1 billion.
Ntwrk saw sales rise 400%. Some shows topped $1 million in sales in less than 10 minutes.

Live selling in 2019 generated $60 billion in global sales, and it’s expected to double in 2020.

Let’s not forget, the big companies aren’t sitting on the sidelines.

Amazon has a streaming platform.
Facebook is rolling out improved selling features onto Instagram Live, Facebook Live. Pink Coconut Boutique has been using this to generate more sales in a SINGLE DAY of streaming than 2-3 WEEKS at its physical stores.
Google has Shoploop

Trust. People are buying from streamers that they trust. Think about some public figure you kind of look up to. Maybe your favorite Youtuber, football player, or fashion designer. And imagine them doing livestreaming and recommending products they personally can vouch for.
Human interaction. Shopping online was not good at human connection, but livestreaming can bridge the gap. Viewers comment during livestreams, which the streamers answer.
Entertainment. Aside from the shopping experience, the entire stream ends up becoming sort of a reality show.

COVID-19. Being physically present in the store, crammed with other people, touching and trying different products that other people may have touched… It’s just not something we are looking for anymore. But we also want that human interaction we get when we visit a store. Livestreaming gives us both the comfort of staying home while also interacting with people.
Influencers. We have been following influencers for a long time. This is not new. We subscribe on Youtube. We follow Twitters. We like Facebook Pages. We follow Instagrammers. This is nothing new. One thing for certain is that in today’s society, viewers watch influencers.
Ease. This quote from this article: “Viewers… purchase with a Facebook comment or buy buttons in the app—all without leaving the live video.” The process of buying an item is made so easy.

I still think Facebook is in the best position for taking advantage of all this.
Facebook already has the users
Facebook already has the infrastructure
Facebook already has the influencers
Facebook is already a very suitable platform for livestream selling TODAY. Companies are already making a lot of money selling stuff on Facebook with their new Facebook and Instagram Shop.
Right now we have a lot of other smaller platforms competing for the market, but we have seen again and again in the tech industry that the giants will eat up their competitors.