The Phenomenon Of Social Commerce, Which Will Crush Online Shops

Ilustrasi marketplace ( Image Credit; Charles Deluvio / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - People are facing a dilemma, how could they not if the social media they used to socialize in cyberspace has now changed its function to become a place to shop.

It is called Social Commerce, where the phenomenon is now mushrooming. Social Commerce is part of e-commerce, it involves the use of social media that supports social interaction and user contributions in helping the process of purchasing goods or services online.

For example, when promoting a product on social media, liking product uploads, and asking briefly about the product. Unconsciously, users are already doing Social Commerce, where they help with shopping activities.

According to an analysis conducted by Sprout Social, as many as 74 percent of consumers often rely on social media to make decisions about buying an item. This possibility is triggered by several consumers who often review or simply promote these items on their social media accounts.

With social commerce, users not only experience socializing in cyberspace, but they can simultaneously search for the desired product, look for the best store, choose and buy products, and make direct transactions via social media applications.

Of course the experience will be different when they use e-commerce applications which are only focused on buying and selling services. So that the interaction only occurs between the seller and the buyer.

As a result of this, making the platform spread its wings to make social media a place to shop. Currently, it is known that several social media such as Facebook, Instagram and the WhatsApp messaging application already have shopping features.

What's the Difference with Social Selling?

Launching the Hoot Suite, Social Selling is a way to prospect potential potential customers, build trust in a more humane way, to market products or services to them through social media.

Usually in this case the product owner will use an influencer marketing strategy or celebrities. With tens of millions of Indonesians using Instagram every day, this Facebook-owned application is one of the best social media platforms for brands to collaborate with celebrities on.

According to the Internet Marketing website, the advertisements carried out through these celebrities have quite destroyed the face of traditional advertising. Customers are immediately introduced to the seller's brand through a more reliable source, in other words, directly through the idol's Instagram account.

There are various forms of cooperation, ranging from sponsorship (endorse) model Instagram posts, blog posts promoted through social media, or for the long term the celebrity can be contracted as a brand ambassador.

Will it erode e-commerce services?

In this case, we certainly do not determine our opinion alone, according to digital economy expert Heru Sutardi said Social Commerce will not easily erode the e-commerce platform market itself.

Because, it takes trust from the public in using shopping features on social media. For example, Facebook, Heru argues that the services on the platform are still unclear.

"The public still does not believe in electronic commerce services on Facebook because there are many frauds. Besides that, the appearance is also less attractive, including the way of writing prices," Heru told VOI, Thursday, November 26.

So, Heru added that until now shopping activities on the marketplace or online sites from product providers are still trusted through social media itself.

"Because the marketplace is now more integrated with payments, there are more and more varied products, and there are accounts that make payment systems safe, both for sellers and buyers," Heru said.

Some changes are coming to Instagram 👀Today you'll start seeing a Reels tab and a Shop tab on your home screen ✨https: //t.co/6CKOiucokx pic.twitter.com/fdMOI8Dhya

- Instagram (@instagram) November 12, 2020

On the other hand, Heru acknowledged that e-commerce is a service that is predicted to grow significantly, especially driven by a pandemic that has made many people shop and sell online.

"Of course, these conditions make applications also busy offering trading and shopping facilities electronically. In addition to completing the application into super apps, it is also trying to enter a market that is developing and will continue to grow so that there is room for new revenue," Heru explained.

Meanwhile, he revealed that Indonesia is predicted to reach US $ 130 billion to US $ 150 billion in the turnover of e-commerce by 2025. However, not all of them are successful.

As he explained above, social media again requires public trust from various aspects. Including, the payment methods they have embedded.

"If there is no improvement, it will not be eroded because user trust (trust) is low. If there is an improvement it might be possible but it also takes time to gather sellers like the existing marketplace," said Heru.

Social Media That Has Shopping Features

The high potential of the online shopping market has made many social media platforms competing to equip their apps with online shopping features. Which social media have this feature? Here's the complete list.

- Facebook

The social media giant has first embed a shopping feature on its platform, the Facebook Marketplace. Facebook argues that this feature is a place to buy and sell specifically for Facebook users, because this marketplace is placed within the application itself.

The goal, of course, is that users can easily search for and find interesting items that are being sold on Facebook. Here, users can visit the marketplace directly on Facebook without having to download other applications or create another account.

But unfortunately, this feature is not yet effective. There are still many users who are confused in terms of price. By selling at a price that is not true, users who want to buy must ask in detail if they are interested in the product being sold. In Indonesia alone, quite a lot of people have used it for trading.

- WhatsApp

Some time ago, WhatsApp officially presented a catalog feature to make it easier for business account users to sell. Previously, this feature was limited to a showcase for the product being sold, not for transactions.

Over time, WhatsApp now presents a shopping feature as a complement to the catalog. The shopping feature on WhatsApp allows Business account users to sell goods, and regular users to buy goods from the catalog.

This feature makes it easier for business people who rely on WhatsApp as a platform to sell. The company assesses that the current global pandemic shows that a business needs a fast and efficient way to serve customers and drive sales.

- Instagram

Recently Instagram also launched a shopping feature via the Shopping tab on its platform. This tab will serve as the basis for the app's e-commerce feature allowing brands and businesses to sell products on their profiles, which users can also purchase directly from the app.

Although these features have been around since 2018, Instagram relaxed restrictions on the Shopping feature to allow any user to take advantage of their business or creator account.

Instagram Shopping (doc. Instagram)

Adding the Shopping feature to the homepage will allow Instagram to further emphasize its efforts, to attract retail businesses and take advantage of the influencer industry on the platform.

- YouTube

Google's video service is rumored to be embedding similar features that are owned by Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Of course this is surprising. The company argued that the addition of the YouTube shopping feature was due to the large amount of content containing product reviews in the application.

Even so, this feature has not yet been launched because it has just entered the testing phase. Testing this YouTube shopping feature involves a number of content creators. The role of the content creators themselves is to insert a tag so that the product displayed in the video can be purchased.

The product tag that is placed on the video will be linked to the Google analytics system. Later, prospective buyers will be directed to buy the product when they click the pop up or ad on the video.

Google will also feature similar products found in its analytics. Meanwhile, sellers must first sync their Google Merchant Center with video ads to start selling on the YouTube shopping feature.

The transaction process is also very easy. Reportedly, Google is also trying to integrate YouTube's shopping features with the services offered by Shopify.