People expected to transact via social media in 2015 instead of plain old networking
A third of humanity worldwide - that is two billion people - is on social networks, says Shub-hradeep Guha, Vice President and Global Lead for Digital Marketing & Content, at SapientNitro, an independent advertising agency. In 2014, global digital commerce sales touched nearly $1.5 trillion, according to digital market research company eMarketer.
Now join these two dots and guess where people will be transacting the most in future? The big bet is on social channels, of course. That is why brands need to get a move on. "Most brands currently use social as just another channel of engagement with their consumers," says Guha. However, already 18 per cent of the global e-commerce revenues are reported to be through social networks. Projections are that it will touch 50 per cent in next to no time.
"Social commerce is going to be an important piece in the tech ecosystem," says Nilay Arora, VP-Marketing and Business Develop- ment, WeChat India, a social messenger app. In China, the Tencent-owned WeChat - it's known there as Weixin - even enables sales through a payment gateway and acts like an online storefront for brands that have public accounts on the chat app.
WeChat is now trying to enable online-to-offline payments by connecting the chat app with vending machines. In an initial trial, 300 vending machines were connected to the app. Users could pay for the product on the chat app earning some discounts and pick up the product from the vending machines.
Even if the direct tools are not yet available in India, in an indirect way, social commerce has already taken off here. "Social commerce has various connotations," says Damandeep Soni, Business Head, Line India, explaining how in a milieu where direct sales are not yet possible through social channels due to regulatory constraints, assisted sales can still happen. An example, he says, is the way Amazon partnered with Line app to drive transactions. Or the campaign with FreeCharge whereby Line users could earn up to 200 per cent extra talk time by exchanging stickers and earning cashback.
Nilay Arora of WeChat agrees. "Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong, you name them. They all have official accounts on WeChat, encouraging social sharing and even creating a mechanism where you can go through to their store directly from the channel," he says.
Similarly, word of mouth recommendations on social platforms have a big impact on buy decisions. Already, consumers are making the leap from chatting to buying on these channels. Arjun Ravi Kolady, Facebook's head of e-commerce in India, describes how sales are happening through posts on the network and an inmail follow-up. According to Kolady, the status on the buy button of the social networking site is currently limited to tests in the US.
Social commerce through Facebook has mostly been leveraged by small and medium entrepreneurs. But increasingly, e-commerce websites in India, too, are tapping social networks.
Smart brands can also use social media as a tool to influence other people after a transaction is completed, says Arora. According to him, social behaviour of consumers is intense and can give a big fillip to e-commerce. For instance, fashion discussions on a social platform can trigger shopping impulses. However, says Arora, the social behaviour in different countries may not be exactly similar, so we need to come up with our own innovations to fuel transactions.
LISTENING POST
- Social Security: Are you paranoid about the security settings in Facebook? The social network has taken note of its users' anxiety and just launched a new site called ThreatExchange. This is a platform for cybersecurity professionals to share information about any potential attacks from malicious software and exchange notes on how to safeguard. It's a by invitation-only site during the test period, but Twitter, Dropbox, Bitly, Pinterest and Tumblr have signed on as partners. With professionals on the job, social security gets a new meaning now!
- Kohli Scores: Remember the time an animal oracle - Paul the Octopus - hijacked all the conversation around a sporting event, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Well, there were few distractions during the India-Pakistan match in the cricket World Cup. The conversation stayed fi rmly focused on cricket. According to media agency MEC, the match generated 700,000 chats on a single day. Virat Kohli was the most talked-about player garnering 74,000 mentions. But brands hoping to piggyback on cricket scored dismally. Dettol, whose ad featured during the match, did fi gure in social chats but got more brickbats than bouquets.
