Social Commerce Report 2022 + INFOGRAPHIC

Social Commerce Report 2022 + INFOGRAPHIC

What is Social Commerce?

Social Commerce is the process of selling products directly on social media. The entire shopping experience, from product discovery and research to the check-out process, can happen without the consumer having to leave the social media platform. Features like the “buy now” button or autofill payments remove the friction from the consumer journey, thus making the whole process much faster.

All-in platforms are also known as “Super Apps” stems from the example of China, the most advanced social commerce market in the world.


Our Social Commerce Survey

Survey Methodology 

The survey data presented in this report was collected from 1000+ users based in the US who submitted an online survey between Dec 9, 2021 and Dec 14, 2021.

Our target audience was users between 18 and 54 years old, with a focus on Gen Z and Millennials.

Our goal was to understand their preferences when it comes to online shopping behavior and preferences, live stream and overall if and how they shop on social media.

Social Commerce Infographic 2022 by The Influencer Marketing Factory

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<a href="https://theinfluencermarketingfactory.com/social-commerce-report-2022/"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/J5LjOoW.jpg" alt="Social Commerce Infographic 2022 by The Influencer Marketing Factory" border="0" /></a>

Social Commerce Findings

From our exclusive Survey 

  1. 82% of responders have discovered a product on social media and purchased it directly on their phones.
  2. 57% have purchased something during a live stream shopping event and 39% strongly agree that they like to discover new products during live shopping events.
  3. 58% have used a Buy Now Pay Later service compared to our previous survey run in early 2021, 36% more users have tried BNPL.
  4. 41% strongly agree they like to take advantage of special discounts offered by influencers.
  5. 42% strongly agree that they prefer to check out directly on the social media app (instead of a third-party website).

From our research on Social Commerce

  1. 97% of Gen Z consumers use social media as their top source of shopping inspiration.
  2. 90% believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing and 72% believe that the quality of customers from influencer marketing campaigns is better than other marketing types.
  3. The number of US social commerce buyers accelerated 25.2% to 80.1 million in 2020 and is anticipated to increase to 96 million in 2022.
  4. 83% of consumers browsing TikTok say seeing trending content has inspired them to make a purchase.
  5. Worldwide, social commerce generated about $475 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2020. With an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.4% from 2021 to 2028, revenues are expected to reach approximately 3.37 trillion dollars in the latter year.

Social Media and Social Commerce

Social Media apps such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube are always introducing new shopping features aimed to facilitate the shopping experience for the users. Brands can maximize their online presence and customers can have access to their favorite social media, while still being able to have a shopping experience and share new products with friends and family.

The social media platforms featured in our report are:

  • TikTok
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

You can also find:

  • AR Try on
  • Amazon
  • NTWRK
  • LTK
  • Flip
  • WeChat
  • Xiaohonghu
  • Douyin (Chinese version of Tiktok)

Social Commerce Opportunities

In a survey conducted by The Influencer Marketing Hub, “90% of respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing” and, “72% believe that the quality of customers from influencer marketing campaigns is better than other marketing types”.

Working with the narrated algorithm on their side, influencers on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram are pushed to suit the categories you’re interested in. In short, this makes influencer marketing one of the most proactive methods to boost your business.

Based all around the world, in niches no one has ever heard of, there is always a creative influencer with articulated videos to capture your audience’s attention. That’s the beauty of it! With the balance of sourcing the right influencer to promote your business, reliant on their innovative prowess, you can harness the power of social media marketing to come up with delightful videos and images for your viewers to watch.

In June, Instagram launched the “affiliate program” giving influencers the ability to monetize brand partnership with affiliate links and earn directly from their posts, receiving commission payments based on the total sales they drive for a brand. In August, Instagram also launched to everyone the possibility to share link stickers on the platform, ditching the “swipe up” feature that was available only with 10K followers that mean now also micro-influencers can share shoppable stories!

eMarketer forecasted that, in 2021, US social commerce sales would rise by 35.8% to $36.62 billion.

That’s only a slight deceleration in growth from social commerce’s blowout 2020 when sales surged by 38.9%, due to the pandemic-driven boom in e-commerce and increased social media consumption.

Worldwide, social commerce generated about $475 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2020. With an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.4% from 2021 to 2028, revenues in this segment are expected to reach approximately 3.37 trillion dollars in the latter year.

eMarketer forecast shows that China will generate $131.52 billion in live streaming social commerce sales in 2021. US marketers can use China as an example of how to incorporate live streaming into their social commerce strategies, such as tapping creators and influencers to drive engagement and sales.

With social media platforms curating the demand of social commerce, new features are put out every other month, indicating a shift that follows China’s example of the success of livestream shopping.


Virtual Shopping goes Viral

Adidas collaborated with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs and others in the space to launch the “Into the Metaverse” collection via its lifestyle label, Adidas Originals.

The 30,000 NFTs went on sale on December 17 for 0.2 Ethereum (about $800) each, selling out in minutes and making the company more than $22 million in the span of an afternoon. The digital and physical wearables for NFT owners will be made available in 2022.


Social Commerce And BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)

These services are becoming popular among online shopping platforms because they let customers split payments without paying interest. According to eMarketer by the end of 2022, 44.1% of Gen Z digital buyers ages 14 and older will have used BNPL services at least once that year, compared with only 37.2% of millennial digital buyers. In our survey we found out that 58% have used a Buy Now Pay Later service compared to our previous survey run in early 2021, 36% more users have tried BNPL.


Quotes from Social Commerce experts

Sophie Abrahamsson

Chief Commercial Officer – Bambuser

What we have seen since launching our live commerce solution in 2019, is that more and more retailers are starting to incorporate live commerce into their e-com strategy going beyond events and proof of concepts, and that is when live commerce reaches its full potential – when all consumer touchpoints become interactive, social and shoppable. Brands and retailers are discovering the potential of a new and more authentic way of interacting with their communities and consumers, where transparency will be key. Brands that are able to meet consumers in this dialogue and offer genuine added values and stay accountable in regards to sustainability and inclusion will be rewarded. I also think we will see the rise of a new generation of influencers, focusing on live commerce – the bravest generation so far, that will truly and continuously interact with their followers in live formats where everything is authentic and interaction with the audience is key to success.

Nik Sharma

Chief Executive Officer – Sharma Brands

I don’t think social commerce is native right now. There are apps like Flip which are doing a great job in figuring out how to bring this to market, or Tolstoy which lets you plug in social commerce on your site, but it’s just not a native form of commerce yet. Amazon has also been pushing quite hard. It will take a lot of creators, a shift in how we buy things, and a lot of trying and failing to get to a model that works, both in social media and financially.

Social Commerce is a big driver for awareness, but it hasn’t solved the problem yet on educating a customer on why they should buy it. The problem with social commerce is that its very one-sided right now — it lets the creator speak about it in their own light, but it doesn’t address the concerns that may stop someone from buying. Right now social commerce is essentially influencer marketing too, which, if not done very authentically, doesn’t work.

Sharon Gee

VP of Revenue Growth & General Manager of Omnichannel – BigCommerce

Optimized data will be the key to omnichannel success. Having an omnichannel strategy is used to mean running both a physical store and an online store. Today, omnichannel has come to mean selling through an e-commerce storefront combined with a mix of third-party ads and marketplace platforms like Google, Amazon, Walmart and Mercado Libre, and social commerce channels such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. And this momentum will not slow down in 2022 and beyond. If anything, omnichannel marketing will need to be amplified as part of every merchant’s strategy in order to remain even more competitive than ever before.

Merchants will have to push harder to meet consumers where they are spending their time, where they start their shopping journeys and where it is easy and convenient to click the buy button. The trick for merchants will be having a strategy that harmonizes managing their products, pricing and fulfillment offerings across all channels a shopper might find them on, requiring product data (and supporting systems) to be coordinated behind the scenes.

As retailers have been adding more channels to sell on, they’ve learned that each varies in what information is required and how it is presented. Trying to manually manage those data differences, in real-time, for a large volume of products across multiple channels is not realistic or efficient. Merchants will need to invest in technology solutions that can automate the optimization and syndication of quality product data across channels in order to drive their omnichannel growth.

Melanie Bedwell

eCommerce Manager – OLIPOP

Social Commerce has greatly impacted our sales, and I believe has greatly impacted our consumer’s experience as well. We use Instagram often to engage with our target audience. We post about our new products, current promotions, partnerships, giveaways, and more. Our customers are comfortable reaching out to us on this platform, either to ask us questions, encourage us to place our product in stores near them, or just to provide general feedback. For an eCommerce business, social commerce is imperative for engagement. If you can’t interact with your customers face-to-face, then connecting through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok is crucial. It builds brand awareness for those just discovering your company and builds customer loyalty for those who have already purchased your product.

Kayla Darcey

Strategic Account Manager – MikMak

We see social commerce make purchase experiences smoother every day. Even before shoppable media, social media platforms were already organically becoming a place where users would share purchases they love, discover products they want to buy, and provide recommendations on how to buy them. Adding shopping capabilities helps them get to their next desired step easier. This year, we’ve seen rapid growth in TikTok as a driver of shopper traffic and purchase intent. YouTube is particularly successful with long-form content at the top of the funnel.

Consumers’ willingness and desire to engage in social commerce is promising for brands. The best way to take advantage of this behavior is to think of each creator as a potential partner with their specific audience. Learn more about the engagements that are taking place between consumers and creators and match them to the shoppers that have high intent to purchase your product, and use this to design your marketing initiatives and influencer strategies.

Hannah Zheng

Head of Business Development – Shop LIT Live

Our livestream technology helps to bridge the gap between the offline and online shopping experience and solve the critical challenge of customer engagement, retention, and direct-to-consumer conversions. We see an average conversion of 10-15% during livestreams, which is significantly higher than typical e-commerce. Without leaving the convenience of their homes, customers can get questions answered live, see products demo’ed, go live with the host, participate in fun activities and giveaways – all of which makes for a fun and satisfying shopping journey. This is why we truly believe live shopping is the next frontier in the retail sector.

Madison Schill

Director of Marketing & Communications – LiveScale

At Livescale, we envision social commerce to bleed into a very intangible, effortless ecosystem, studded with various features, elements and modes of interaction between brands and the people that love them. Specifically at Livescale, we really see Live Shopping as the next big sales channel, but also as a way for brands to own, understand, and engage with their audiences; and to do it within the Livescale ecosystem as we grow and expand into more offerings that complement the Western Live Shopping experience.

Liel Anisenko

Head of Marketing – buywith

After its booming success in China, the Livestream shopping trend is speedily gaining momentum with Western brands. In 2021 we have seen an increasing number of global brands and retailers start experimenting with Livestream shopping. Thanks to its influencer-led nature, this new channel brings a lot of value to brands and retailers, aside from the ROI – brand awareness, customer loyalty, acquisition of new customers, and the acceleration of the buyer’s journey. All these benefits have a substantial and lasting impact on brand growth, and this is why brands and retailers recognize Livestream shopping as one of the growth vehicles to invest in.

We expect to see significant growth in 2022, with more brands utilizing Livestream shopping and the growing number of content creators becoming live shopping experts. We expect to see buyers getting more accustomed to shopping live with hosts they trust, enjoying unique and intimate experiences, and access to exclusive offers – discounts, giveaways, and other promotions.

Buywith sees content creators playing a central part in growing this channel; that is why we have launched a marketplace of influencers and live video shopping hosts experienced in hosting engaging, entertaining, and educational sessions. Hosting Livestream sessions requires unique skills, and brands that work with buywith can utilize our marketplace, knowing that content creators that we partner with will bring maximum value to the sessions.