Comparing Social Commerce and E-Commerce

 
With the growing advertising prowess of social platforms, marketing communications have dramatically evolved. Hence, today’s topic. Comparing social commerce and E-commerce.

Before reading below, check out these related posts:

• An E-Commerce Analytics Handbook
• A New Look at Key Marketing Metrics
• Not Shopping with Shoppable Ads

 

Marketing Insights: Comparing Social Commerce and E-Commerce

For this discussion, we turn to a recent Advertising Age article by Erika Wheless:

Social commerce is quickly becoming the holy grail of marketing. But even as TikTok and other social platforms rapidly evolve to become shopping destinations, most retailers may still want purchases to ultimately take place on their own Web sites. 

TikTok announced earlier this month that it struck a deal with Shopify that will allow for in-app shopping. 

Long term, becoming a full-funnel purchase route will be a challenge for platforms. Most retailers want purchases to go through their Web site as a way to capture customer data, like E-mails, While at the same time, the platforms are eager to prove they can directly drive conversions to be more appealing to advertisers.

“Based on our digital work with brands today, we’re seeing lower conversion rates for social commerce channels like Facebook and Instagram. Compared to Web sites that provide a full E-commerce experience,” Megan Jones, VP of marketing and partner at January Digital, a social media consulting company, wrote in an E-mail. “While all signs point to social commerce as the future, shopper adoption rate isn’t there quite yet. But since TikTok isn’t creating a completely new checkout environment, TikTok could be onto something.” 

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