Everything you need to know about social commerce

Buying without ever leaving Instagram or TikTok looks like a convenience feature. It is also a shift in who owns the customer relationship. This article explains how social commerce works, what it changes for a brand, and what you hand over in exchange.
Social Commerce
Marketplaces
Measurement
blue2purple - Young woman on a sofa holding a phone and a bank card
Topics
Social Commerce
Marketplaces
Measurement
Platforms
Meta Ads
Instagram Ads
TikTok Ads
short sumary

Social commerce is the integration of the entire online buying experience inside social platforms. Users complete the purchase without leaving Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok, and brands manage catalogue, orders, payments and support from a single interface. Behind the convenience there is a harder reason: with third party cookies disappearing, platforms need the purchase to happen at home so their advertising algorithms keep working.

What is social commerce?

You may already have heard of social commerce. But what exactly is it?

In short, social commerce is the integration of the entire online buying experience inside social platforms.

Every social platform is building applications and technologies that let brands sell their products directly through their social accounts. Within a few months, users will be able to complete a purchase without leaving Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and soon TikTok.

That has already been the case in the United States for a few months.

How will social commerce work?

By integrating online shopping, social platforms become a new marketplace.

We knew Amazon, Bol.com, Cdiscount, Zalando and the rest. Soon, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and their peers will have to be counted in too.

Concretely, inside your Meta account you get access to a new interface called the Commerce Manager.

From that sales manager you will be able to:

  • Create a catalogue.
  • Present your products attractively.
  • Manage the orders you receive (validation, logistics, tracking information).
  • Manage your customers' payments, collected directly through the social platform.
  • Provide support through a chat. And, of course:
  • Access a full analytics layer.

This is the culmination of a trend that has been running on social platforms for years. Since 2014 they have regularly released features that let brands push their products forward: catalogue, ecommerce integration, pixel, Conversions API, dynamic retargeting and more.

Why do social platforms want to become sales platforms?

Social platforms give two main reasons for these developments.

1. It is a demand coming from the users of social platforms. 2. They want to help companies sell online more easily, or digitise their activities, especially after the lockdowns imposed by COVID19.

There is a third reason, and it may well be the most important one: the planned disappearance of third party cookies.

Without third party cookies, social platforms no longer know what happens outside their own walls. They no longer know what happens in a brand's online store. And that has negative consequences for the algorithms that run social ads campaigns.

Specifically:

  • Algorithms have less information to optimise campaign delivery.
  • Retargeting audiences are smaller. And:
  • They can no longer report the sales made on brand websites. Measuring the exact return on investment of social advertising becomes difficult.

By letting users complete a purchase without leaving the platform, social platforms recover first party information. That way social ads campaigns stay effective.

What are the next steps for social commerce?

You will have understood: there is a lot of movement on the social platform and ecommerce side.

Within a few months, users will be able to buy a product online without leaving Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok.

All of this comes with a lot of new features, and setting up an optimal social commerce architecture becomes very technical.

That is why the blue2purple experts stay at the sharp end of this subject and are ready to support you through these developments.

More on what we do.

Conclusion

Social commerce is not a new button in an interface. It is social platforms turning themselves into marketplaces, and reclaiming the first party data they lost when third party cookies started to disappear. Brands that set the architecture up properly keep their social ads effective and their return on investment visible. Brands that treat it as a feature to activate later will pay for the delay in performance.

Talk to a specialist about your social commerce setup.

FAQ

What is social commerce?

Social commerce is the integration of the entire online buying experience inside social platforms. Instead of clicking through to a brand's website, the user browses, orders and pays without leaving Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok. It has already been live in the United States for a few months.

How does selling through Meta actually work?

Inside your Meta account you get an interface called the Commerce Manager. From there you create a catalogue, present your products, manage incoming orders including validation, logistics and tracking information, handle customer payments collected directly through the platform, provide support through a chat, and access a full analytics layer.

Why do social platforms want to become sales platforms?

They give two reasons: their users are asking for it, and they want to help companies sell online more easily or digitise their activities, especially after the COVID19 lockdowns. There is a third reason that may matter more, the planned disappearance of third party cookies.

What do third party cookies change for social ads?

Without third party cookies, social platforms no longer see what happens on a brand's online store. Algorithms have less information to optimise delivery, retargeting audiences shrink, and sales made on brand websites can no longer be reported, which makes return on investment hard to measure precisely. Letting the purchase happen on the platform gives them first party information back.

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