In the last two years, electronic commerce has gone from being one more option to a central pillar in the consumption patterns of societies around the world. As consumers, we felt the need to make a purchase online. Regardless of whether we liked, were used to, or had confidence in internet sales models. Acquiring everything from our supermarket list, food delivery, office supplies – or better said, from the home made office – to the clothing or entertainment or personal health products that we need ceased, for most of us, to be a physical activity to become a dynamic in front of a screen that we could execute in a matter of minutes.
Social Commerce Growth
According to Hootsuite’s Social Trends 2022 report, e-commerce penetration in countries like the United States jumped almost ten years in the first three months of the pandemic. Analysis of firms such as Shopify detected that 84% of Internet users have purchased via the web and eMarketer estimates that digital spending shows no signs of stopping over the next few years, as it will even maintain a double-digit annual growth rate as it goes from an industry with sales of 792 billion dollars in 2020, to more than 1.6 billion dollars by 2025 in the United States alone.
To give us an idea of the potential growth and magnitude behind electronic commerce, according to the World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product of Mexico in 2020 was just over 1 billion dollars. And although the figures for the Mexican market are far from reaching the volumes of the United States, the most recent analysis of the Mexican Association of Online Sales affirms that the country was placed for the third consecutive year in the top 5 of countries with the highest growth in commerce. electronic retail, along with nations such as India, Russia and Brazil, registering an increase of almost double (27%) than the global average (16.3%).
New Normal
It is clear then that more than a passing trend, buying online will be, from now on, a global norm and habit. That even under the dynamics of the new normality and the opportunity to return to the acquisition of goods and services from physical form, will remain in constant growth and evolution. However, it is at this point, where the physical and digital consumer universes contrast, that brands and companies will have to find a new way to connect, attract and conquer the consumer beyond a good purchase interface for a simple pair of clicks, especially because in most cases, consumption, more than a mechanical process, is a social dynamic that involves interaction, third-party opinions and even a sense of belonging or community.
It is not surprising that trends such as Social Commerce today play a key role in the future of the cyber economy, especially among the new generations. Hootsuite analysis, for example, highlights that 53% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 24 prefer to buy through social platforms with video, than through traditional e-commerce sites, and a survey by Talk Shoppe found that 89% of Consumers trust product recommendations shared by creators they follow on YouTube.
Although still nascent, because in the United States the phenomenon of Social Commerce invoiced 36 billion dollars during 2021, less than 4% of all electronic commerce in that nation. Its true potential is immense, since in regions such as China the phenomenon reached sales of over 351 billion dollars last year, according to data from eMarketer.
Conclusion
So, more than just reading reviews or listening to recommendations from your close circle, digital consumers in the coming years will demand a new kind of experience. Purchase that is able to connect them with a community, often millions of people, who share their interests, tastes and passions.
