Oz Social Commerce Still On The Rise

Since social media platforms began adding purchase links to posts four years ago, millions of consumers have taken up the convenience and entertainment that comes from social commerce across social media platforms, making purchases on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest as opposed to traditional online stores, however, businesses are taking much longer to warm up to the online shopping innovation, despite its obvious success and feasibility.

As reported by the Australian Financial Review, the latest PayPal mobile commerce report has revealed 27% of consumers make purchases through social media channels, up from 18% in 2018.

However, despite 80% of businesses using social media in their marketing strategy, only 18% are selling or accepting payments through social media, and only 53% of those have plans to implement social media shopping.

That being said, businesses that do engage in social commerce report about 38% of sales through its social media channels, while about 33% of sales made online are done through mobile.

Optimisation for mobile payments exists across 60% of businesses; however, 73% of consumers make purchases using their mobile, revealing a discrepancy of 13% between businesses and their customers.

According to PayPal Australia managing director, Libby Roy businesses are chasing consumer demand during a relatively flat retail period.

“It’s imperative that retailers keep up with the change”.

‘Retail-tainment’ was highlighted as a driving factor for the rise of impulse purchases on social media due to people browsing for fun.

What isn’t fun, however, are 37% of consumers that are worried about sharing personal information on social media.

Similarly, 22% of businesses worry about the security of their customer’s information.

As with a majority of technological changes, the youth are driving the uptake, with 38% of Gen Z and 36% of Millenials making purchases through social media, as opposed to the smaller 20% of baby boomers who do the same.

Thanks to the rise of the Marketplace, Facebook has become the most popular social commerce platform with 83% of shoppers using the platform, with 34% using Instagram, and 12% using both Pinterest and Snapchat.

“What the research shows is it’s a trend that’s building – the numbers shopping on social commerce are now five times what it was two years ago, so it’s definitely a trend you can’t ignore.