What Customers Want from Social Commerce

            Social Commerce is a relatively new form of shopping on the Internet via social media. Different social medias such as facebook and twitter now incorporate  “buy now” buttons that allow consumers to purchase products they like as they come across them on social media. This article describes the different methods of social commerce and what consumers want out of social commerce.

            The article begins to describe the different ways these different medias are starting to use social commerce. Twitter began testing their new “buy button”. Facebook has brands and companies that have pages on Facebook where followers can input their credit card information to buy products. Pinterest also has “buyable pins”. The only social media that is lacking in social commerce is Facebook owned Instagram. “Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, this platform's social commerce functionality is currently only available to select Facebook marketing partners.”(Taylor).

            The next topic in this article I would like to address is that of Convenience. The author discusses consumers’ need for simplicity. Everything happens on “the user’s time”(Taylor). “Consumers are always looking for easier ways to shop. PayPal, Google Wallet and Apple Pay have all simplified the transaction process for many everyday purchases, and social commerce has the potential to do the same.”(Taylor). It also allows for instant feedback on brands using social media.

            Another thing that I think is worth mentioning is the discussion of incentives to get users to buy products via social media. Just because there is a buy button next to a product on twitter will not make a user buy it. It makes it easier for the user to but the product more quickly ad efficiently which is kind of an incentive. “Companies should offer differentiated and custom promotions for social users, “ says Mike Roland, director in the customer experience practice of West Monroe Partners. Another incentive in the works is the # socialcurrency campaign. Users receive monetary credits in exchange for their media activity and fallowing.

            What I think the author could have better portrayed is “What Customers Really Want”. I believe this section of the article attempts to describe that users of social media don’t want to watch a sales pitch while scrolling through Facebook, rather they want it to be more organic. I’m not quite sure what is mean by “organic”, or how they present a brand or product organically. “Brands need to be able to reach social users in a way that is complementary to what the brand is doing if they want to succeed at social commerce.”(Taylor).

            Overall this was an interesting and educational article to read. I did not know social media sites were developing a way to directly make sales of products and brands. Now that I have a basic understanding of the concept I am excited to see what will become of this new medium of transaction.

Work Cited

Taylor, Nicole Fallon. "What Customers Want from Social Commerce." Business News Daily. N.p., 29 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.