53% of online shoppers favour Social Commerce owing to its affordability, transparency, and convenience: WATInsights

• WATInsights are periodically published reports based on primary research conducted by Recogn, the agency’s research division that provides consumer and business insights to its audience.
• This time, WATInsights looks at Digital Commerce.

WATConsult, an Isobar Company and hybrid digital agency from the house of dentsu India, has released ‘Digital Commerce in India - Social Commerce’, the 2nd report of WATInsights – Digital commerce series. The report by Recogn, WATConsult’s research division that provides consumer and business insights, explores the consumer sentiments and attitude towards using social media platforms for shopping.

Currently, there are 157 million social commerce shoppers, which is 53% of the total shoppers in India. This number is expected to grow at a rate of 45% to reach around 228 million by the end of 2022. The combination of social media with digital commerce is seeing huge growth considering the benefit it brings to customers as well as businesses. For businesses, it brings cost-effectiveness and reach through digital marketing, as it connects them directly to their customers. At the same time, the recommendations and comments help customers make a buying decision. This ensures that products are offered at affordable prices with an ability to shop on the platform itself rather than switching to other e-commerce apps or websites.

As per the report, most consumers use social media apps like YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram to shop online. Apart from YouTube, the younger customers prefer to shop on Instagram and Facebook, while the older customers prefer to shop on Facebook and WhatsApp. Social commerce users are very likely to make online purchases from ShareChat in the future. A large majority of these customers are thrilled with the concept of browsing through social media platforms and shopping at the same time, however, the shopping behaviour varies between males and females. Most male shoppers scroll through social media without any intention of making a purchase and if they end up making one, it's because the marketing campaign initiated by the brand has played a vital role in influencing the buyer. On the other hand, female shoppers specifically search for their preferable brand on the app to either know more about the product/service or to validate their final choice.

Social commerce is becoming popular as more and more Indian customers are moving online and discovering newer ways of shopping. Moreover, it includes a range of immersive shopping experiences, wherein consumers can buy customised products/services without switching apps.

Commenting on the latest issue of WATInsights- Digital Commerce in India- Social commerce, Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group said, “Social Media and E-Commerce are paving strong inroads in the regular Indian Internet users’ daily routine. Since the shopping environment on social media has ripened, there is huge potential to drive sales through these platforms. Hence, the need for an optimised system revolving around building customer trust and creating seamless experiences is critical. With the customer being at the core of these platforms, focusing on rich customer feedback in the form of comments, opinions, reviews, etc. will help brands cater to their audience effectively and improve their brand consideration and loyalty. This issue of WATInsights reports the pulse of today’s shoppers and serves as an invaluable resource for anyone who intends to demystify social commerce in India.”

Sahil Shah, Managing Partner, WATConsult added, “Shopping was, is & will always be social. Platforms, behaviour and mediums will keep evolving while more and more people will go online to shop. This report gives a deep view into what the current consumer behaviour is and highlights that social media in paid, owned and earned terms does get the maximum contribution across the funnel; especially where it matters the most, e-commerce.”

WATConsult’s research vertical, Recogn, in the past, has published many detailed and comprehensive pieces of research such as ‘Digital Diverse and Multilingual India’, ‘Voice Technology in India: Now & Future’ and ‘Instagram in India’, to name a few.