THE SOCIAL COMMERCE REPORT: Inside the fast-developing opportunity to reach billions of consumers' wallets using social platforms

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Social media's immense popularity and influence have built a huge potential audience for shopping through social platforms. Global internet users spent an average of 142 minutes per day on social media in 2018, up from 90 minutes in 2012, according to a report from GlobalWebIndex cited by Digital Information World.

This has made social media a major influence on consumers' purchasing habits, with 36% of US internet users saying social networks have become as important as other information sources for making product choices, up from 27% in 2015, according to a survey from GfK cited by eMarketer.

As social media's influence grows, social commerce is becoming an increasingly important channel in online shopping. Consumers have used social media to learn about products and brands and find inspiration for over a decade; the term "social commerce" was introduced by Yahoo! in 2005. But in the past few years, platforms have been working to eliminate the friction of buying a product elsewhere after discovering it on social media by adding buy buttons and digital wallets, for instance, so users can make direct purchases.

In The Social Commerce Report, Business Insider Intelligence estimates the current size of the social commerce market, forecasts its future growth, and examines why its growth has been stagnant so far - as well as why that's set to change. We also look at the top social media platforms' social commerce offerings and analyze the future of each company in the space.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, BHADgoods, BigCommerce, Calibra, Depop, Facebook, Instagram, Kylie Cosmetics, L'Oréal, Pinterest, Poshmark, Nike, Samsung, SeatGeek, Snap, Venmo, and Walmart.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Growth in social commerce adoption has ground to a halt in recent years due to concerns about the channel's safety and legitimacy.

• But adoption and usage are set to pick up thanks to social media's popularity, its influence, and social platforms' improved commerce capabilities.

• Top platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat have upgraded their commerce offerings in the hopes of becoming shopping hubs as social commerce takes off.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the value of the US social commerce market over the next five years.
• Examines the obstacles and growth drivers for social commerce adoption and usage.
• Covers the commerce features being introduced by Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat and discusses their various strategies, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Looks at companies with different involvement in social commerce including marketplaces and payments platforms that use social tools and how they fit into the social commerce market.

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