What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce is a newly-made-popular term and it is a part of E-commerce that involves using social media and online media that supports social interaction and user contributions that assists in making a decision for online buying and selling of products, services and other E-commerce transactions which result in generation of revenue or sale.

Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce (eCommerce) that involves using social media and other online interactive media to engage and influence in online buying and selling of products and services. It is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions. Some familiar technology tools categorised as Social Applications (SApps), Social Advertising (SA), Social Media Optimization (SMO), Customer Experience Management (CEM) that you may have seen in the front face of the website are Wish lists, User ratings, Reviews, Like buttons, Follow buttons, User Recommendations, Referrals,  Online Forums, Online Communities, Online Groups,  and so on. The concept of social commerce is defined as user-generated advertising content on social or e-commerce sites which helps shoppers influence and make an informed decision to buy. If 10 or 20 of your friends like something, wish to buy or have bought it, most likely, you are going to trust that product or service. This universe together is Social Commerce.

The technology today has widely extended the meaning and functionality of the area of social commerce and has expanded it to include the range of social media tools and content used in the context of e-commerce in various industry segments. Some useful examples of social commerce include customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals, social shopping tools, sharing the act of shopping online, forums and communities, social media optimization, social applications and social advertising. Some academic thinkers have sought to distinguish "social commerce" from "social shopping", referring to social commerce as collaborative networks of online vendors, and social shopping as collaborative activity of online shoppers. It is a good thought, especially, when we all know social commerce has arrived!