Shopping Gets Social
By Monica Tailor, head of digital at McCann Manchester and LIVE at McCann UK
There’s no doubt that social platforms play a huge role in the lives of people everyday but its influences on the shopper journey is often not cited. With global lockdowns affecting how we shop, social has started to step in to deliver some of that joy of shopping we are missing from a visit to the high street.
Social engagement permeates our lives at all times of the day and in all locations., meaning social platforms have become our go to for entertainment, brand discovery, connection and escape.
According to Global Web Index 27% of people discover brands through Social, topped only by Search Engines at 37%). If we dig a little deeper we discover that 42% of people use social to research products before going onto buy. So, when we consider if we are likely to buy directly on these platforms? It’s inevitable for some products (but not all). Where products don’t need a high level of research and are often single product baskets such as clothing the new functionality that’s likely to arrive in 2021 could be a game changer.
So, more features and functionality like live stream shopping, Facebook Shops and Instagram’s latest push on shopping all means that we’ll see that path to purchase having fewer clicks and more sales directly from social.