Why influencer commerce is not next, but now
“Good marketing talks about the buyer, bad marketing talks about the seller” – Simon Sinek
Imagine yourself going to your regular favorite grocery store, the one that spoils your senses. The one with perfectly lit spaces, color-coordinated product placement, fresh smell of ground coffee and bakery, with just the right music on the playlist, even to the smallest detail that all choreograph to provide the right vibes and build that familiar shopping experience for you.
Now imagine what their website looks like? will it match the experience? I doubt so. The absence of senses what makes it harder to make people buy things online (despite other technical difficulties like delivery problems and in some countries a secure and convenient payment system).
Social media's role in online shopping experiences
We all know that social media platforms have a global audience of billions and since the start of the pandemic, 70 million people have become digital consumers. It’s the pandemic that finally provokes their senses and pushes that button to buy their product online. The Pandemic reformed the way we do shopping in so many ways.
Facebook & Bein company predicted by the end of 2021, the SEA population of 15-year-olds and above will be digital consumers by the end of 2021. This region also saw online retail penetration projected to grow 85% YoY by end-2021. This will take us to a gross merchandise value of around $254bn in Southeast Asia in five years. From the discovery stage to purchase, most of the touchpoints that consumers use to search, discover and understand products are now online.
Social media has taken the center stage of our lives and our reliance on our devices fuels the addiction. We are now seeing social media platforms adapt as they became the one-stop-shop for real-time interaction, entertaining content, shopping inspiration. This is where the lines between app users, retail consumers, and content creators are getting blurred. Most platforms are evolving to facilitate social commerce so their users can buy products from third-party retailers without leaving the app.
The real power of influencer commerce
Before social commerce, we see influencers just as a part of brand exposure effort in extending the awareness of the product. The lack of attribution power to manifest the lower funnel success is troubling. Now, through social commerce, we see the introduction of hyper-personalized end-to-end shopping experiences built through collaboration with influencers.
In 2020 we saw Instagram launch their shopping tab as a way for users to explore products and get one step closer to the bottom of the funnel in closing the loop. Now we see the meteoric growth of TikTok which shows potential in activating collaboration with influencers.
With live streaming enabled within Instagram and Facebook, we expect to see an increase of mobile live commerce coming to our way building in collaboration with influencers in 2022. This is a big opportunity to cater to shoppers, retailers, and creators.
A great influencer that tells a story can transport your mind into thinking of you interacting and experiencing the product while watching them experiencing the product first-hand. They have the power to influence you just like how your favorite grocery store meticulously placed and arrange everything to provoke your senses and finally help them with the bottom line. As often heard happy consumers spend more. Influencer commerce brings those senses back for you to finally experience the interaction, beyond a simple product exposure in a form of endorsement. With social commerce capabilities, the friction that could lead you to abandon the purchase will be reduced. There is no need for you to switch platforms from social media to brand websites. Everything is a click away.
As brands build collaboration with creators for hyper personalised shopping experiences, consumers will feel it's more about them rather than the brand. The consumer will feel the need to be lulled by the influencer just like the way consumer retail spaces spoil their consumers. And this will bring consumers closer to the bottom of the funnel as well as help with quantifiable conversions.
Download our report ahead 2022: The Return to Why and read more.
At dentsu X we look for motivation in everything we do, for more explore our work.
Our team of experts deliver on experience beyond exposure, contact us today!
- SHARE
