Social Commerce’s Tipping Point

June 09, 2015 by Taylor Wiegert in Advertising, Future, Paid, Pinterest, Search, Social Ads, Social Commerce, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Facebook

Commerce on social channels is at a major tipping point. It’s going to succeed, or it’s going to fail. And we’ll know which soon enough. Commerce on social platforms is nothing new. Some brands launched storefronts on their Facebook pages years ago. For a variety of reasons, these never took off, and in today’s environment of Facebook tabs being deemphasized, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

Now, we’re entering the new era of social commerce as platforms roll out native commerce solutions. Pinterest now has Buyable Pins, enabling anyone to buy a product they see on Pinterest directly on the platform. Instagram is improving its ads by adding options for users to ‘Buy Now,’ as well as take other actions. Google is introducing a buy button in search results, while adding a click-to-shop CTA to YouTube videos. Then we have both Facebook and Twitter testing buy buttons of their own.

Social commerce is the new video. Everyone’s doing it.

The Race to Social Commerce

July 22, 2014 by Taylor Wiegert in Social Commerce

Social storefronts were once declared dead. Advertisers selling their wares through Facebook tabs found that they flopped and instead shut down their efforts. Now, it appears social commerce is making a comeback in a very big way.

The social battleground has been focused on TV as Twitter and Facebook go back-and-forth with each arguing that its platform is the place where social TV conversations are taking place and where the opportunity for advertisers and networks to engage TV audiences is ripest. However, the more interesting battleground may be in which platform can become the leader when it comes to commerce.