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Social Commerce

Social commerce is a term that surfaced within the field of ecommerce congruent to the rollout of Web 2.0. All though it has no official definition nor a dedicated design, it simply refers to the correlation between social media and ecommerce. By influencing interactivity between users on social media through posts, reviews, and videos of product demonstrations, it can create positive influence and ultimately link them to an e-businesses official webstore to make a purchase (Huang and Benyoucef 2012). This represents a whole new sector of ecommerce called social commerce.

Top Social Commerce Platforms

Facebook

Unique Features

The viral nature of Facebook makes it easier for other users friends to see not only what they "like" but also what they purchase through the platform. So if someone buys a new dress through one of Facebook's storefronts, Facebook can show that to all of her friends. And those friends can like and share, or even buy, that same dress -- (although they may be better off browsing the storefront for a different dress). (Levy 2015)

Challenges

Current challenges Facebook are facing include, facilitating more conversion through the platform and not through the retailers website. This problem is related to majority of users using Facebook on mobile devices, where most retailers are struggling to convert sales. (Levy 2015)

Instagram

Pintrest

Services & Tools

References

(Huang and Benyoucef 2012) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2012.12.003 (Levy 2015) https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/07/27/facebook-incs-biggest-advantage-in-e-commerce.aspx