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How to sell directly through Social Media

This PSFK guide is a social commerce report to help retailers and brands explore an expansive social landscape and begin experimenting with the various buying and selling formats.

Executive Summary

As social media takes a more central role in people’s lives as a way to connect and share, it has become arguably the most important channel for retailers and brands to raise awareness and drive action. As these tight knit communities grow in both influence and size, their evolution has seen them go from places to participate in conversations and build a following into marketing channels and de facto front doors to the wider online experience. More recently, however, the addition of new commerce tools and capabilities has transformed them into valuable storefronts to facilitate sales, meaning that users on popular platforms like Instagram and Pinterest can now discover a product and purchase directly within their feeds.

Report Overview

It’s an exciting time for retailers and brands to explore the expansive social landscape and begin experimenting with the various buying and selling formats. This is where a growing majority of consumers, particularly those in the younger demographic, are spending their time and attention and increasingly their dollars. This social commerce report provides six trends-led strategies highlighting innovation in the media space.

What You’ll Learn In This Report

  • How platforms that are eager to monetize their users and create opportunities for brands to engage their target audience are rolling out a host of new features from shoppable content to live streamed events that combine education and social interaction with native shopping carts and checkout.
  • New social commerce features help influencers of any scale to generate incremental income through affiliate links, transforming any casual fan or brand ambassador into a valuable sales channel.
  • How brands and retailers are also testing out ways to bring the social aspect of in-person shopping onto their own digital platforms with tools that allow groups of friends to shop together from anywhere.
  • How the mainstreaming of massively multiplayer games like Fortnite and Roblox has opened the door to an expanded marketplace for digital goods and the creation of immersive, virtual environments for shopping online.

What’s In This Report?

To help our community of retail insiders better understand how to sell through social media, PSFK has identified 9 key strategies.

This social commerce report includes:

  • Six trends within this report highlighting innovation in social commerce
  • 32 best-in-class examples from organizations leading the way through innovation
  • Learnings from social media activations, that can be applied to any industry

Who Prepared This Report?

This social commerce report was developed by the same PSFK research department that since 2004 has provided trends-led innovation consulting advice to Apple, BMW, Facebook/Meta, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Volkswagen.