S-Commerce: New Kid On The Block

After e-Commerce and m-Commerce let us say hello to S-Commerce! But what is it? 'S' stands for Social. S-Commerce is the use of social media platforms which help in driving e-Commerce sales rather than actually generating the sales for the company. Examples of S-Commerce range from customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals to technologies such as augmented reality, allowing shoppers to visualize apparel items on themselves and generate feedback through social media tools. Popular S-Commerce websites include Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. So the war is not limited to generating user-engagement on the websites but in order to prove the channels' worth to the advertisers, s-Commerce websites have to prove that the channel can generate the maximum assisted sales! Let us see how they measure against eachother.

Pinterest's reach isn't huge compared to plenty of other social platforms, but its impact on e-commerce is outsized, accounting for 23% of global social-mediated e-commerce sales in the second quarter of 2013. Pinterest's recent valuation at $3.8 billion suggests that a huge amount of potential is seen in the way the social network could bridge pins with purchases.

And even Twitter, which many thought would never drive significant social commerce, is overperforming, with a 22% share. Twitter will be the first among these companies to allow its users to make purchases via its platform.  American Express and Twitter recently announced a new deal that will let Twitter users purchase goods on the micro-social network. (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130211006286/en/American-Express-Syncs-Twitter-Unlock-Purchasing-Power) Here's how it will work :

American Express customers first need to sync their credit cards to their Twitter accounts. They can then tweet specific hashtags to buy American Express gift cards and products from Amazon, Urban Zen, and Xbox 360. AmericanExpress will reply via Twitter with a confirmation hashtag, and ask the user to confirm the purchase in a tweet.

Twitter, which has mostly relied on advertising for revenue, could now potentially have a new source of revenue, making it a now a bigger threat to the rivals than before. While Facebook's share of social commerce was higher than both Pinterest's and Twitter's in the second quarter of 2013, at 28%, the lead was slight and way under what its user numbers would suggest. Facebook has about five times as many active monthly users around the world as Pinterest and more than twice as many as Twitter.

While the rest of the 27% is divided among Google+, Tumblr and E-mail.

It remains to be seen how influential this will become, and which s-Commerce site will clinch the maximum share to surpass the other social mediums.

Dhruv Chopra

EBUS A | 12DM-054