Homework assignment- social commerce

E-commerce provides benefits to customers and companies such as online customers could reach large amounts of products and information. Online shoppers discover new products on websites and they post recommendations in order to give an idea to other customers. On the other hand, the impact of the social media on e-commerce cannot be always positive. For example, the “keeping up with the joneses” attitude can supply higher sales and increase revenue by 5%, however seeking distinctiveness can have negative impact on sales by 14%. Also, the other trend “minimalism” has attracted many people in these years by aiming to minimize purchase as a result of economic breakdown. Thus, social media sometimes affect people not to purchase

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Social media will have a wide impact on the entire retail environment. The rise of social commerce and social marketplaces will increase the online community aspect of shopping. Social media will become more integrated place and companies will provide to their customers to share with their social connections. Thus, these developments would enable companies to give their messages beyond their own website, reaching a much wider audience. Beyond the online shopping, social media will also play a role in the physical world of retail, with some companies incorporating social media into their stores. For these reasons, they would interact with their customers and their social connections effectively. Besides all these advantages and disadvantges of using social commerce, I believe that by using the right tools in the right way, companies can increase their profit with social commerce and decrease their costs. Companies should choose right strategies in order to benefit from in social commerce and shopping, because it is decision making step. Different strategies should be applied according to different products and target group of people. In the perspective of customers, people who do not have enough information about a product or service are eager to learn from other customers. Human psychology claims that people are interested to own what their friends have, whether they need it or not. Customers need to view the products and hear about them. I believe that social commerce is beneficary especially to inform other customers. Recommendations can encourage or discourage people easly to buy. Companies should be aware of this fact and encourage people to interact more for providing products and comments on the social media. Right social commerce strategies are vital for managers and future of the company.