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The Rise of

Social Commerce
Key Takeaways
2020 was predicted to be a tipping point for Social ‣The corona crisis accelerated the rise of
prominence for Social Commerce

Commerce. What wasn’t part of the scenario:

a pandemic that forced a global population to stay home ‣Regardless of the current events, social
and concentrate consumption habits online.
networks matured and already invested in
end-to-end and commercial experience design

In just a few weeks COVID-19 uncovered a new and

irreversible reality for advertising and retail.
‣Asian behavioural trends and super apps will
inspire and pave the way for the rest

A new era in which Social Commerce is forced to evolve

faster than expected, but in the end can play a pivotal role.
‣Influencers expand their role from brand
collaborators to also sales aggregators

This report is designed to help brands understand the

necessity of a seamless and user-first Social Commerce ‣Momentum or not, Social Commerce can only
strategy and how to eventually win in this space. succeed when properly planned & executed
 1. Introduction

Table of

2. Planning
considerations

Contents 3. Execution & Growth

4. What’s next

5. Conclusion
Introduction

Social Commerce
Juggernaut social media platforms have Still, because of an abundance of choices today’s
matured and moved well beyond the top consumers are difficult to attract. Keeping them
half of the funnel, allowing consumers to locked in is even harder.

discover and purchase during a single in-app

session.
That’s why it’s important to find a proper balance
between the ‘obvious hard sell’ and making your
It is fair to say Social Commerce is gaining brand experience ‘stand out’ from the clutter.

momentum. Its contribution to overall e-

comm sales is significant and from a user This loud refocus on experience explains the
POV it offers a tailored solution for those rapid stream of social media platforms
who are starved for time and clearly display innovating, shapeshifting and crossing over with
an intent to buy. other touchpoints.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Introduction

Defining

Social

Commerce
For a better understanding and positioning:

Social Commerce is a subset of e-commerce

and more broadly retail. It’s the evolution and
maturation of social media meeting shopping.
Essentially allowing a transactional relationship
to take place between customers and sellers,
enabled by social media.

Example of Instagram’s Shopping and Product Tags

 THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Introduction

“ Facing &

embracing

a new

“ What’s happening today isn’t just circumstantial, COVID-19

heralds an inevitable and palpable shift in consumer behaviour
that will change the face of both traditional and online retail.

Although it’s too early to be definitive, studies have predicted that

in the UK, for example, 40% of all physical retail may move online
following the pandemic: that’s a 20% increase. In gravely affected
countries such as Italy, 35% of the population have reduced their
reliance on conventional retail and OOH consumption.

reality This boost of online presence unlocks an opportunity for Social

Commerce to break through, faster than initially thought. But it
also exposes challenges; Social networks will need to gear up
R&D while the biggest change needs to come from advertisers.
From large corporations to SMB’s, all businesses face the
pressure of rethinking strategies in order to fit into this post-
pandemic retail landscape.

Source: Nielsen, 2020

 THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Introduction

A logical
breakthrough
Rest assure, even without the disruptive COVID-19 events Social
Commerce’s rapid rise in prominence is a no-brainer. When it
comes to purchasing products and services social media’s ever-
55%
evolving influence is unrivalled. Multiple sources have
of people bought a product online
after discovering it on social
forecasted that Social Commerce will contribute 5-7% to
retail sales globally by 2022.

In addition to that, Social Commerce has already proven its

potential in certain key markets. With Asia gradually becoming
the barometer for the global consumer’s pulse, it is safe to say
that the success of fully integrated super apps such as
WeChat will pave the way for the rest of the world.
Example of Instagram’s Shopping and Product Tags

Source: Kleiner Perkins, 2018 Internet Trends

THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Introduction

Social networks

already stepped up
Mass reach platforms like Facebook and Instagram are
constantly innovating and have already weaved Social
Commerce features throughout their design. Other emerging
niche and visual players such as Pinterest, TikTok and
Snapchat are also increasingly developing options that allow
consumers to act on their impulses. For advertisers these
significant platform updates help them to think and move
beyond siloed digital marketing approaches and operate from
a single end-to-end environment.

Example of Pinterest’s Visual Search feature

Planning
Social Commerce is a ‘hybrid animal’, definitely not

considerations
suited for rigid structures. This means your organisation
needs to be flexible and responsive to consumer trends
before implementing it.

We believe this new way of retail must be thought and

developed around five key dimensions:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Design
Tap from data &

Harmonize
Create an
Deploy the power

immersive
analytics to map out
brand building & omni-channel
of influence to boost

& seamless
personalised

performance strategy conversion

experiences journey
 THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Planning considerations

Brand Building & Performance

Don’t operate in marketing silos but instead construct
synergy between Social Commerce and brand building
tactics, each enhancing the other.

This will help you to leverage the correlation between

short and long-term effectiveness and create relevance
for the consumer.

Brands with a stronger salience and online presence see

a higher response rate from their activation channels.

Source: Media in focus - Marketing effectiveness in the digital era, 2017

THE INSIGHT

1700

Awareness
Awareness

campaign
1275

campaigns can
influence an uplift
850

on commerce 425

platforms 0
Week 25 Week 27 Week 29 Week 31 Week 33 Week 35 Week 37 Week 39 Week 41 Week 43

A recent seasonal campaign for a clothing
brand clearly illustrates a positive
correlation between effective brand-
building tactics and Social Commerce.
The awareness layer of this campaign
triggered an increase of the volume of
users looking for the brand’s products on
Amazon.
Translating this into results, we noticed
that the conversion phase of this
campaign booked a return on ad spend
(ROAS) which is 40% higher than our
Ogilvy & Social.Lab benchmark for similar
activations.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Planning considerations

Omni-channel
We’re in an era where consumers no longer care where
they purchase. Today, the path from discovery to
Online purchase traverses across several channels.

eComm

site marketplaces

This is why brands design ecosystems that connect both

online and offline, as well as utilise partnerships and craft
CUSTOMER
omni-channel distribution mechanisms.

To win in this space thought, it’s important to be

Physical
Social consistent. Online shoppers - whether they’re your most
stores
media
loyal customers or prospects - expect this at each
touchpoint before moving towards action.
THE INSIGHT

An omni-channel
approach allows
you to bridge the
gap between online
and offline sales
Ogilvy & Social.Lab Belgium’s last Users living far from an IKEA were
Black Friday campaign for IKEA served an ad that allowed them to
helped bridging the gap between click through to IKEA’s eCom store.
online and offline sales. Based on Whereas users living closer were
previous campaigns it became pushed to visit a physical store.
clear that distance impacts footfall This lean but efficient omni-
in IKEA’s brick & mortar stores. We channel approach resulted in an
tackled this by clustering segments online ROI up to 3,5 times more.
according to POS distance.
 THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Planning considerations

Immersive & Seamless

Clicks on ads Website visits Product views Add to cart Purchases

Drop-off Increase Drop-off Drop-off Conversion rate

-21% +763% -93% -87% 7%

Recent conversion campaigns teach us that approximately
7% of social media generated link clicks results in actual
purchases. To move beyond the status quo and surpass this
conversion rate. we recommend to think immersive and
seamless first.
Source: Social Lab internal data, conversion campaigns, last 12 months
As content is still ‘king’, we see that immersive experiences
such as AR have the ability to stimulate purchases and
reduce dropping off, while a seamless and short conversion
path (i.e. simplifying and reducing steps) is proven to be an
efficient catalyst as well.
THE INSIGHT Example of Snapchat’s Visual Search product feature

Prioritizing
immersive content
and a seamless
customer journey
help triggering
conversion rate Over the last years social media
networks have been racing each
other to meet the end-user’s
shorter attention span by
developing immersive experiences
in order for them to engage,
explore and purchase.
While format innovation is one
thing, to overcome the increasing
trend of time scarcity the likes of
Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat
pivoted towards experience and
service design to make the
conversion path as streamlined and
consumer-friendly as possible.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Planning considerations

Personalised IN-DEPTH
UNDERSTANDING OUR
TARGET AUDIENCES

While touching on the topic of user relevance, it’s crucial for

brands to understand that Social Commerce efforts should always LIFESTAGES
address the target personally, but not too intrusively.

ATTITUDES

Advanced understanding of what tickles the audience’s senses MINDSETS

and tailoring of the content based on those insights will help BEHAVIOURS
reduce media waste and guarantee a pinpointed message delivery.
INTERESTS

TRENDS
This is why having a solid data gathering structure in place and
maximising implementation is of utmost importance.

KEY TRIGGERS FOR HYPER

RELEVANT & PERSONALISED
CONTENT
THE INSIGHT
For a daily deals eCom brand
Social.Lab South Africa revised the
always-on performance strategy
Data informed and and added a higher level of
personalisation. They analysed the
personalised behaviours of the client’s site
visitors and identified a wide range
creative executions of behavioural segments in those
who had previously bought. For
are key distribution the team leveraged
cornerstones for social as lead channel and Search
and Display ads for support.
powerful
decrease cost per sale.
campaigns
Source: Social.Lab South Africa internal data
For each segment there were
different custom creative
executions, and for each moment
spent with that content on a
particular day, the creative was
further dynamically adapted to
remain relevant. By personalising ads
based on actual behavioural data and
leveraging Facebook and Google’s
dynamic solutions the team was able
to surpass Click-through rate (CTR)
and ROAS targets and significantly
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Planning considerations

Influence
We notice a shift from the one-dimensional way
brands leverage influencers. The outdated product
placement tactic has given way to a more full funnel
approach.

Nowadays advertisers line up their influencers as

content creators and curators in order to maintain
authenticity and credibility.

But more and more influential people contribute to

the decision process and even spark the last click. Big
social platforms are increasingly empowering this
with influencer shopping features and check-out
possibilities,
Example of Instagram’s social commerce solution for creators
THE INSIGHT

Several initiatives
and new formats
were brought to life
in order to
maximise the role
of influencers

Instagram made it possible for selected creators and influencers to

team up with brands and offer products for purchase without leaving
the app.
Execution
Success in Social Commerce isn’t just about adhering to

& Growth
strategic building blocks. It also relies on good media execution.

To drive business impact, Social Commerce Strategies need

high quality media execution that seamlessly drives growth and
incremental conversions instead of just focusing on cost-
efficiency.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Create a funnel

Test,
Define and
Think (and look)

based strategy
Deploy auction
re-test
refine the
Beyond

leading to
best practices
and test again audience ROAS
eCom
THE TACTIC AWARENESS

Create a funnel-
based strategy CONSIDERATION

leading to

eCommerce
SALES

The key principle of this customer-centric approach is re-engagement. 


In this Ogilvy & Social.Lab Belgium example for Vans the audience is
continuously filtered from stage to stage based on social engagements.

For instance, only people who engaged with the Awareness content will be
targeted with Consideration content and eventually Sales assets.
THE TACTIC

Test,

re-test

and

test again
Format test: 
 Image test: 

Story vw Feed Ad product vs inspirational focus

An essential tactic. For our Social Commerce projects we are able to run more
than 50 different A/B tests over the course of a year. Relevant parameters can
be: formats, targeting clusters, platforms, placements, call-to-actions, how
products are visually displayed in ads, the performance between static and
dynamic content, to mention a few.
THE TACTIC

Unlock new customers Lean on similarities

Define and

Brand /

refine the audience

New
eCom Lookalikes
Prospects
Engagers

Analyse your customers and

Unlock new customers
find new interests to target

When crafting a tailor-made Social Additionally, it won’t help your business

Commerce driven strategy,
interest, demographic and
behaviour-based targeting are key
building blocks. You will need to
find the ideal balance between
broad and niche targeting.
to grow when you keep fishing in the
same pond. Social platforms’ ad
solutions are designed to discover
‘lookalike’ audiences based on
similarities with your existing customers
and loyalty databases.
THE TACTIC THINK
ALGORITHM

ONGOING LIQUIDITY
The shorter the campaign Give your campaign the space
Deploy
flight, the bigger the chance of and verticality to perform.
underperformance Platforms Select sufficient placements,
auction best
need time to reach the ideal use automatic optimisation

practices user. Thus, focus Social

Commerce efforts on longer-
possibilities and don’t narrow
targeting clusters too much.
term, ongoing campaigns.

UPDATE YOUR

DON’T FEAR A
CREATIVE ASSETS
HIGH FREQUENCY Because you will increase ad
In order to reach your target frequency and reach users
and trigger sales, Facebook, as through different placements,
an example, needs to reach a you need to make sure to have
user several times.
a suite of diversified creative
A high frequency is totally assets. This will help avoiding
justified as long as it meets fatigue among your audience.
and surpasses KPIs.
THE TACTIC

GROWTH
Think (and look)
Prospects

People interested in the brand

beyond ROAS

ROAS
for measurement
Existing customers

When Social Commerce From a transactional point of view,

becomes a bigger priority in your
overall strategy you should
measure efficiency by looking
beyond return on ad spend
(ROAS).
we believe marketing efforts should
be aimed at driving growth.
Therefore, the KPIs should be
adapted to measure incremental
growth, which isn’t possible by
focusing on ROAS.
THE INSIGHT

Why ROAS doesn’t

always reflect
campaign impact 413

actual sales vs

229 tracked sales

For premium decoration brand Baobab Collection, a Social Commerce

campaign was the only communication stream to sell a new product.
The volume of actual sales was almost twice as high as what FB tracked,
indicating how ROAS isn’t representative of the total campaign impact.
What’s next? The quality of experience design can either help a brand to get
ahead of the curve or send it to the back of the queue behind its
competitors. From our point of view, success in Social
Commerce is built by combining functionality, an excellent user
experience with with creativity and playfulness.

Across the social landscape there are interesting cases of how

the platforms are enabling fluid and seamless transactions.

In the following pages are some examples we believe that can

make a direct and/or long term impact.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I What’s next?

Facebook Pay
Facebook is introducing Pay, which will provide
people with a convenient, secure and consistent
payment experience across its cluster of apps:
Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I What’s next?

Instagram Checkout
Instagram geared up in the commerce race by
offering its users a 2-step purchase option without
leaving the app. The Checkout feature is still in beta
and made available for influencers in selected
markets. In addition to that, Instagram also aims to
bridge the gap between online and offline by
offering QR codes that lead directly to Checkout.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I What’s next?

TikTok in-app buys

TikTok is also jumping on the bandwagon of Social
Commerce and has introduced a way for brands to
monetise on the platform. Users can now purchase
items that are marked with a sponsored hashtag.
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I What’s next?

WhatsApp Catalogs
Small-sized businesses can showcase and share
their goods, so users can browse and discover items
they would like to buy. Currently this solution is only
available in large-scale markets.
Conclusion
Social Commerce has become the new impulse A lot of businesses - small or large - already have an omni-channel
aisle and, some would say, the new shopping mall. set-up available. Still, it remains siloed and not integration-first.
Still, the biggest - and most urgent - constraint for This requires extra staff and increases costs.

Social Commerce’s breakthrough is untangling the

level of fragmentation in retail marketing.
These efforts could and should be re-allocated to experience. Both
existing consumers and prospects won’t settle for less than a
From a channel point of view, there is an overload seamless experience when purchasing products and services,
of choices: D2C sites, e-retail or physical stores. preferably in a single session without many detours.

And, while this broadens the variety for the end

user, it doesn’t contribute to agility and impacts This is why we believe Social Commerce can fill this space to meet
organisational structures. time-sensitive consumer demands and tackle these fragmentation
challenges. The margin for platform innovation and perfection is
big, the momentum even bigger.
“
THE RISE OF SOCIAL COMMERCE I Conclusion
DEFINE AN
Checklist
Implementing a successful Social
Commerce strategy requires efforts and
investments that depend on your
objectives and the scale of your
activities. Still, there are a few quick wins
that can be integrated and adjusted on
the spot and, without any doubt, will
contribute to an efficient Social
Commerce strategy.
HAVE A PIXEL
INSTALLED
The holy grail for tracking,
optimisation and reporting.
Pixels are pieces of code on
your website that collect data
and help you to see how your
social ads contribute to
conversions.
MAINTAIN YOUR
PRODUCT CATALOG
Social Commerce formats
that enable you to directly
purchase in the platform rely
on a product catalog that
should always be current and
aligned with your supply chain.
ATTRIBUTION MODEL
An omni-channel approach to
drive sales requires you to
define an attribution model to
measure the impact of each
individual channel.
MAP OUT RELEVANT
AUDIENCES
Define in advance who you
want to reach and re-engage
throughout the campaign by
creating the right
segmentation structure and
verify these audience sizes.
Get in touch

luca.defino@ogilvy.com