In the current digital era, social commerce presents a magnificent opportunity for business success. In simple terms, social commerce facilitates buying and selling of products and services using social media platforms. It has progressed beyond merely showcasing products and services, now empowering brands to facilitate direct purchases through these platforms. This innovation enables customers to make transactions without navigating away from the social media app, further streamlining the shopping experience.

In one such recent development in social commerce, Cymbio, a provider of marketplace and dropship automation platform for brands, has partnered with TikTok to enhance its recently launched shopping pilot TikTok Shop in the UK. Cymbio's integration helps in embedding a brand's product data, inventory and orders to and from the TikTok in-video, live shopping offering. With the latest TikTok Shop app, merchants can build their stores and utilize in-feed content to engage users. It also allows users to shop directly from Lives, videos and creator or brand profiles. TikTok Shop has gained traction internationally, including in the UK as well as several parts of Southeast Asia.

In a time where the "Creator Economy" is flourishing and offering unprecedented opportunities, brands now have the chance to thrive by partnering with these creators to access new and diverse audiences. Within this dynamic environment, the role of social commerce becomes absolutely pivotal for brands to reach new audiences.

"By making it easier for customers to find and share information about products and by partnering with creators and enabling direct shopping on social platforms, brands have the potential to make the shopping experience more seamless and enjoyable," says Roy Avidor, CEO at Cymbio. "While it may seem challenging for brands to adopt entirely new strategies to make the most of social commerce sales, there are tools that can help."

In a time where the "Creators Economy" is flourishing and offering unprecedented opportunities, brands have the chance to thrive by partnering with these creators to access new and diverse audiences. Within this dynamic environment, the role of social commerce becomes absolutely pivotal for brands to reach new audiences.

Social commerce is the future

As more and more brands turn to social media to improve sales and customer retention, the market for social commerce is set to grow substantially. According to Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2022, the social commerce market size is expected to hit $1.3 trillion in 2023, a 30.8% increase from the previous year. Technology providers like Cymbio are set to gain from this market opportunity.

Social commerce is the future as it brings multiple benefits to brands. Social platforms provide brands the opportunity to create meaningful engagement with customers and build relationships that lead to future sales. It also helps brands better understand their customers and their needs, allowing them to target their audience and convert followers into customers more efficiently.

Social commerce can have a significant impact on the customer journey. Traditionally, the customer journey is a linear process that begins with the awareness of a product and ends with a purchase. However, social commerce transforms this trajectory. Through social media interactions, customers engage directly with brands, accessing different types of content such as product information, UGC and reviews, and making purchases all within the same platform. In TikTok, for example, there's a huge repository of reviews and UGC on items like beauty products, home appliances, kitchen gadgets, clothes, personal accessories and many more, which help users make prudent purchasing decisions.

Social platforms also help brands build more loyal customers and increase their reach and visibility to tap into new audiences. By engaging with customers on social media, brands can turn them into brand advocates and build a strong sense of customer loyalty to resonate with other potential customers. They also give opportunities for brands to gain deeper insights into their followers' and customers' preferences. This is especially beneficial for the retail industry where average retention rate is much lower than other industries such as banking, telecom, professional services, or media.

"With inflation and the cost of goods rising, it's more important than ever for retail businesses to retain existing customers, especially when the cost of acquiring new ones can be up to five times higher," said Avidor, while commenting on the benefits of social commerce. "Not only that, but social commerce can be used to offer customers and followers rewards and incentives, such as exclusive discounts or advance access to new products. All of this helps create a more positive and personalized customer experience, which in turn increases customer retention."

Cymbio helps brands thrive with social commerce 

Cymbio's digital commerce automation platform provides brands a centralized platform to manage marketplaces, drop-shipping and social commerce sales and operations.

Avidor highlights that Cymbio is the world's first brand-centric dropship and marketplace automation platform that now serves as the technology bridge for well-known brands such as New Balance, Balmian, Allbirds, Lacoste and others. Through Cymbio's platform, these brands are able to connect to over 800 retailers and marketplaces, including Macy's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Saks, Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Tiktok, Meta and many others.