Selling online? Ecommerce changed the way businesses sell products, and social media continues to transform the online selling process. According to some estimates, 94% of U.S. adults have purchased something online in the last 12 months. Selling online cannot be ignored.

What is social ecommerce? Social ecommerce started with integrating features into online stores that provided a "social" aspect to the buying process, such as making it easy for people to share a link directly to a product on their personal social network feed. But social ecommerce keeps evolving. Here are some features of social ecommerce:

Hyper Personalization

Social ecommerce is able to deliver more personalized shopping experiences to users using various types of technology, including cookies or small pieces of code that is added to people’s browsers when they visit your online store. Personalization includes everything from greeting a shopper by name once they register, to showing some of the recent products they perused on your shop’s home page on their return visit. Think of these features as the digital version of a salesperson greeting a shopper and remembering what they were interested in during their previous visits.

The "Zero-Click Journey"

Top social networks, including Facebook and TikTok, have embedded online selling tools directly in their platforms. Their goal is to keep users from clicking links and leaving their sites for your store. Your goal should be leveraging this seamless way of selling and being able to reach not only your followers but potentially other users on the network. Social ecommerce keeps the shopping cart and check-out process right on the social network.

Influencer and Microinfluencer Shops

An early way online sellers promoted their products beyond their store was through affiliate marketing where they could provide customized store and product links to others who would act as online resellers. Those affiliate marketers would earn a small percentage of each sale. These days, those resellers are now microinfluencers and influencers who don’t have their own products, but they can set up their own online stores featuring products from other sellers. This type of shop is especially popular on TikTok.

Livestreaming Product Demos and Shoppable Videos

Video attracts attention online, and livestreaming videos can bring more shoppers your way. You may already be making product demo videos, but consider livestreaming product demos. Most of the major social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest let you add clickable shoppable links within videos you upload to their platforms. These shoppable links can also be affiliate links for others to embed in their videos.

AI Agents

The next big changes to social ecommerce will inevitably involve artificial intelligence. In fact, AI is already being integrated into online shopping platforms. Think of the main steps of online shopping - discovering products, researching those products, comparing prices, saving products either in a shopping cart or liking them for future consideration, and making the purchase. AI can create more streamlined and personalized experiences during these steps, from product discovery, curation, price comparisons, and recommendations handled by personal AI-powered shoppers to real-time customer service any time of the day or night.

If you have an online store, you may find it challenging to keep the latest social ecommerce trends to see what can work for you. Some things to consider before you adopt new social features for your online store include:

1. Budget - Is it something you can afford now or is it worth the investment for a future return?
2. Functionality - is the new social feature something that your customers and prospects will find useful, or will it be a distraction?
3. Compatibility - Is the new feature something that is compatible with your current ecommerce setup? New features rolled out by the shopping platform you use might be easier to integrate than a third-party solution.

As you can see, social ecommerce continues to evolve as social media technology evolves. If you are selling online, making your online store more "social," could bring you more potential sales.