Did your business have to make significant pivots in 2020 in response to the pandemic-induced global shutdowns? As customers have become more accustomed to shopping online, all sorts of businesses have shifted priorities and offerings in order to meet new e-commerce demands.
Interestingly, the major social media companies have also been pursuing developments in response to the rapid rise of e-commerce. While many of the emerging options and functionalities have been expected or in the works for some time, the sudden changes of 2020 certainly accelerated their development.
What we are seeing is that in 2021, social media will no longer be just a means for businesses to build and engage an audience. With the introduction of new e-commerce features, social media platforms will become new competitive e-commerce platforms through which brands will be able to directly sell to their ideal customers.
Here are just 3 ways social media and e-commerce are expected to merge in the upcoming year:
Shops on Facebook and Instagram
Do you want your business to have its own digital storefront on the most widely used social media network ever? That’s now possible with Facebook Shops. (And as Facebook owns Instagram, there will be e-commerce opportunities for “Instagram Shops” too).
With this innovation, it’s now easy for businesses to quickly and intuitively build an e-commerce outlet, updating the familiar Facebook Pages for Businesses to now offer the capacity for customers to purchase directly through Facebook.
Facebook Shops is, in one sense, just an extension of the existing Facebook Marketplace, with more opportunities to connect buyers and sellers on the platform. But the new Shops is also so much more. As Facebook extends its worldwide reach and becomes a major player in large up-and-coming markets such as India, the company is positioning itself to become the essential global platform, opening up new opportunities for businesses featured on the site.
Experts predict we’ll soon see further developments of Facebook Pay, Facebook’s one-click alternative to Amazon for simple, seamless, secure payments. There should also be new Facebook Ads opportunities to highlight products and services that can be purchased immediately and directly from the platform.
Cross-Platform Ad Campaigns on Messenger 
Another significant new kind of e-commerce opportunity is expected to arise when Facebook finally fully rolls out the interconnectivity it’s been promising between Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram Direct.
This interconnectivity will make it possible to run cross-platform advertising campaigns and connect directly with potential customers. Combine to this mix the ability to pay directly on Facebook, and direct messaging will become its own highly personalized method for selling direct to customers.
Chinese E-Commerce Tools for TikTok
TikTok was social media’s blockbuster success story of 2020, as the platform grew from just 500 million users in December 2019 to nearly 1 billion. Following on the heels of Facebook’s plans, TikTok too will expand into e-commerce in 2021. However, TikTok has an advantage by being able to build upon current practices and achievements in China.
The local Chinese version of TikTok, known there as “Douyin,” has already experienced monetization success integrating in-stream purchasing capacities into the app. In fact, Douyin and Chinese customers generated $122.9 million in sales for TikTok in 2019, before the platform’s meteoric global rise in 2020.
Because of this success, TikTok is expected to integrate more of its Douyin features, including ranking top accounts in different categories and offering advanced business profile display options, all of which is expected to facilitate more e-commerce activity on the platform.
Want to learn more about how your business can take advantage of the latest social media marketing trends? Schedule a chat with our expert digital marketing team here at JXT Group. You can get in touch by calling 718-690-7302 or submitting our online contact form.
