Author: Steve King
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Accenture, a global consulting and services firm, predicts that social commerce will grow to $1.2 trillion in global revenue by 2025.
Accenture defines social commerce as:
“The integration of social experiences and ecommerce transactions in a single path to purchase, enabled by platforms.”
The Accenture chart below (click to enlarge) provides more details.
Social commerce, which is also called social selling, isn’t new.
The traditional direct selling industry (also known as multi-level marketing) has been around at least since the 1940s, with well-known brands such as Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay – all of which integrate social experiences of some form on the path to purchase.
But we agree with Accenture that social commerce is experiencing explosive growth thanks to the rise of ecommerce and social media platforms.
We’ve also seen in our research a surge in social commerce.
The MBO Partners State of Independence study series has found that the use of social media by independent workers (self-employed, freelancers, independent contractors, etc.) to find and sell to customers has substantially increased since 2014.
With the rise and continued growth of the creator economy – which is reliant on social commerce – we agree with Accenture that social commerce will substantially grow over the next few years.