Chapter 9: Social commerce
Chapter overview
In Chapter 9, the focus is on zone 4 of the zones of social media marketing – social commerce.
This is a fairly broad zone as it can relate to any of the stages in the purchase decision-making
process. This is outlined in the chapter. The primary areas for social commerce are reviews and
ratings and apps that facilitate purchases via social media. Because of the importance of reviews
and ratings in social commerce, this chapter relates heavily to the coverage of influencers and
word-of-mouth (WOM) communications covered in Chapter 3.
Teaching tips and resources
To spark discussion on types of social shoppers:
• Ask students to share what apps they use and why and to explore other apps that
are available.
To explore the risk of social commerce fraud:
• Ask students to read stories about social commerce fraud and develop a plan that
they can use to protect themselves and others. To link this lesson to earlier lessons,
have students social publish their analysis and recommendations and spread the
word!
Learning objectives
When students finish reading this chapter, you will be able to answer these questions:
1. What is the relationship between social commerce and e-commerce? How are mobile
devices and software applications influencing the development of social commerce?
2. How do social shoppers use social media as they move through the consumer decision-
making process?
Chapter outline
I. The Zone of Social Commerce
• Our shopping companions, known among marketers as purchase pals, help us
to think through our alternatives and make a decision.
• Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce (i.e. the practice of buying and
selling products and services via the Internet). It uses social media
applications to enable online shoppers to interact and collaborate during the
shopping experience and to assist retailers and customers during the process.
II. Social Commerce: The Social Shopping Experience
• The section begins with an example of how digital shopping works.
• Figure 9.2 illustrates the social commerce and the customer decision-making
process.
A. Social Commerce and the Shopping Process
1. Shopping online is still shopping! The important decisions involve five key
steps as listed below:
2. Table 9.1 presents social commerce tools for purchase decision stages.
3. Participatory commerce is a subset of social commerce in which people
participate in the design, selection and/or funding of a product innovation.
4. ZMOT means the Zero Moment of Truth. It draws from the notions of First
Moment of Truth (FMOT), the moment a consumer chooses a product from the
store shelf, and the Second Moment of Truth (SMOT), the moment the
consumer uses the product and feels satisfaction or dissatisfaction. ZMOT
emphasises that consumers today may be influenced in several moments online
prior to making a purchase decision.
B. The Marketing Value of Social Commerce
1. Marketers will be influenced by social commerce activities whether they
chose to engage or not. That’s because the reputation economy in which we
live ensures that there is a publishing platform for individuals. We see
content creation increase with access to social channels and communities,
social software and digital devices.
2. Regardless of whether a brand is active, this content will be generated and
will be accessible by a search online.
C. Best Practices to Leveraging Social Reviews and Ratings
1. It is important to remember that users are reading online reviews because
they want to know what people like themselves think of a product. They
must be able to trust those reviews; if they can’t, the reviews won’t be
effective.
2. Marketers should develop a social commerce approach with these
characteristics:
• Authenticity
• Transparency
III. Social Commerce Strategies
A. Encouraging and facilitating UGC. There are several tools that are useful:
• Share tools: social software plug-ins that enable easy sharing of products sold on
a retailer’s website to social networks.
• Recommendation indicators: simple buttons that provide an onsite
endorsement of a product.
• Reviews and ratings: onsite reviews and ratings with tools for writing and
rating.
B. Social Promotions and Partnerships
1. In addition to leveraging UGC both through onsite tools and cross-platform
partnerships, marketers can also facilitate sales using sales promotions offered
through social deal partners and shopping carts in social vehicles like Facebook
and Twitter.
2. Marketers can partner with social shopping portal sites like Wanelo.
IV. The Psychology of Influence
• Psychology of influence refers to the factors that make it more or less likely that
people will change their attitudes or behaviour based on a persuasive message.
• Information overload is when there’s simply too much data for us to handle.
Satisfice means we expend just enough effort to make a decision that’s acceptable but not
necessarily the one that’s ‘best’.
• This process of using heuristics to simplify the decision-making process is
sometimes referred to as thinslicing.
• Table 9.2 illustrates social shopping tools and sources of influence.
A. Social Proof
1. When a lot of people select one option (e.g. a clothing style or a restaurant), we
interpret this popularity as social proof that the choice is the right one.
2. As more people jump on the bandwagon a herding effect can occur. Herd
behaviour occurs when people follow the behaviour of others.
B. Authority
Authority persuades with the opinion or recommendation of an expert in the field.
C. Affinity
Affinity, sometimes called ‘liking’, means that people tend to follow and emulate
those people whom they find attractive or otherwise desirable.
D. Scarcity
Scarcity is when we perceive something as scarce, we increase our efforts to acquire
it – even if that means we have to pay a premium for the item and buy it before we
would otherwise have wanted.
E. Reciprocity
1. The rule of reciprocity basically says that we have an embedded urge to repay
debts and favours, whether or not we requested the help.
2. Sampling is where a marketer offers a free trial of a product to consumers. The
free trial illustrates the relative advantage of the product, but it also creates the
perception of having received a gift in the minds of consumers.
F. Consistency
Cognitive dissonance is a state of psychological discomfort caused when things we
know or do contradict one another.
V. Benefits of Social Commerce
1. Enables the marketer to monetise the social media investment.
2. Solves the dilemma of social media return on investment.
Chapter summary
1. What is the relationship between social commerce and e-commerce? How are mobile
devices and software applications influencing the development of social commerce?
Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce (i.e. the practice of buying and selling products and
services via the Internet). It uses social media and social media applications to enable online
shoppers to interact and collaborate during the shopping experience and to assist retailers and
2. How do social shoppers use social media as they move through the consumer decision-
making process? Which social commerce elements should marketers employ to meet social
shoppers’ needs?
Social media users rely on social commerce in every stage of the decision-making process. Social
commerce is a part of e-commerce, and it leverages social media to aid in the exchange process
between buyers and sellers. Social media are sufficiently complex and broad to influence e–
3. How do ratings and reviews provide value for consumers and e-retailers?
Ratings are simply scores people, acting in the role of critic, assign to something as an indicator.
The rating may reflect perceived quality, satisfaction with the purchase, popularity, or some other
variable. Reviews are assessments with detailed comments about the object in question. They
explain and justify the critic’s assigned rating and provide added content to those viewing the
4. Describe the psychological factors that influence social shopping.
Research on the psychology of influence identifies six major factors that help to determine how
we will decide; these can be applied to social commerce. These sources of influence include social
proof, authority, affinity, scarcity, consistency and reciprocity. Social proof occurs when we can
see what others would choose or have chosen. Authority persuades with the opinion or
