Shopping, in its traditional sense, has always been social. Whether it's negotiating with the seller, talking to the sales associate in the store to get help with sizing, or going to the market with friends and family — it involves interacting with others.

💻 In the beginning, e-commerce simply meant the digitization of buying and selling. We can trace this back to the early 90s when retail giant Amazon started. 

However, in the past few years, we witnessed the popularization of social commerce, which began in China and is being replicated to varying degrees of success all over the globe. 

🛍 Social commerce. It's a form of e-commerce that leverages social relationships and the platform economy to provide and generate additional value for buyers and sellers.

Social commerce does not only involve selling products through social media. In fact, it is much more segmented than that! It includes:

• Social platform commerce
• Live commerce
• Conversational commerce
• Group buying

‍

💰 The numbers. In SEA, social commerce is estimated to contribute to $42B USD in GMV. 

• The largest contributor to social commerce remains social platform commerce at $34B USD. This is followed by live commerce at $13B USD and conversational commerce at $12B USD. 

‍

💄 All about beauty! Beauty brands are by far the most active category selling using social commerce in SEA.  

• This is followed by electronic appliances and fashion & apparel. 

‍

😀 Consumer decision. The barriers to creating content is low while the impact generated is high!

• Users report that influencers' impact on their purchasing decision is up to 72%. 
• Social proof can be a key driver behind the success of social commerce, specifically within social platform commerce and group buying.