Social commerce the trend to watch

Digital trend forecasters have been busy trying to identify where they see future business growth coming from as we emerge from the current global economic crisis. The aim is to look at ways of using digital marketing to maximize engagement levels and ultimately boost sales performance. One interesting trend on the rise is social commerce, which was already growing before this crisis, but is now a definite trend to watch. Social commerce, the merging of social media and e-commerce is now a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to leverage. It means that brands can now sell their products directly from their social media platforms. They are linking shoppable stories and blog posts, with social commerce plug-ins and apps, together with paid-for ads on social media, all underpinned by e-commerce. In the US, 36% of internet users now say that social networks have become important information sources for making buying decisions. So it looks like social commerce will continue to be an important trend to watch this year.