South East Asia's 350$ Million Social E-commerce Trend To Set The Standard In The U.S

By now, the majority of online shoppers in South East Asia have interacted with some form of Social E-commerce. This 350$ million trend just seems to keep growing, and although it’s already generating huge revenues for sellers and platforms, experts believe that it is still in its infancy.

Social e-commerce is a very wide term for various selling channels and opportunities that utilizes the aggregation of an audience on a single platform, whether it’s messaging app, a social media app, or a dedicated app. But the two most widely used forms of Social E-commerce are Live E-commerce (Live Streaming) and Group Buying.

As for the moment, Social E-commerce accounts for a massive 13% of online transactions in China, which amounts to a staggering 350$ million in GMV, comparing to a mere 4.3% and 36$ million in the U.S.

But, it’s more than just in China. With an abundance of social media and messaging apps in SEA, the trend is strong and clear across the region. Services such as Naver/LINE, Whatsapp, and KAKAO have an enormous user base in the region, and these apps already featuring in-house and third-party social e-commerce capabilities.

Right now, the momentum is clear and the trend is set, it’s a question of investors and entrepreneurs in the U.S to embrace and carry the message back home. With TikTok breaking the barriers from China, we can expect more trends to make their way east to west.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90683882/social-ecommerce-asia-trend