How do streaming and social media influence online purchasing?

In order to fully understand how social media and streaming platforms are influencing online purchasing behaviours it is necessary to look at the trends generated by these now dominant marketing and promotional tools and question why this influence has for some time become increasingly significant and tangible.

Although streaming and social media phenomena are relatively recent, the crosscutting impact generated on people’s consumption habits is there for all to see and deserves further consideration and analysis.
In fact, by observing the digital environment it is possible to notice how the role of social media and streaming apps has progressively changed, shifting their function  from ‘mere’ platforms that allow people to connect, interact and communicate online, to virtual ‘places’ where it is possible to search for information on products, evaluate alternatives or review the purchases made.

As shown by the research published by McKinsey, as early as 2016 the Taobao platform (Alibaba) has radically changed the concept of retail with the live commerce experience, thanks to which the direct connection between livestreaming and the eCommerce store allows viewers to buy in real time the product being shown. In 2020, for example, the first thirty minutes of Taobao’s Single’s Day campaign generated $7.5 billion in total transactions.

In our western world

According to the study conducted by the Influencer Marketing Hub, 50% of Twitter users said that they have purchased products as a direct result of tweets from influencers and 71% are more likely to buy a product based on their referrals. At the top of the special ranking of social media in terms of influence generated on online purchases are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Digitas.com, in particular, classifies Facebook as influencer of 52% of online and offline consumer purchases. In this respect it is worth analyzing the impact of the rise of TikTok for which the average time spent by each user on the platform increased by 325% over the last two years of pandemic, topping Facebook and YouTube. With its 1.65 billion users, the Chinese social video platform has become a fundamental crossroads for retail also in our western world and the Kate Spade case is an example of this. TikTok trends are capable of racking up millions of views that subsequently translate into significant increases in marketplace searches.

Streaming platforms and their influence on purchases

Similarly, streaming platforms – such as Netflix – have recently taken on a decisive role in online purchasing processes. The recent trends launched by TV series like Squid Game or The Queen of Chess resulted in a surge of purchases related to the items or products used by the main characters of the series which have already become cult faves. In fact, as is clear from an analysis conducted by Witailer, the impact of these TV series have seen Squid Game become the second most searched term on Amazon.it since the week of November 11 and sales of accessory sets and chessboards increase by a staggering 215%.

Conclusions

As emerges from the cases considered above, the trends generated by social media and streaming platforms are progressively changing consumer habits, making it all the more important for companies to create an effective and convincing social identity.
In particular, those changes are also manifesting themselves at a cultural level, in the growing aversion towards traditional advertising, in the emergence of new mechanisms of influence and, above all, in the consolidation of new media habits that are becoming increasingly widespread and decisive for the consumer.

Of this and lot more is what talked about with Connexia, Atoms and Witailer in our Webinar… watch the video!

(edited by the Editorial Staff, Gruppo Retex)