Social commerce sellers cite creating content for pages as top challenge

By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

Almost half of Filipino social commerce (social-first, commerce-second platforms) sellers said they struggle to create and curate content for their pages, a study showed.

A study conducted by logistics company Ninja Van Group and research firm Milieu Insight found out that social commerce sellers face the same operational challenges as anyone selling on other online platforms.

“However, social commerce presents entirely new challenges for sellers wishing to harness this platform’s potential for business growth,” Ninja Van said.

“Sellers turn to social commerce platforms for their already captive audience, allowing them to reach more audiences. Despite this, Filipino sellers remain challenged in creating effective content as well as chasing the ever-changing and often elusive platform algorithms,” it added.

Almost half or 46% of surveyed Filipino social commerce sellers said they struggle to create content, while 41% say they find it challenging to catch-up with the platforms’ algorithms.

Despite these, social commerce remains crucial for sellers as there are more customers available to target through it (48%), as it is easier to be known among their target audience through the platform (34%), and as sellers felt the need to diversify their sales channels (30%).

In the Philippines, sellers take advantage of social commerce by selling three categories of products: food and beverage, fashion, and beauty or personal care.

“Compared to the other markets, more Filipino sellers say that social commerce allows them to quickly find out if products will be successful or not,” the company said.

“This demonstrates social commerce platforms’ ability to capture audience interest in products not solely based on sales alone, but also on reach and engagement of product-related content,” it added.

Ninja Van in its white paper provided three tips to social commerce sellers which are: build content bank, build community, and build brand.com.

“Social commerce is here to stay. For sellers, the rise of social-first, commerce-second platforms opens up exciting opportunities,” it said.

“These platforms can expand sellers’ influence, turning strangers into friends, friends into shoppers, and even shoppers into enthusiastic salespeople,” it added.