Social media is not just limited to conversations and sharing of images and thou­ghts. Social commerce is fast catching up in India, with almost one-third of the users having transacted through the sites. India is a more socially savvy country and hen­ce has stronger growth pros­p­ects for social commerce, finds a study conducted by PayPal in Asian region.

The social network users have moved up from 168 million in 2016 to 258 million in 2019. The study found that one in three consumer respondents in India have bought goods and services online before.

Among the merchant respondents, 79 per cent sell through social media platfo­rms/messengers. Among th­em, 89 per cent sell thro­ugh Facebook, 83 per cent via Wh­atsApp and 41 per cent use Instagram. Even among the non-social selling merchants, 81 per cent are likely to sell on social media platf­o­r­ms in future, indicating the growth in social commerce.

“With digitisation, India is rapidly transitioning towards a digital, mobile-first economy. The very nature of social commerce inherently encourages greater digital payment adoption. Mercha­nts are seeing social media as viable business platforms and are open to exploring social networking sites to grow business and tap consu­m­e­rs,” said N Subramanian, dir­ector (growth), PayPal India.

Merchants use social media to access a larger consumer base. They believe setting up a business is easier with social commerce and almost half of them like to leverage their network of friends and relatives. Social commerce has also promoted digital payments.