For years, social media apps have relied on eyeballs and clicks, but that no longer seems to be enough. Apps like YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram are adding e-commerce features in a big push to implement online shopping. Could this be a way to make money after Apple's ad tracking privacy change? And will this change e-commerce and shopping forever? Claire Tassin, Retail & E-Commerce Analyst at Morning Consult, joins Closing Bell to discuss. 

Closing Bell

What Does E-Commerce Push Tell Us About State of Social Media?

Welcome back to closing bell here on cheddar news Now social media apps have long competed for your eyeballs and your clicks but that no longer seems to be enough. Now, apps like instagram Pinterest and even youtube are all trying to cash in on e commerce as consumers buy everything from laundry detergent to smartphones to clothing online, joining us now is claire task and retail and e commerce analyst that morning council and clear what does this push into e commerce tell us about the state of these social media companies, I think it just shows us that these social media companies are trying to get their share of the pie in situations. Sociales push a lot of shopping content onto brand and e commerce sites so if they can keep users inside their own ecosystems while they're shopping all the better for the social media companies. All right now, each of these platforms has different functions and features as you know, so which one might be best when it comes to getting people to click buy. Now I think it's hard to pick one that's best at what I'm actually really enjoying watching from. My point of view is how all of these different apps are leveraging their strengths, whether that is using an ar an augmented reality lens to see how something might look on you. Like a Snapchat might be well equipped to do or someone like Pinterest, being able to save a lot of different product options and really leveraging recommendation technology or instagram who's, you know, baking, check out right into their app now so you can store your payment and shipping information so you can go from an influencers affiliate links straight through to check out without dealing with a broken link or kind of getting lost online on your way. So what advantages do these social media companies have that maybe amazon does not have? I think where these social media companies can really close the gap for a lot of brands that are trying to sell online, We know that most shoppers really prefer to shop in stores and the reasons why stores win out over online shopping are people feel like they trust brick and mortar more than they trust online shopping. It's more fun and you can really get up close and personal with products. So I think what social media lets you do is if you get a recommendation from a trusted friend or an influencer you really like or a celebrity that you don't, that you tend to trust, you might follow that more so than uh, you know, what you would just find if you're browsing online. Um, as well as getting a more sort of detailed look at a lot of products in that way. I think social can really close some of those gaps and, and help to bolster the online shopping experience that it's not really what we see on amazon. So ads still play a big part when it comes to online shopping. So does apple's privacy tracking play a role in any of this. I don't necessarily think it's a direct correlation, but we know that if shoppers are opting into shopping within social media, that can certainly be helpful to a lot of these social media companies as well because they can claim a share of that pie. So how does this strategy benefit users? I'm already seeing a lot of these shopping ads and also shopping features on ups. But how does it benefit me? What do I gain from this? Well, as a user and as someone myself who shops online and I say, you know, I do it for work, it is part of the job as a retail analyst. I do find it much more helpful when you're not dealing with trying to, you know, get out of one app and into another browser and links might be broken along the way. So it can make the process a bit more seamless. But I will also caution that it also makes impulse shopping a lot easier. So we've got to be careful in that sort of add to cart moment as you're kind of scrolling online late at night. So who is likely to be a winner in this space you think or is it too soon to tell? I'd say choosing to tell. Um I think right now Pinterest's approach is the one that is most similar to the way that people generally shop online in terms of looking at a bunch of options, comparing options, seeing what you know, algorithms might recommend to you and then eventually making a decision. I think apps like instagram and Youtube are a little bit more built for impulses based on others recommendations versus Pinterest is a little bit more self driven. All right. Claire Tassan, retail and e commerce analyst at morning consult. Thank you so much for being on the show.