Brief:

• Almost half (40%) of Canadians this year will shop on social media and mobile apps during the holiday season, in line with the 47% who currently browse and buy on social platforms, per PayPal Canada's first "Social Commerce Trend Study" released last week. The nation's social media users spend an average of $924 a year shopping on social media, the survey found.
• Canadian social media users spend an average of 6.4 hours a day on the platforms, and 46% of those users said they're more likely to shop on social this holiday season than last year. Platforms that draw the greatest interest for social shopping are Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
• About two-fifths (41%) of Canadian social media users said they're inspired by product and service recommendations from influencers. Almost two-thirds (62%) of social media shoppers in the country said holiday gift recommendations on Facebook and the like are more inspiring than those they see in stores. PayPal Canada surveyed 1,825 Canadian users 18 and older from researcher Logit Group's opt-in consumer panel.

Insight:

Social networks are becoming popular shopping platforms for many consumers this year as retailers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands add "Buy Now" buttons to their social posts to drive e-commerce sales. With users in Canada clocking more than six hours a day on the platforms, mobile marketers need to have a social commerce strategy in place to reach these consumers during the critical holiday shopping season. The percentage of North American retailers that use social media to drive e-commerce sales almost doubled from 17% in 2017 to 33% last year, per eMarketer data cited by PayPal.

Social media helps consumers to discover new products, with 78% of Canadian social media shoppers saying the platforms show them products they are interested in, but wouldn't have discovered otherwise. PayPal predicts social commerce in Canada will continue to become more popular as apps like Instagram and Snapchat help consumers find new products, while peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces such as Poshmark also lead to product discovery in formats preferred by social savvy consumers.

Convenience is a major draw for shopping on social media while performing another activity. Forty-two percent of surveyed consumers said they have shopped on social during a commute, while 32% have browsed these platforms during conference calls or work meeting. This segment of people incorporating social shopping into their everyday activities points to how marketers must capture users' attention with seamless, friction-free experiences.