The Future of Social Commerce and Content Creation Via AI

Social commerce may be a newish idea for U.S. retail brands, but it is a trendy marketing tool in China. How popular? Sales in China from social commerce platform purchases reached $363 billion in 2021. Compare that with the U.S., where social commerce sales were $36.6 billion in the same year. The trend is growing, however, and by 2025 those sales look to reach $79.6 billion, more than double the amount from 2021.

What’s driving the sales growth to that near $80 billion figure, and what technology will fuel it beyond the next two years? The future of social commerce and content creation hinges on a powerful two-letter abbreviation called AI.

Artificial Intelligence, or its two-letter acronym, is on the tip of every industry’s tongue, especially after the recent buzz surrounding ChatGPT. And with a Shure & Futuresource study indicating 40% of people identify themselves as content creators; if retail brands aren’t finding ways to utilize social commerce and content creation, they are missing out on a significant sales opportunity.

But how to do it successfully? What works in China may not work here in the U.S. Recent news from Meta’s Instagram platform that they were sunsetting their live shopping feature in mid-March indicates major brands are struggling with capitalizing on social commerce.

One company determined to change social commerce’s fortunes is Drop. Their mission is to build leading social commerce platforms for brands and retailers. Drop’s CEO, Benjamin Benichou, ‘dropped’ by this episode of Retail Refined to speak with host Melissa Gonzalez about what Drop’s up to and how it is bringing AI into the social commerce and content creation equation.

“If you’ve been in China or that part of the world, social commerce is way more advanced than what we have in the western world,” Benichou said. “We launched our company two years ago. We work with amazing brands and retailers to be at the forefront of social commerce. We help these brands sell more efficiently to their audience on Instagram, TikTok, and any other social media platform.”

On this episode, Gonzalez and Benichou discuss:

• The opportunities in social commerce
• Making social commerce and content creation on-brand, viable, and relevant
• The debate on copyrights and legalities around AI and content creation

“It’s definitely a polarizing topic, and we had a workshop with our legal team as well to understand what’s going on,” Benichou said. “If you create content using AI, do you really own this content, and can you send it to your customers?”

Benjamin Benichou’s ten years of experience in digital media, brand strategy, communication, and customer experience helped him create global campaigns for world-leading brands, including Nike, Adidas, ASICS, Warner Bros., Orange Telecom, ’47, and Microsoft. He is the CEO and Co-Founder at Drop, a tech company on a mission to empower brands and creators globally, leveraging conversational commerce to help grow their business.