Ecommerce Disrupted: Is Social Ecommerce the Future of Online Shopping?

A new breed of digital e-commerce platforms has emerged, challenging the dominance of e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon. Social e-commerce platforms – led by Shopify, BigCommerce, PinDuoDuo, and SEA Ltd. – have managed to gain a global foothold by introducing an improved business model relative to the incumbents. In this paper, we explore the reasons for the recent rise of social e-commerce. First, social e-commerce emphasizes the user experience, both in terms of the interface and an entertaining, often gamified, customer journey in a virtual mall environment. Second, unlike traditional e-commerce sites, or social media platforms, social e-commerce combines the benefits of both direct and indirect network effects while seamlessly integrating the complementors. Understanding best practices from top social e-commerce companies will help business leaders reimagine and reinvent their digital shopping experience in the future. This can pay dividends as social e-commerce is likely to be a force to reckon with in the future.