With the continuing rise in 'shoppable' social platforms like Instagram and TikTok we're now starting to see how 'Social Commerce' is already disrupting the traditional eCommerce buying journey by tech, socially savvy consumers.

This means you can activate your consumers while they scroll, browse and buy with next-level convenience and ease, capturing them at peak interest as soon as they’ve seen your product — a marketer’s dream come true. 

The innovative in-app checkout feature allows users to store their payment information and make purchases in the app, while brands and businesses can sell their products directly to their target audience. 

I once worked on an early eCommerce project migrating a traditional home shopping catalog shopper from mail order to the online space. 

This was back in the day when there were few vendors in this space, let alone so called 'experts', and certainly no blueprint that said 'do it this way, not that way'.

As the fledgling online business started to grow, every day we added more users and shoppers. The way we had designed the websites actively encouraged a much higher AOV (average order value) than any other channel. 

We even included (before Amazon) a function that suggested items that other people had bought, all very innovative, and extremely exciting, until........... 

Following some research it seemed our previous 'mail order' customers wanted us to include a 'quick order form' - a legacy of how they shopped via the catalogue.

The implementation of the 'quick order form function' saw our AOV plummet by 34% and this was all down to reduced browsing activity. 

They would flick through the catalogues as previously and add the items to the basket, but a catalogue didn't have all those 'encouraging' features to 'buy more' as the websites did.

So, is 'social commerce' simply just another element of the funnel, or is it the destroyer of your AOV?