The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in association with META, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is conducting a national drive to train the business community of the country to make optimum usage of social media for business purposes thereby promoting social commerce in India.
The current yearly turnover of social commerce is 8 billion dollars in India which is estimated to touch a figure of 85 billion dollars by the year 2030.
The sale and purchase of goods and services conducted through social media platforms is characterised as social commerce and particularly WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram because of their immense wider reach and strong user base are considered major drivers of social commerce in India.
The CAIT on Friday launched a National Training Campaign “ Vyapar Aapke Dwar” by organising a traders workshop on social commerce in New Delhi which was attended by trade leaders of more than 200 leading trade associations of Delhi.
Qualified trainers from META imparted training to traders about better usage of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reels to ensure growth in businesses.
During the campaign, CAIT has planned to organise 250 workshops in the country.
According to CAIT National President B. C.Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, currently in India, there are 75 crore users on WhatsApp, 37 crore on Facebook and 33 crore on Instagram which is larger number than e commerce landscape and having about 100 crore users of smart phone, the social commerce will emerge as a much larger digital commerce than ecommerce.
They said that social commerce is preferred becuse it has simplified shopping, scalable trust-building, smart curation, tools for sellers, unlocking new consumer segments, reimagining high value categories and building enablers for the social-commerce ecosystem.
They said that social commerce provides, micro, small businesses and entrepreneurs across India, a democratised gateway to discover new markets and serve their customers, along with building a professional digital identity for their business and that too without any cost.
The social commerce is bound to expand because it already has a large number of both sellers and buyers and the only thing which is needed is to make both these ends connected in a cohesive manner which is a easier way.
The CAIT will rope in its affiliates of more than 45 thousand trade associations all over the Country to carry the echoes of social commerce to every market of the Country.
“We believe that with the right tools to upskill themselves, traders across India can benefit from learning newer ways of growing their businesses since social commerce is one of the most cost effective business vertical, not only the retailers but even the consumers for sourcing their needs from reliable sources assuring them competitive prices and best quality of goods,” they said
As per an estimate,almost 77 per cent of consumers choose an enterprise that provides a great social media experience whereas four-fifths of social media marketers think customers will purchase goods more often directly from social apps than from the platform of brands or third-party ecommerce portals which is much significant for growth of social commerce in India.
