Homegrown custom personal computer builder Aftershock PC and smart home appliance retailer Prism+ are two of the many companies leveraging social commerce to strengthen their brand recognition and sales.
Aftershock managing director Marcus Wee says the company — an Internet native with 80% of its sales made online — is exploring new platforms such as TikTok to expand its brand reach. It has proven to be a very effective and fruitful experimentation, as the company has seen effective engagement with its customers on the platform.
“At the beginning, it was unclear whether it would make a difference. Today, it is proven that the leap of faith we took to penetrate the TikTok platform has been very fruitful. Our customers love being able to engage with us through the sessions where they can get exclusive promotions and discounts,” says Wee.
As of December 2022, Aftershock’s official TikTok account has over 105,000 followers and 1.6 million likes across the videos it has posted since its establishment.
Similarly, Prism+ has benefited from establishing a relationship with TikTok, with over 13,000 followers and 89,000 likes across its published videos. Prism+ founder and managing director Jonathan Tan says the company see strong results with the platform, as its social media team constantly experiments with different ways to make its brand and products go “viral”.
“Social commerce allows consumers to see the faces behind our brand, interact with us in real-time, and discover more about our products without leaving the comfort of their homes. As a challenger brand, we believe there is an opportunity to do things differently, to have a more irreverent voice and talk directly to consumers, and to have them respond to us. TikTok has been a great partner in this regard — their powerful live-shopping platform allows us to combine product discovery, brand building and sales,” Tan adds.
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Wee acknowledges that there are challenges to running its social commerce strategy. For one, it is much more difficult for big-ticket items like personal computers to be bought and sold via live sessions than fast-moving consumer goods. This is why the company has a combination of online and offline strategies — after seeing the products on the live sessions and asking questions on the app, customers can visit its showroom to see the products in person and get more guidance if needed.
Another challenge is maintaining a full-time team that can consistently upload content and run the live sessions, which can be quite demanding as it requires much time and effort. However, Wee says it is a worthy investment and is optimistic that social commerce remains a significant opportunity for the company to tap into.
