Functionalities of Social Commerce used by SME during Pandemic

Abstract

Due to Covid-19 and to the lockdown enterprises are trying to find ways to continuously sell and promote their products even if their physical shops are closed. Online shopping has been increasing during the pandemic which helps enterprises to remain profitable. Social media are used as e-commerce channels from small and medium enterprises due to the lack of time, budget, and to their useful functionalities. This paper is addressing social commerce functionalities that are used from enterprises in order to remain competitive in the market during the lockdown. In this paper these functionalities are been evaluated and examined in order to find their advantages and disadvantages. The results of this evaluation were that the functionalities of social commerce can benefit SME during pandemic as they don’t demand physical contact which is mostly prohibited during pandemic, they are affordable, they don’t need much time to be implemented, and also the audience is already gathered and active on social media. However, enterprises should choose the most suitable function for them based on their product and their audience. Social commerce is proven to be useful as a selling channel to small and medium enterprises during the pandemic. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2022.sn11.30-44