by radhika sridharan and kamayani sadhwanithrough her smartphones chat app delhi homemaker deepti receives images of the rack shelf of household supplies at her local kirana store she messages back with the list of items she needs and pays for them through the upi link 30 minutes later the items are delivered to her doorstep in maharashtras navi mumbai cosmetics store owner prashant dsouza shares images of the latest herbal face creams on his customers messaging group and resolves all queries with regards to the safety and efficacy of the products within minutes the orders are in and the payments are processed digitally welcome to the booming world of social commerce where small businesses are using digital networking platforms and social media to promote and sell their goods and services with unprecedented success the recent bainsequoia report future of commerce in india highlights that social commerce a fastgrowing subset of online commerce has the potential to unlock opportunities for more than 40 million small businesses and sellers in the country of which only 1015 million are currently taking advantage of these channels advt the digital opportunitysocial commerce is primarily being driven by sellers and service providers who are making their first forays into the digital space these small businesses 85 of which are small retailers are representative of the majority that neither have the scale to list products or services on major ecommerce platforms nor the ability to shell out huge commissions to them however they are able to recognise the vast potential in adopting more digitalfocused approaches of doing business and the opportunity in seamlessly integrating into the digital lifestyles of consumers they make the most of their existing store resources and inventory and majority leverage store employees and local courier services for delivery social commerce is effective for them to increase reach and drive incremental sales through these platforms at practically no additional cost the majority of small business owners believe that social commerce has created 1520 incremental value for them as opposed to cannibalising their offline saleswith covid19 further accelerating the shift to digital several small businesses have adapted well to the new dynamic and rather quicklyfrom listing their products on social platform marketplaces giving video tours of their shops to closing transactions through messaging commerce has been happening in a way that is closest to digitally replicating the offline experience creating a new method of experiential marketingthe community multiplierthe efficacy of the social commerce structure has been further enhanced by networks of communities and their scaling effect a single message by a small seller shared by family members groups of friends and members of resident welfare associations can receive notable organic reach and create unforeseen prospects for new business this trend has been bolstered by the ecosystem through digital solutions like whatsapp business which already has over 15 million business users in india as well as other startups in the commerce enablement space such as bikayi digital dukaan okshop mystore etc these platforms have helped streamline