By enabling shoppable experiences that are deeply intertwined with brand narratives and cultural identities, the blockchain is redefining the very concept of value. As brands aim to gain deeper insights into their customers and create more relevant experiences, the adoption and effective use of Web3 shifts from an optional tactic to a fundamental requirement. In a recent episode of The Nex6 Project, Michael Litman, Senior Director of Emerging Tech Strategy, sat down with John Ghiorso, SVP, Strategic Advisor & Evangelist of Global Ecommerce, where they discussed how Web3 is evolving brands’ approach to commerce.

Web3 is transforming brand-consumer relationships.

When discussing the role of Web3 in facilitating community building, Litman highlights what he refers to as "the four C's": creativity, culture, community, and commerce. Emphasizing the significance of relationships in branding, he states, “In Web3, this dynamic relationship between the brand and the consumer transforms into a more robust, two-way relationship, where consumers actively engage, creating a reciprocal exchange.” The transparency provided by blockchain technology thus enhances the connection between brands and consumers.

Dom Pérignon realized this when they partnered with us to build an exclusive Web3 marketplace inspired by their collaboration with Lady Gaga—a move that enhanced the brand's cultural relevance. We furnished the high-quality immersive web platform with 100 NFTs that represented the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2010 and Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2006 collections, and every NFT purchase was bundled with a purchase of the bottle depicted.

By linking the NFT purchase to the physical bottle, Dom Pérignon created an additional revenue stream for themselves while also giving consumers the chance to pocket digital collectibles that could be exchanged on the secondary market—where they grew their value by nearly 1500%. The shoppable experience effectively bridged the gap between the virtual and the real world while establishing Dom Pérignon as a pioneer in the Web3 space.

Dom Pérignon is not the sole beneficiary of embracing Web3. The prestigious jewelry brand Tiffany and Co. seized the opportunity within Web3 early on by tapping into the existing community of CryptoPunks holders and crafting a tokenized reward exclusively for them. The NFTs, cleverly named NFTiffs, were unleashed to 250 holders, allowing them to collect these unique digital assets and trade them for real-world customizable gold pendants. Tiffany and Co. made history as the first brand to intertwine fine jewelry with the digital world, with NFTiffs selling out in just 20 minutes at a mint price of 30 ETH, raking in an impressive $12.5 million in revenue.

Beyond standard ecommerce, Web3 enables entirely new shoppable experiences.

As brands use Web3 to tap into communities and drive cultural relevance, the space enables boundless opportunities for interactive, communal experiences in commerce that have never been possible before—especially as digital shopping experiences become more social, with global social commerce sales expected to reach nearly $1.3 billion this year.

But what makes Web3 unique compared to typical forms of social commerce? Essentially, says Ghiorso, it’s about giving consumers a space to interact with one another while keeping the brand at the forefront. “What really amplifies this is the community aspect. This one-to-many, many-to-one network gives the brand and their community the ability to conduct commerce effectively between those various consumer touchpoints.”

Macy’s has done an excellent job building these kinds of spaces for multi-user, communal interaction with the brand at the forefront. We partnered with the department store to virtualize its iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2022, including a virtual Sixth Avenue featuring parade balloons inspired by the year’s most popular Web3 communities: Cool Cats, Boss Beauties, VeeFriends, and more. In addition to enjoying the parade, visitors had the chance to enter virtual storefronts and buy digital collectibles of their own, with each purchase benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. If they chose, they could resell those collectibles in Web3 resale platforms like OpenSea and more. Macy’s efforts show how Web3 capabilities can inspire a new class of shoppable, social experiences—and gave the retailer an entirely new product category to sell.

Other brands can do something similar by exploring ways to incorporate elements of Web3 into their existing strategies, similar to how Macy’s used its Thanksgiving Day Parade as inspiration for its own Web3 efforts. Brands can also explore ways to incorporate elements of Web3 into their existing strategies. This could involve creating an NFT for a brand, launching a blockchain-based loyalty program, or even creating token-gated experiences that can potentially drive a negative cost per acquisition, a disruptive shift from traditional commerce. "The lightbulb moment for me was when I found that in many cases, consumers are willing to pay upfront for limited access to token-gated physical products," says Litman. "What that means is they’re effectively crowdfunding, and the success of that program or project will be dependent on those upfront sales. Because of that delayed value exchange, it gives the brand time to get it right, get all the logistics and the distribution in place before they need to ship anything out.”

Unearth a trove of customer insights on the blockchain.

In addition to building relationships with communities, Web3 commerce has the potential to forge a deeper understanding of customers on the individual level—precisely when traditional means of following customer journeys, like third-party cookies, are no longer as reliable. In contrast, the blockchain’s transparent nature means businesses can gain more insight into consumers’ behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns to inform personalized marketing strategies.

“Your Web3 wallet will become as ubiquitous as your email address, and it will provide this linkage between purchasing offline, online, and on-chain. That, to me, feels like an absolute data goldmine,” says Litman. It will take time for that to become a reality, but it is important for marketers to begin incorporating Web3 into their long-term strategic planning as they begin to envision alternative ways of learning about their audiences and connecting the customer journey.

In collaboration with Salesforce—who helps brands enter the Web3 space through a familiar, secure and trusted interface—we released a report that demonstrates how Web3 not only enhances experiences across the customer journey but also helps brands build key insights into their audience. As brands continue to beef up their customer relationship management to better understand their customers and lay the data foundations required for AI implementation, accounting for Web3 serves as another way to future-proof one’s efforts and adapt to emerging consumer behaviors.

The Web3 revolution won’t happen overnight—but brands can prepare now.

Beyond the NFT craze of 2022, the blockchain is transitioning from a speculative hype cycle to an integral part of brands’ strategies that is helping them build cultural relevance, deepen customer relationships, and ultimately enable new commerce experiences. "Many brands out there will have their own token that then has a value associated with it," says Litman. But for now, it’s imperative that brands swiftly recognize the value of Web3, and then adapt their strategies accordingly: the speculative nature of blockchain is evolving into a foundational element for the future of generational culture, community, and commerce.

Want to learn more? You can listen to the full episode of the Nex6 Project on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

Inspired by these trends, our Social Innovation Lab teamed up with the Phenomena.Monks, a community of strategists providing exploration of social phenomena, to explore this trend further and summarize their findings in their latest report: “Social Commerce Commences.” ​The resource investigates the different influences—including user behaviors, retail, platform features and more—that have made social channels the place to open up shop, and provides brands with some strategies and insights they can use to meet their audiences more effectively across the digital customer journey. The report is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.

How Social Shapes Shopping

Social commerce is all about meeting people where they are through platforms that provide a unique and evolved experience for shoppers. When the pandemic confined people indoors, mobile usage skyrocketed. At first, people turned to marketplaces to buy products that met their basic needs. Now, most feel comfortable buying almost anything on social platforms—even cars—and spending their time in virtual flagships. 

But although the pandemic played a pivotal role in the expansion of ecommerce, it wasn’t the only factor leading to this phenomenon. Successes in China, where social and live commerce are commonplace, as well as the rising influence of creators have both set the stage for everyone’s favorite new way to shop. With each come new ways for brands to differentiate and better meet the needs of their audiences everywhere they show up.

Mindset (R)evolution 

What we considered to be a “full customer journey” has been flipped on its head. Social commerce ecosystems have set the stage for brands to provide an immersive and frictionless shopping experience. Users are no longer passive customers, rather, they have evolved into creative agents. The “TikTok made me buy it” trend, featuring sometimes offbeat and quirky products that have gone viral on the platform, is an excellent example: social audiences now frame their self-expression by curating their virtual identity and consumption. 

With audiences online becoming a greater influence in the purchases of their peers, social commerce represents a shift in power from retailers and brands to people. This new dynamic suggests brands reexamine how they create meaning in each stage of the purchase journey across almost every product category. 

New Platforms and Spaces

Platforms have evolved from being a top-funnel involvement category to a high-interaction experience category. Consumers understand this, and are raising their expectations for technology’s role in their shopping journey. 

For users, social commerce is not a one-size-fits-all experience—so it shouldn’t be for brands, either. For platforms, the race to become the go-to social commerce destination comes down to powering more effective interactions by understanding their customers first. For example, WhatsApp helps brands meet consumers’ growing expectation for 24/7 customer service through a 1:1 chat interface, while Snapchat’s sophisticated AR lenses give people the chance to engage with and learn more about a product or brand. Aligning platform-specific features with the needs of your audience is the key to connecting with audiences on a meaningful and authentic level.

The report goes deeper into the changing role of communities, creators and platform algorithms in brands’ social commerce strategies, though retail stores are in the midst of a significant transformation of their own—one that runs in parallel to emerging social commerce trends as people rely on technology to fill gaps in the experience. For instance, the concept of “phygital” experiences happen when you mix offline (physical) and online (digital) experiences through technologies like mixed and augmented reality. The future of retail is multidimensional and omnichannel, with stores increasingly taking on the role of community hubs and spaces for brand building.

Above and Beyond: The Next Iteration of Social Commerce

Social commerce is thriving. Even though the key forces and players behind its growth are all operating as independent silos and platforms, their impact on consumer journeys and the decision-making process are still shaped by independent influences. When it comes to the future of social commerce and what drives change for these players, recognizing the adaptability of business models, technologies and the evolution of how trust triggers are designed will remain key to success. Social commerce is dynamic. It's fast-moving. And it requires all players to build out processes and tools to help brands and businesses adapt. To that end, our report will help you strategize to lay the foundation for more meaningful, consumer-centric experiences whether in feeds or in the shopping aisle.