Study: Social media to become SG's preferred retail channel in 2024

In 2024, social media marketers in Singapore are foreseeing social media to become the preferred retail channel of local customers in 2024. This is especially since 85% of Singapore's population are estimated to be social media users. 

This is according to HubSpot's recent study conducted among social media marketers in Singapore.

“They also have a propensity to use these platforms for brand discovery and research, making social media a key retail channel that marketers cannot ignore," said Kat Warboys, marketing director for Asia Pacific, HubSpot.

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B2B brands in particular need to adapt and match the B2C experience that consumers today have come to expect. 

"Moving ahead, we are likely to see B2B brands moving away from factually accurate but often over engineered or very generic material in favour of relatable, authentic and engaging content on social media to win audience attention and influence purchasing decisions," added Warboys. 

That said, the report gathered insights about the impact of social media on local businesses and consumers, as well as how marketing professionals are pivoting tactics to better engage target audience. 

1. Social media to become preferred retail channel in 2024 

Nine in 10 social media marketers in Singapore foresee that consumers will opt to buy products directly from brands through social media platforms in 2024. This is opposed to third-party websites (92%), or from the brand’s website (90%). 

Among marketers already engaging in social commerce, more than seven in 10 (73%) perceive Instagram’s social shopping features to offer the highest Return on Investment (ROI), followed by Facebook (71%) and YouTube (71%).

In tandem, close to nine in 10 (87%) respondents also agreed that social search should be essential to these strategies, with nearly all (92%) anticipating consumers to search for brands on social media more often than on search engines in 2024.

2. Active communities are critical for brand engagement 

Nearly nine in 10 (89%) social media marketers in Singapore believe that an active online community is a vital component to the success of their social media strategy.

Respondents shared that the top benefits of building a social media community include incentivising user-generated content (31%), improving customer experience (26%) and attracting more followers or subscribers (22%).

This is in addition to strengthening brand awareness, customer retention, connections among their customers, as well as trust between the brand and customers (19%).

In addition, more than half (58%) of respondents said that their organisations were investing in building communities, laying the foundations to capitalise on social commerce growth opportunities. Of this number, nearly three quarters (72%) are planning to increase their investment into building social media communities in 2024.

3. Short-form videos and authentic, relatable content are key to reaching customers

Social media marketers in Singapore are currently leveraging short-form videos (44%), live videos or streaming (41%), and user-generated content (31%). Nearly 8 in 10 (77%) respondents believed that short-form video offered the highest ROI of any format.

Additionally, the focus on short-form video is set to continue growing in 2024, with three quarters (75%) of respondents set to increase their investment into the content format from the previous year.

The study also identified several content types that resulted in the biggest ROI. These include funny content (34%), interactive content such as polls or games (17%), as well as relatable content (15%).

“Authenticity plays a vital role in social commerce, influencing purchase decisions and perceptions of a product,” added Warboys. “Brands should embrace a shift towards less-edited content and explore collaborations with creators which tend to be perceived as more genuine and relatable by viewers."

She added that this creates an opportunity for brands to deepen connections with customers by boosting trust and credibility, especially on platforms such as TikTok. 

4. AI will help marketers effectively reach customers 

91% of social media marketers in Singapore view Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a crucial component of any successful social media strategy. More than half (59%) of respondents are already using generative AI tools to create social media content.

The study found that the top three use cases for generative AI tools include repurposing content to meet the needs of different audiences (35%), writing copy for social media content (31%), and getting ideas or inspiration (30%). AI is also most often used to create short-form videos (39%), captions (32%), and images (31%).

“Marketers that are constantly challenged by the density of social media content needs can leverage generative AI to alleviate resourcing constraints. Generative AI tools can provide teams with data-driven suggestions for better content ideation, and also help to develop or repurpose content for different audience groups," said Warboys. "This approach enables marketers to effectively engage a wide range of customer segments at speed and scale." 

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