Social Commerce: A Cost Reduction Strategic Tool for Sustaining Corporate Brands Globally. A Systematic Review Approach

Social commerce has a strategic role in the sustainability of corporate brands. It has been discovered that little or no attention has been given to the cost-reduction strategy of social commerce to sustain corporate brands. Social commerce presents a three-way cost reduction (for manufacturers, members of trade, and consumers) to sustain brand performance globally. Social commerce works to reduce the cost of commercial advertising and other promotional elements. The study’s objective was to establish whether social commerce reduces the promotional cost of corporate brands and how that helps to sustain corporate brands. The study reviewed literature, with most spanning between 2010 and 2023, from the world and in both academia and industry. The study reveals that social commerce reduces the cost of managing corporate brands through brand trust and relationship building through social support and communities created on social media for brands. Social commerce has made many customers become company employees, resolving customer complaints and offering various forms of assistance to prospective and existing customers without adding cost to the company’s payroll. The study revealed again that customers now pay directly to disseminate brand messages shifting most of the communications cost to the customer. The cost of employing celebrities for product recommendation has been reduced due to both online and offline social commerce thus saving cost and increasing corporate brands profitability.