If you are an online entrepreneur and you haven't heard the term 'social commerce', sit back, relax, and read the rest of this post because understanding social commerce will prove to be extremely important going forward. Social Commerce is really the combination of two online forces and six social heuristics. The online forces are social networking and eCommerce. The six heuristics are social proof, authority, scarcity, like, reciprocity, and consistency. Social commerce provides many different opportunities for the online entrepreneur, and to fully grasp its power - you will need to understand a little bit more about what makes it what it is.

Social proof

When in doubt about making a buying decision, follow what someone else is doing. This is not only true for social commerce, but has been a psychological mindset for years. This is what makes social networking so powerful. If you want to sell more products, you will need to have more people talking about the products and services you provide. When new decision makers aren't sure about a decision, they follow what others are doing.

Authority

Do you have experts in your industry talking about your products and services? If you don't, you should. When specialist or people of authority talk about your products or services, this is like gold. If an expert is talking about your product, it must be good right?

Scarcity

The day you tell people that they have a limited time in order to take advantage of a specific offering, they want it. This is a well known selling tactic that has been used throughout the ages and to this day is one of the most effective techniques used in online commerce.

Like

If we like someone, are we more likely to agree with them? If the people we like recommend a product, are we more likely to buy it because they recommended it or because others (people they don't know) told them to buy it? You know the answer to that one, and this is one of the key features of social networking. You follow those you like, when they recommend something, there is an 85% chance you'll buy it without doing any research.

Reciprocity

Do you tell friends about deals and specials they would surely benefit from? Most everyone does, and the reasons have a lot to do with reasoning. People are truly nice and they sincerely want to help others, and they will help you if you have a product or service that has provided value for them in one way or another.

Consistency

You will not be known unless you keep your message, brand, products or services in front of the decision makers. You will need to be consistent in all efforts when it comes to social commerce.

Social commerce is nothing more than using all these ingredients in your efforts to create your online presence, and to generate exposure, visibility, and popularity around your brand. This will eventually get interested parties to the products and services you provide, and provide profits never before imagined.