Social and content commerce are extensions of what we do: Arun Devanathan, Myntra

Myntra, an e-commerce platform, recently organised the Creator Fest, bringing together numerous influencers and creators under one roof, as part of its active endeavours in social and content commerce.

According to Arun Devanathan, Senior Director of Social Commerce at Myntra, social commerce is here to stay as a broader trend in marketing, and the importance of content-led marketing, influencer marketing, and creator-led marketing is growing.

"It becomes very vital to create a strong connection with the Creator ecosystem, to interact with creators on an ongoing basis, and to learn and figure out how to make content that really works for you," he said. The objective was to "celebrate all of our efforts with the creative ecosystem, get all of our creators together, and talk a little bit about our plans for next year."

The Rise of Social & Content Commerce

For nearly a year, Myntra's marketing efforts have been largely focused on social and content commerce. In the early stages of entering the social commerce model, the brand focused on developing credibility for initiatives such as Myntra Style Squad and Myntra Live. Devanathan went on to say, "We've witnessed a 2X growth in the average time spent on lives and on our social commerce proposition. We've also seen a lot of interest from sponsors, with roughly 75% of the lives we're performing during our big events now featuring a brand. We've noticed a lot of interest from companies and creators who want to participate in social commerce. The social commerce team receives so much inbound demand from companies that we are currently receiving more brands who want to engage than we can handle. On the learning front, the main takeaway has been how different components of social commerce perform well for different categories and businesses."

Brands, creators, and audiences are the three key stakeholders in social and content commerce. The first are the influencers and creators who create content and interact with audiences; the second are the audiences who believe that this is a valuable and interesting way to shop; and the third are the brands who will use social commerce as a platform to engage with audiences and build it as both an engagement and a sales channel.

"One way to think about it is there are classic models of e-commerce where a customer can open a website or app look for a product they want to buy, discover it, and you know, purchase it," Devanathan explained. What social commerce is saying is that you can have social-led product discovery and purchases, where I look at a good piece of content and that's how I locate the product and purchase, so social commerce is a pretty natural fit for Myntra as a platform. It's practically an extension of what we already do as an e-commerce player."

The Way Forward

One of the key takeaways from the recently held creator fest was to investigate how the brand will approach and grow social and content commerce in the future. Devanathan outlined three primary focus areas when discussing how Myntra will expand up. The first step will be to broaden the creator programmes to include beauty and personal care products. Connecting with Gen Z audiences and artists is the second major priority area, and making the entire creator ecosystem accessible to regional audiences is the third.

One of the main takeaways from the recently held creator fest was to investigate how the company will scale social and content commerce moving forward. Devanathan discussed three key areas as he laid out the strategies for how Myntra will expand. The first step will be to include the beauty and personal care area in creator programmes. Making the entire creator ecosystem accessible to regional audiences is the third major target area, followed by interacting with Gen Z audiences and artists.