Social media commerce could transform logistics

The rise of e-commerce over the past few years has helped to change the face of global logistics, with goods deliveries and handling facilities becoming increasingly essential to the success of the industry. Lifestyles in general are becoming increasingly digitised, with social media and online dating sites now acting as the main platforms through which we conduct many of our interactions. The rise of smartphones has also encouraged innovators to find new ways to streamline our daily lives with these social platforms, which is why it comes as little surprise that plans have now been put in place for the launch of the first social media-based retail application. American Express is to allow users to make purchases from social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, which will be linked to the customer's card in order to simplify the online shopping process. Twitter users, for example, will now be able to purchase items just be sending a tweet or using a particular hashtag. Amex Sync is also likely to attract attention from a number of major online retailers who are expected to jump at the chance to offer special deals and discounts to users. Items such as Amazon's Kindle Fire, Sony's Action Cam and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are already confirmed to be among the products that will be offered to Twitter users at discounted prices. The rise of social media-based commerce is likely to take mobile shopping to the next level and will undoubtedly provide a huge boost to the global logistics sector, potentially opening up huge numbers of new supply chain jobs as managers look for new ways to increase the efficiency of their deliveries. The launch of Amex Sync will be seen by many as confirmation that the digital social lifestyle is here to stay. If successful, it would not be unreasonable to assume that a number of other banks and credit card providers may follow suit in the near future, therefore streamlining global logistics operations with social media. Cast UK is one of the country's leading professional level supply chain recruitmentconsultancies. Fill your next vacancy with us today!