Social Commerce

Social commerce is the process by which businesses utilize social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, to enable customers to browse and purchase their products. It enables users to purchase items directly within the platforms without having to proceed to external websites.

In this article, we’ll unveil the importance and statistics of social commerce and explore its main benefits. We’ll also explore how social commerce works, the differences between social commerce and eCommerce, the best platforms, trends, and tips to get started.

Why is social media important for eCommerce?

Now that the popularity of social media has increased significantly and the majority of users search for products on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, they become crucial for brand discovery, engagement, sales, loyalty, and trust. Social media networks have become the touchpoints that connect customers with the right businesses without much effort. Social commerce helps you do the following.

• Boost brand awareness. Social media networks offer a great variety of tools enabling you to reach wider audiences and establish awareness. Viral reels, big collaborations, hashtags, and shares help you organically boost visibility and grow your following without relying on paid ads.
• Drive engagement. With social media platforms, you can significantly increase engagement through comments, likes, direct messages (DMs), and shares. This enables your audience to communicate with your brand in real time and also receive feedback from these customers. When you understand their preferences, needs, and challenges, you can effectively utilize this information to enhance your product and overall brand experience, leading to increased customer engagement and satisfaction.
• Take advantage of targeted advertising. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok offer paid advertising features enabling businesses to target the right audience segments. Their hyper-targeted ads help communicate the necessary marketing messages to the right people based on their interests, behavior, and demographics. Moreover, these social media networks let you retarget potential customers who have interacted with your website but haven’t performed any transactions.
• Ensure a seamless mobile shopping experience. When your brand is available on social media, it becomes much easier for customers to explore and purchase your products. As many people switch to Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to discover and purchase new items, it’s better to provide them with the convenience of scrolling and buying on the go without having to navigate to external websites.
• Get higher traffic and sales. Viral content attracts more potential customers to your brand and allows them to discover your products. With Instagram Shops, TikTok Shop, and Facebook Marketplace, you can not only share information about products but also sell them directly using the mentioned social media networks. These features enable you to transform your content into sales opportunities and increase conversions directly within the apps.

Now that you know why eCommerce is important, it’s time to proceed to the next section to find some statistical proof. So let’s dive in.

Social Commerce Statistics

According to statistics, Facebook is one of the social media networks with the highest number of social buyers. In 2025, the number of users in the United States who have made at least one purchase through the platform is approximately 65 million people. Social commerce is popular not only in the United States but also in other countries, such as China. Its most-used video platform, Douyin, generates even more revenue than world-famous TikTok, bringing in $200 billion in 2024. WeChat, also of Chinese origin, generates high revenues amounting to $152 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2024, TikTok Shops were extremely popular in Asian countries, particularly in Indonesia, where 20.5% of them were located. Thailand and Vietnam, with 18.3% and 17% respectively, are taking the lead when it comes to TikTok Shops.

Now that you know why social commerce is important in modern society, let’s jump into the benefits to find out how your business can improve after incorporating social media into your marketing strategy.

Benefits of Social Commerce

Social commerce presents numerous benefits for businesses, regardless of their size, industry, or target audience. Here are the most essential ones for you to consider.

• Smooth shopping experience. If customers discover your products while scrolling through their feeds on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, it’s always better to let them buy items without requiring them to leave the app. When clients’ buyer journey is as short and simple as possible, you let customers convert without friction.
• Seamless mobile shopping. Social media apps are perfectly designed for mobile users, making it easy for them to browse and purchase products. They can shop on the go without having to navigate to external websites, which are not always mobile-friendly. Sometimes it can be more difficult and longer to complete a purchase after proceeding to a website from social media platforms.
• Higher visibility and reach. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have a huge number of active users who spend their spare time on these platforms every day. It enables you to reach a wider audience without incurring significant expenses on pay-per-click ads, billboards, and flyers, which are often less effective than targeted ads on social networks. Sponsored content and viral reels enable you to effectively communicate your message to the right audience without incurring significant time and resource costs. As a result, your brand gets higher visibility, wider reach, and more conversions.
• Better sales. When you ensure a seamless shopping experience through social media apps, you can significantly reduce drop-off and increase your business's conversion rates. Since people often need to proceed to third-party websites, and the process can sometimes be too lengthy, they would rather choose to exit without completing a transaction. To avoid this situation, think about utilizing social media’s shopping tools.
• Trust and loyalty. By encouraging user-generated content, you can effectively establish trust in your brand. When you let your customers share their reviews about your products with your audience, your potential customers can explore them and make well-informed decisions without having to visit review platforms. It’s a well-known fact that listening to customers’ feedback before purchasing specific products is essential to ensure they are suitable for them. That’s why it’s always a good idea to encourage user-generated content (UGC) and reward your existing customers for reviewing your products.

If you are certain about implementing social commerce for your business, it is essential to understand how it works. We’ll provide you with information below.

How does social commerce work?

To effectively leverage social commerce for your brand, it’s essential to understand how it works first.

The process begins with users discovering new brands and products while scrolling through reels, shoppable ads, stories, live streams, influencers’ content, and sponsored material. These tools help businesses organically reach new customers and guide them towards purchases.

The next step involves users interacting with social media content through likes, comments, DMs, shares, saves, and friend tagging. When users engage, they demonstrate their trust and foster a sense of community around a specific business. Following this, prospects move on to explore the product. They click on a product tag or link, which brings them to a shoppable page within the app. This page enables users to view product images, read descriptions, and review pricing information. Finally, customers can complete orders securely using a special, built-in checkout without being redirected to external websites. After completing transactions, clients receive order confirmations, track updates, and access all necessary support as usual.

Now that you know how social commerce works, it’s time to discover the difference between social commerce and eCommerce.

What’s the difference between social commerce and eCommerce?

With the evolution of social media, the focus has shifted toward convenient and fast purchases with a seamless shopping experience. It significantly affects customer habits, so it's crucial to figure out this difference to incorporate one of these processes successfully into your marketing strategy.

Social commerce refers to the process of selling products and services through social media networks, such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. Users can stay within the app and complete their purchases without much effort. Customers discover products and buy them within the same platform. They usually interact with brands, check out influencers’ recommendations, and explore targeted ads without leaving Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Pinterest. Social commerce is perfect for mobile users because it lets them explore and buy products fast.

eCommerce refers to the process of offering products and services through dedicated online stores and marketplaces. These include a company’s website, as well as platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and more. Potential customers discover products through advertisements, search engines, flyers, billboards, and other marketing materials. Then, they proceed to the business’s website to explore products and make a purchase when they are sure about their choices. Usually, it takes longer for leads to convert into customers.

Now that the difference is clear, it’s time to explore the best platforms that enable you to maximize the benefits of social commerce.

When it comes to choosing social media platforms for your business, you have various options available. The choice depends on your goals, industry, target audience, business size, and other aspects. Below you’ll find the most popular social media networks with their characteristics, which will help you make the right decision.

Instagram

Instagram, with its 1.44 billion monthly active users, is an excellent platform for reaching a wide audience that spends a significant amount of time scrolling through Reels. It’s a powerful social media network allowing you to establish brand awareness and build emotional connections with users.

Best for: beauty, lifestyle, fashion, and other visually driven brands.

Why does it work?

Instagram enables businesses to create both long-form and short-form content, allowing them to gain the trust of their target audience through long-form content and entertain users and increase visibility through short-form content. The platform is suitable for sharing product reviews, tutorials, and demos.

Features: Instagram Shops, product tagging, in-app checkout, brand collaborations with product links, live shopping, and synchronization with Shopify and BigCommerce.

Below, you can see how influencers collaborate with ASOS. Instagram allows the brand to tag these individuals and mark the post as a paid partnership. This enables the clothing brand to reach a broader audience of potential customers.

Facebook

As of 2024, Facebook has 193.8 million active users in the United States, making it the right platform for businesses. This social media network is an excellent choice for reaching diverse audiences, including Millennials and Gen X. Brands can establish a seamless online presence, communicate with potential customers, and drive conversions.

Best suited for: businesses with an older or diverse audience, as well as companies utilizing Meta Ads.

Why does it work?

Facebook, with its diverse and wide audience, is beneficial for businesses due to its powerful advertising tools, built-in commerce features, and messaging capabilities. These features enable business owners to interact smoothly with their audiences.

Features: Facebook Shops, marketplace listings, live shopping and group-based commerce, and ad tools for targeting and retargeting.

Below, you can see Facebook’s Marketplace, where people can sell and buy products. Users set up a location to see the necessary items nearby.

TikTok

According to Statista, there were approximately 135.79 million TikTok users in the United States in February 2025. If businesses target Gen Z, this is the platform brands should choose to introduce and sell products. With this network’s tools and viral content, business owners can encourage impulse buys and significantly increase the number of conversions.

Best for: trend-driven products, impulse buys, younger audiences, and viral-ready businesses.

Why does it work?

TikTok offers various opportunities for businesses to connect with potential customers, interact with them, and turn them into paying customers using unique entertaining short videos. The strong presence of Gen Z and Millennials allows businesses to effectively communicate with these users and get their attention. TikTok enables brands to generate organic traffic much faster than Instagram by creating viral content.

Features: TikTok Shop with in-feed product listings, product discovery through popular videos, shoppable livestreams and creator videos, and integrated affiliate marketing.

In the example below, you’ll find how creators use live streams to promote their content and drive more views.

YouTube

YouTube has the largest audience in India, with 491 million users as of February 2025. In the United States, this audience comprises 253 million YouTube viewers, which is also significant for driving business success. Initially, the platform is ideal for companies selling products and services that are covered in tutorials, which are typically lengthy. These companies can seamlessly upload long-form videos for viewers to check out. However, with the development of YouTube Shorts, brands can now also share short videos that may go viral and attract more customers, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Best for: businesses creating long-form content and selling tutorial-based products.

Why does it work?

YouTube is effective for businesses not only because it hosts various educational, long-form videos, but also because it helps build trust and encourages viewers to return for more content. The platform allows companies to reach global audiences without any boundaries and monetize their content.

Features: product tagging in videos and Shorts, paid promotion, YouTube Shopping tab, and shoppable livestreams.

In the example below, you can see Grammarly's paid promotion featured in the middle of a content creator's video.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp, with its 3 billion monthly active users, is a great way for companies to collaborate with existing customers and prospects. With this messenger, businesses can directly communicate with customers, provide them with personalized offers, share product catalogs, make automated appointments and bookings, let customers track their orders, etc.

Best for: companies offering services and businesses in emerging markets.

Why does it work?

WhatsApp works for businesses because it helps connect with customers and provides them with the necessary information in real-time. Brands can use it for promotion, support, and sales. The messenger provides all the necessary tools to ensure that information is delivered to each customer and offers ways to make purchases with the brands.

Features: a mini storefront, product catalogs, in-app shopping, automated replies and payment links, and order and delivery notifications.

Below, you can see how WhatsApp enables businesses to create product catalogs and allow customers to add the necessary items to their shopping carts.

X

As of 2024, there were 429 million X users worldwide, with 61% of these users being men. Although this microblogging platform is not as popular as social media networks like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, it’s still useful for businesses. It enables companies to establish an online presence, directly communicate with the target audience, and spread information about a specific brand quickly.

Best for: journalists, publications, and media outlets, tech and SaaS companies.

Why does it work?

Since X allows brands to engage with users in real-time, make businesses visible to wider audiences, and connect with potential customers, it enables companies to scale faster. The platform offers all the necessary tools to stay relevant and visible to customers.

Features: targeted ads, shoppable posts, dedicated storefront, in-app checkout.

The example below demonstrates how Netflix takes advantage of “For You” to communicate relevant messages about upcoming series to the target audience.

Snapchat

As of 2025, Snapchat has 460 million daily active users worldwide, the majority of whom are Gen Z and younger Millennials. It offers businesses to take advantage of private messaging, public stories, creator content, and augmented reality.

Best for: targeting Gen Z and Millennials.

Why does it work?

Snapchat is useful for companies because it enables them to have direct contact with their target audience, especially Gen Z and Millennials, who are more challenging to reach through traditional communication channels. Brands can incorporate visual storytelling, create real-time content, and leverage augmented reality to make their messaging feel more personal.

Features: product discovery, full-screen content, in-app purchases, AR experiences, targeted advertising, and eCommerce integration.

In the example below, you can see how creators promote their content through stories, which users can find while exploring relevant videos.

Now that you know the most popular platforms, it’s time to explore their trends. This information will help you identify the tools that can yield the best results.

You can use different techniques and tools to successfully reach new potential customers and guide them toward the desired action. We’ll provide you with social commerce trends, enabling you to optimize your algorithms and increase visibility for your brand.

• Shoppable short-form videos. Short video content is an excellent way for your brand to introduce products and unveil their benefits. You can do it using TikTok and Instagram Reels. Moreover, with the help of product tags in these videos, you can let customers purchase your products in-app without any obstacles. This enables you to present your products in an engaging way and let users make instant purchases.
• User-generated content. UGC is one more great way to drive attention to your brand and build customer trust. When existing customers create videos about your products, highlighting their benefits, it encourages other users to consider purchasing these items as well. These genuine recommendations are ideal for enhancing visibility, establishing trust, and increasing conversions. As you know, prospects search reviews before purchasing products, and user-generated content might become the source of positive information.
• In-app checkout. All social media platforms are working on enhancing their in-app checkout capabilities, enabling customers to make seamless purchases directly within the app. This is good news for your brand because clients don’t have to go through numerous steps, proceed to external websites, and spend a significant amount of time to complete the transaction. They also appreciate the convenience of shopping from their smartphones, without having to wait for the website to load for too long or being confused by the website’s layout. The trust for your business increases when everything works smoothly without complications.
• Livestream shopping. Various live shopping events help you convert users into customers fast. You can organize sales, product demos, and Q&A sessions, bringing you instant engagement and new customers. The most effective way to capture attention and increase sales is by offering online sales with special prices. They will definitely help you expand your customer base.
• Collaboration with influencers. By partnering with micro and macro opinion leaders, you’ll be able to introduce your brand to a wider audience, get new followers, and receive more orders when promotion goes right. Regardless of the influencer’s following, you can effectively communicate your message and let new prospects notice your products. Influencer recommendations help you gain customer trust and establish strong relationships with them.
• Social proof. In social media, everything depends on the community and their perception of your brand and products. That's why it’s essential to encourage user-generated content, reviews, likes, shares, comments, and influencer credibility, among other factors. Due to this, it’s always beneficial to encourage existing customers to become your brand advocates by sharing video product reviews, comments, and feedback.
• AI-supported content creation. With the development of AI, you can significantly enhance the shopping experience without incurring excessive time and resources. Relevant product recommendations, automated product tagging, and feeds tailored to browsing and buying history help provide users with the products they are truly interested in, improving their overall experience.
• Chatbots. Many brands already utilize messaging automation for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, which is a very convenient and efficient approach. When it comes to DMs, it’s a necessity to provide instant answers to prevent potential customers from churning out. If they ask some basic questions, you can use a chatbot to respond in seconds without having to connect human agents. With SendPulse, you’ll be able to build chatbots for Facebook and Instagram without having to code.

Now that you know the trends, let’s explore some practical tips to help you get started with social media promotion.

There are numerous ways to get started with social commerce, but certain steps are essential for a successful implementation. So, let’s explore these tips.

1. Identify the right social media networks for your business. When you're just starting with social commerce, the first thing to consider is the platforms you'll use. Research where your target audience is most active and choose Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, or multiple networks. It’s better to prioritize one or two platforms initially and then consider expanding to other platforms as your business grows.
2. Create a social shop. After selecting the platform, continue to build a shoppable storefront on the selected network. When doing this, you should include product catalogs, create clear descriptions, add quality images, and manage in-app checkout.
3. Create eye-catching content. To achieve success using social media, visual content plays a significant role. To achieve your business goals, consider sharing lifestyle photos and short videos, leveraging user-generated content (UGC), and tagging relevant products. Post tutorials, guides, how-tos, unboxings, and partnerships with influencers that drive the most engagement.
4. Interact with your target audience. Always engage with your audience in various ways, including responding to their comments, direct messages, reviews, and other content they create. This way, you show them your appreciation and care, encouraging them to come back for repeat purchases. Consider launching programs that encourage customers to create user-generated content and reward them for producing such videos.
5. Partner with influencers in your niche. Opinion leaders, along with their followers, can be useful for establishing visibility, expanding your reach, and effectively communicating your message to potential customers. When influencers recommend specific products, they already have the trust of their followers. Their word means a lot to these people, and they might consider buying products mentioned in influencers’ stories, posts, and reels.
6. Use live streaming. Live streaming is a fantastic way to engage with people in real-time. It’s essential for product launches, Q&A sessions, live events, and behind-the-scenes content. Before the live stream, consider announcing your event ahead. You should also add polls to determine the most suitable time and estimate the number of users who will be able to join.
7. Consider taking advantage of targeted ads. With targeted advertising, you can effectively communicate your marketing message to the specific audience segments that matter most. By reaching potential customers with relevant offers, you increase satisfaction and their chances of conversion. This technique allows you to narrow down your audience based on their age, gender, location, interests, and behaviors. This enables you to interact with people who are likely to buy your products because they have searched for similar ones.
8. Encourage user-generated content. Initiate existing customers to share their reviews of your products. User-generated content is essential for building trust and driving more conversions. You can implement special programs that reward clients for creating videos about your products.
9. Leverage chatbots for faster replies. Utilize chatbots to offer potential customers information 24/7. With their help, you’ll be able to answer FAQs within seconds, leading to increased customer satisfaction. You can use your chatbots to make appointments, bookings, provide information on available sizes, consult prospects, track their orders, etc. This is very convenient because customers can contact you directly, regardless of their time zones. SendPulse enables you to build chatbots for Facebook and Instagram, and train them to communicate naturally with your customers using AI. The platform is intuitive, meaning you don’t need to know code to create the logic for your chatbot.
10. Add shoppable links, tags, and stickers. When you use Instagram to build your business, you can easily use shoppable content to encourage conversions. Shoppable tags and Instagram Shops allow users to access shops through their feed or Stories. The same applies to Facebook Shops. You can also create a shop on Pinterest and add shoppable pins to drive more sales.
11. Keep an eye on your performance. Regardless of the tools you use for social media, it’s always a must to monitor your performance. Pay attention to key metrics to understand how people interact with your content, ads, and partnerships. This information will help you determine which adjustments to make for improved performance and sales.

Congratulations, now you have a clear understanding of how to use social media not only for visibility but also for higher sales. Hope that our tips and trends come in handy when you decide to get started with social commerce.

Last Updated: 03.06.2025