A day shopping with friends used to mean hitting stores and grabbing lunch, with social interaction as the backbone. Then the web turned retail therapy into a To-Do list. Social commerce, which allows shoppers to make purchases directly from social media without leaving the app, such as live shopping parties run by influencers or friends, delivers that jolt of oxytocin after a day with pals.
While a social media presence is core to any brand’s marketing strategy, social commerce has also become essential, attracting the biggest brands from Walmart to H&M. Globally, social commerce sales accounted for 18.5 percent of e-commerce sales in 2023, and is expected to grow to 21.7% by 2028, according to Statista. Those kind of numbers make it dangerous for brands to ignore the space, with more jumping in each year.
Walmart invested in the social commerce space in 2022 with Walmart Creator, a program that gives creators links to thousands of Walmart products, and a commission on their sale.
“We have made a big investment in the past two years in social commerce, working with creators, and creating a creator studio where we’re giving creators tools to make content and distribute content across social media platforms where we have a better idea about the tonality, what they’re saying about our brand, and [how they’re] helping others use that platform to transact,” said Seth Dallaire, Walmart’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer.
Another reason to invest in social commerce? It’s where the next generation of shoppers spent their time. In the U.S., 20 percent of consumers use social media to make purchases, according to a 2024 McKinsey report. In China, that number balloons to 45 percent. Globally, millennials and Gen Z make purchases on social media four times as often as older generations, according to McKinsey.
Empower laziness
Domino’s, known for its Paving for Pizza and Emergency Pizza campaigns, jumped into social commerce early. In 2015, it launched part of its AnyWare campaign that invited customers to order pizza through Twitter by tweeting an emoji of a pizza slice to the Domino’s account. Kate Trumbull, Domino’s senior vice president and chief brand officer, calls this approach “empowering laziness.”
To Trumbull, brands need to meet customers where they are. Social commerce, where consumers click and buy, erases the effort of getting in a car and driving somewhere — or even leaving a social media channel and going to the web.
“At the bottom line you need to empower laziness,” said Trumbull. “It sounds bad, but empower laziness because people want convenience. It’s been true for decades and it’s going to continue to be true. Social commerce is a perfect example of that.”
Be authentic
If social media is the push from brands to consumers, commerce is the conversation. However, that connection needs to feel authentic, says Andre Eanes, president and chief business officer of A&A Management whose clients include football player Travis Kelce.
Eanes says he’s still a fan of walking into stores, seeing an item, and bringing it home at that moment, but admits that in-person purchases are becoming “far and few between.” To build a similar resonance as an in-person experience, brands should veer from spamming consumers — or pushing their way into a customer’s space. Instead, they need to think about using social to connect and bring them into a brand’s story.
He points to TikTok Shop, which launched in September 2023, as doing a good job of engaging people without being heavy-handed. By April 2024, 11 percent of all U.S. households were already buying something through TikTok Shop, according to eMarketer.
“I think if you’re just posting things to make money, then that’s not going to work,” he says. “I think Tik Tok shop does a good job because you can watch a video and say, ‘This is cool,’ click on it and see if you want to go buy it yourself, versus just shoving it down people’s throats where it’s ad after ad after ad.”
Understand the platform
To make inroads with social commerce, brands must understand the different headspace consumers have when in that environment, says Lin Wan, chief executive officer of Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Limited, considered the world’s largest logistics company. Shopping might be more impulsive, with consumers influenced as they are when friends encourage each other when out together.
“From the glance of it, [social commerce] seems similar, it’s buying stuff from this website or another app, but at the bottom, the consumer behavior is quite different,” says Wan. “For the traditional e-commerce website, consumers have a rough idea. ‘I know exactly what I’m going to buy.’ I come here, find the thing, and place the order.’”
But Wan notes that on social media sites, there’s a serendipitous aspect, similar to browsing in a store. You’re on TikTok to be entertained, or in a store to get inspired, so when something pops into your feed — or your view — it might spur you to buy something you initially never had in your mind.
“Things change completely for social media, they come to the app, see the videos, communicate with friends, they don’t have anything in their mind,” he adds. “They find something interesting, then they place the order. It’s part of the fun. It’s not just for the product itself.”
Deliver a connection
As generative AI plays a larger role in the consumer experience, social commerce may return a bit of humanity to the digital realm. A customer service bot helping angle a refund on a plane ticket is helpful. But an AI bot isn’t going to spark excitement about fall fashion trends or the newest upgrades to a favorite product.
Social commerce, with creators, influencers, and friends together on the same channel, is a personal link between a brand and a consumer. Customers feel they’re engaging with a buddy, not a bot. Maddie Bell, co-founder and CEO of Scheduler AI, is a big proponent of bringing Gen AI into the workplace. But even she notes that as AI becomes more ubiquitous in the consumer space, people will crave a human connection.
“When you think about social commerce, both in the B-to-B and B-to-C landscape, what you realize is it’s giving more depth to who you are as a brand,” she says. “I think people are going to continue to yearn for that depth, because at the end of the day, we thrive on human relationships, whether that relationship is with someone at a company or with a brand.”
