What is social commerce?
Shopping on social media
Social commerce is the process of selling and buying goods directly on social media. The entire shopping experience, from product discovery and research to the checkout process, happens within the same social app.
Must-have tool for any business
By selling directly on social media you offer a streamlined and mobile-friendly user experience with no hiccups. You’re not redirecting users to an online store, and purchases take a handful of clicks. Customers are looking for the easiest and fastest way to shop, and with social commerce, you give them what they asked for.
Future of ecommerce
Social commerce is the hottest ecommerce trend for a reason. Millennials and Gen Z are now the world’s most powerful consumers, and social media is where they shop. Start selling there before your competitors do and have this audience all to yourself.
Why use social commerce?
Sell on social media and enjoy these sales-boosting benefits
Increase brand visibility
57% of the world's population are on social media, and you can share your products with this ever-growing audience
Be fast and convenient
Selling directly on social media allows customers to shop much quicker and easier
Provide a personalized shopping experience
Social media algorithms will suggest your products to shoppers already looking for them based on their preferences
Build relationships with your customers
Promote and sell your products, receive feedback, and offer customer support all in one place
Embrace multichannel selling
Sync your ecommerce store with multiple social media platforms and offer a unified shopping experience on all of them
Turn engagement into sales
84% of shoppers review at least one social media site before purchasing, so it’s time to start selling right there
Benefit from user-friendly interface
Sell on social media and guarantee a mobile-friendly user experience to 79% of smartphone owners who shop from their phones
How to start selling on social media
Choose the social media platform
Decide which social media to use depending on your niche, goals, and target audience
Connect your ecommerce store to social media
Link your ecommerce store’s product catalog to your social media page and enable in-app checkout if it’s available
Start selling and see profits roll in
Post photos, tag your products, and enjoy the perks of social commerce
Choose your social commerce channel wisely
Explore the social media platforms that offer user-friendly built-in shopping solutions
TikTok
- Showcase your brand to over 1 billion active users
- Create a smooth path from browsing to buying with shoppable TikTok reels and live videos
- Cash in on the highest engagement rate among all social platforms
- Track your progress with the intuitive TikTok Pixel add-on and use your findings to build foolproof marketing campaigns
- Jumpstart your store’s profit by collaborating with some of today’s leading influencers
- Offer your goods to potential customers on Instagram—60% of them use the app to discover new products
- Engage shoppers with creative promotions and visual storytelling
- Sell and share your brand story in Your Shop
- Customize your shop by using Collections and sort products into themes
- Provide pricing and descriptions in your catalog by using Product Detail Page
- Let people make purchases directly in-app with Checkout on Instagram
- Sell on multiple channels with feed, stories, the explore tab, IGTV, and reels all having built-in shopping solutions
- Be visible to 250 million shoppers browsing the Facebook Shop tab every day
- Embrace organic brand discovery–the app suggests your products to users based on their preferences
- Manage your shops within your Facebook for Business profile
- Automatically sync your entire product catalog by connecting your website or ecommerce store platform
- Provide customer support and respond to customers’ questions through WhatsApp or Messenger
Spotify
- Store the essentials—your music and merch—on the same platform with your customers
- Keep the momentum of your new releases going and sell merch to excited fans and new listeners
- Use Artist Fundraising Pick to make a statement and further connect with your community
- Update your merch highlights with new and limited edition products for an always-fresh Artist page
Use Spotify’s built-in marketing tools to secure a bond with your fans and keep them posted
YouTube
- Sell products directly on your videos to your target audience
- Showcase your content and business to 2.476 billion users
- Pin products in your live streams and create a shared live shopping experience with your fans
- Increase your channel's engagement with your audience
- Promote your business in the world's second-largest search engine
- Offer your products to 454 million users with 89% of them using the app for shopping inspiration
- Benefit from slow shopping—Pinterest users take a week to make a purchase but spend 2x more per month than people on other platforms
- Allow users to shop directly by using Shop Tab on your profile
- Turn your entire product catalog into browsable product Pins with up-to-date pricing information
- Upload multiple feeds to the same account and control which products show up in different markets
- Build customer trust by receiving a Verified merchant badge
Monetize your social channels with these integrations
Social commerce is better with Printful
Automate your sales
Once you receive an order, it'll be sent to us and we'll fulfill, pack and ship them directly to your customer
Start social commerce risk-free
Print your products on-demand for each order individually without investing in bulk orders
Expand your business
Have your orders delivered to customers worldwide from nearby fulfillment centers all over the world
Don’t miss an opportunity to grow your business—start selling on social media now
Frequently asked questions
Social commerce allows completing a purchase directly on social media platforms. Shoppers can browse and compare products on social media apps, and then buy what they like on the app itself instead of going to the company's site to complete the checkout.
Instagram offers more social commerce features than any of its competitors and has an intuitive interface for a user-friendly buying experience. With Instagram, it’s possible to sell on multiple channels within the same app with feed, stories, the explore tab, IGTV, and reels all having built-in shopping and advertising solutions.
Unlike promoting products on social media with paid advertisements, social commerce doesn’t require redirecting customers from social media platforms to the company’s ecommerce store. This way the purchase journey becomes significantly shorter and customers are more likely to proceed all the way to the checkout.