What is Social Commerce? A Strategic Guide

What is social commerce?

Social commerce is enabling customers to buy products easily and directly through social media platforms. This doesn’t mean simply linking to your website from a social media post. Social commerce sees the complete buyer journey, from discovery to checkout, take place within the social media platform. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have built-in commerce capabilities, and many more are likely to follow suit.

The global social commerce market is projected to reach approximately $1.66 trillion in 2025, up from $1.26 trillion in 2024. That rapid acceleration highlights just how powerful social platforms have become as sales channels. With billions of active users on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest, businesses now have unprecedented opportunities to reach, engage, and convert audiences directly where they spend their time. Social commerce also offers brands the chance to partner with influencers and amplify their brand profile with a specific cohort of customers.

At its core, social commerce brings your digital shelf into your customers’ social media, and your products directly into their everyday activities.

Why social commerce works for brands

Social commerce is more than a passing trend—it’s a strategic lever for growth. Brands that embrace it gain the ability to:

• Meet customers in the moment: Product discovery happens organically on social platforms. Enabling purchases within that same space shortens the path to conversion and reduces drop-off.
• Turn engagement into transactions: Content that gets liked, shared, or commented on isn’t just vanity—it’s fuel for your funnel. Shoppable posts turn awareness into immediate action.
• Build trust through community: Social media thrives on social proof. Reviews, comments, influencer collaborations, and user-generated content (UGC) become a web of credibility that supports your brand narrative.
• Stay agile and data-informed: You’re not guessing what customers want—you’re watching it happen in real time. Comments, reactions, and performance analytics help shape smarter product launches and campaign decisions.
• Scale your brand with creators: Influencers and content creators give you access to niche, engaged audiences. With the right partnerships, you’re not just renting reach—you’re building it into your customer journey.

Together, these initiatives make social commerce a powerful channel for short-term conversion and long-term brand equity. When done right, it blends storytelling, community, and seamless buying into one continuous experience—meeting modern customers exactly where they are and how they want to shop.

Benefits of social commerce for consumers

Shoppers today are less interested in traditional ecommerce pages and more influenced by authentic experiences, real-time trends, and personalized recommendations. Social commerce thrives because it brings all of that into one frictionless journey, including:

• Convenience: Users can browse, engage, and purchase without switching between apps or tabs. Checkout is integrated directly into the platforms they’re already using daily.
• Relevance: Algorithms ensure that product content matches user behavior, preferences, and demographics. The more users engage, the more curated their shopping experience becomes.
• Trust: Social proof is baked into the platform. Reviews, likes, shares, and influencer endorsements reassure shoppers that they’re making informed decisions.
• Exclusivity: Flash deals, limited-edition drops, and influencer-only discount codes reward users for following and engaging with their favorite brands. These offers also create urgency and FOMO, encouraging immediate action.

This creates a continuous, personalized shopping journey that feels native—not disruptive. Consumers aren’t pulled away from their feed to complete a purchase—they’re brought deeper into a curated, commerce-enabled experience that adapts to their preferences and habits.

How to create a winning social commerce strategy

Whether it’s engaging with the perfect influencer for your audience or showing the ways existing customers benefit from your products, there are a number of ways to build successful social commerce strategies. The right strategy will largely depend on your product, audience, and market. That said, it’s helpful to see how other brands have used the power of social media in their marketing strategy. 

Content Optimization Tips for Social Commerce  

Great content is the foundation of social commerce success. To boost conversions, make sure your product content is:

• Mobile-first: Use high-resolution images with 4:5 aspect ratios and short-form videos that grab attention in the first 3 seconds.
• Optimized for search: Include keywords in product titles and tags that match platform search behavior.
• Story-driven: Use carousel posts, behind-the-scenes content, and customer testimonials to provide product context.
• Localized and personalized: Tailor messaging by geography, language, or audience segment to increase relevance.
• Clear and scannable: Highlight price, availability, and key features in concise captions or overlays.

A well-optimized product post turns browsers into buyers—and builds trust along the way.

Metrics & ROI: How to measure success in social commerce

Measuring the performance of your social commerce strategy is critical to scaling it. Here are key metrics to track:

• Click-through rate (CTR): Measures how often users click on product tags or links.
• Conversion rate: Tracks how many viewers take action to purchase within the app.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Evaluates the performance of paid influencer or shoppable ad campaigns.
• Engagement rate: Likes, shares, comments, and saves show how well content resonates.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Helps gauge cost-effectiveness compared to other channels.
• Revenue per visitor (RPV): Measures the sales value generated per shopper session.

Use analytics tools built into platforms (like Instagram Insights or TikTok Analytics) alongside external solutions for attribution and deeper funnel tracking.

Integration & backend infrastructure

Behind every shoppable post or campaign is an infrastructure that ensures content, product data, and transactions work seamlessly together. Brands that succeed in social commerce build integration-ready tech stacks that include:

• Product Information Management (PIM): Ensures consistent and accurate product data across all platforms.
• Digital Asset Management (DAM): Centralizes images, videos, and content assets for reuse and adaptation.
• Composable Commerce Architecture: Allows modular integration with social platforms, marketplaces, and CMS tools.
• Analytics & Attribution Tools: Provide real-time insight into channel performance and ROI.
• Order Management Systems (OMS): Sync fulfillment, inventory, and returns across digital storefronts.

Inriver’s PIM plays a central role in powering this backend infrastructure—especially for brands managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs across multiple channels. With Syndicate Advance, Inriver enables API-driven syndication, ensuring product data and content are always up to date across your social commerce stack.

Social commerce in action

For example, social commerce has been pivotal to the recent success of Inriver brand New Balance. To achieve this success, the global footwear and apparel brand has put great effort into establishing a cohesive brand identity across all social channels. They have also invested in successful collaborations with well-known celebrities like Donald Glover that have helped elevate their brand identity. Thirdly, they have relentlessly pushed the quality and technological advancements of their products across all social channels.  

Combining these key aspects has allowed New Balance to extract even more value from its social commerce strategy and strengthen its position against brands like Nike and Adidas.  

Building the right social commerce stack

As well as a good strategy and an in-depth understanding of your audience, data is also critical to a successful social commerce strategy. Without the right data management software in place, executing an omnichannel marketing and sales strategy can quickly become complex. That’s why many brands and manufacturers looking to advance their social commerce strategy are turning to Inriver and our next-generation PIM software. As well as the single source of product information truth that the Inriver PIM offers, the Inriver platform also has a number of capabilities that are key to a future-fit social commerce strategy. For example, our built-in Syndicate Advance capability is the only API-based product content syndication capability on the market. It accelerates your time-to-market across all channels while offering bi-directional integration with all leading social commerce platforms.