Key Benefits of Social Commerce to Customers

Kensho

Skai

Summary

The convergence of social media and ecommerce has transformed how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products. Social commerce has emerged as a powerful force reshaping consumer behavior in two distinct but complementary ways: through direct platform-integrated shopping experiences and by influencing the broader commerce journey. This evolution isn’t just changing how brands market their products; it’s fundamentally altering customer experiences by creating more intuitive, engaging, and frictionless shopping journeys. As platforms continue to innovate with features like in-app checkout, shoppable posts, and AR try-on experiences, consumers are embracing these new pathways to purchase that feel less like traditional commerce and more like natural extensions of their social interactions.

Read about the benefits of social commerce for your business.

The Evolution of Social Commerce

From Traditional Ecommerce to Social Shopping

Traditional ecommerce emerged as a digital translation of physical retail with structured catalogs and shopping carts, requiring consumers to actively seek out products with specific intent. Social commerce inverts this model by bringing products directly into spaces where people already spend time. Instead of search-driven intent, it leverages passive discovery, recommendation, and influence, with products appearing naturally in content streams curated by creators, friends, and preference-aware algorithms. Developing an effective social commerce strategy begins with understanding this fundamental shift in discovery.

Advertising is the foundation of successful social commerce. Unlike traditional retail media that targets shoppers with explicit purchase intent, social advertising excels at turning passive browsing into active consideration through highly visual, targeted content. This shift has made social platforms essential touchpoints in the purchase journey, whether transactions occur within the platform or on retailer sites.

The effectiveness of this approach is clear: according to our State of Retail Media 2025 report, 83% of US consumer goods marketers say that advertising on social media is important to them—a 69% increase from last year—demonstrating its power to influence consumer decisions across the entire path to purchase.

Integration of Shopping Features on Social Platforms

Shopping features on social media platforms have evolved from basic product tagging with external links to sophisticated native commerce experiences. Today’s platforms offer seamless shopping experiences:

  • Instagram enables in-app purchasing from posts and stories
  • Pinterest connects inspiration directly to transactions through shoppable pins
  • TikTok allows creators to tag products in videos
  • Facebook Marketplace has evolved into a sophisticated commerce engine
  • Snapchat offers AR shopping lenses for virtual product try-ons

These innovations have created new opportunities for brands to connect with consumers through social commerce advertising that feels native to each platform’s unique environment. For retail media marketers, these touchpoints represent critical components of an omnichannel strategy—whether driving direct platform purchases or influencing transactions that ultimately occur on retailer sites. By connecting these experiences, brands can create cohesive consumer journeys that maintain engagement across all shopping environments.

The Rise of Social Commerce During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated social commerce adoption, as physical retail closures drove consumers to seek products and connections online. Social platforms became critical touchpoints for shopping and interaction, providing not just products but context, community, and conversation.

The statistics demonstrate this shift: U.S. social commerce sales grew by 35.8% in 2021, and as of 2025, more than 67% of all consumers report making at least one purchase per month through a social platform. The persistence of these behaviors after physical retail reopened indicates a fundamental change in consumer expectations rather than a temporary adjustment.

This reflects the genuine utility social commerce provides. Consumers discovered that these new purchase pathways—whether completing transactions directly on platforms or being directed to retailer sites through advertising—delivered superior convenience, better product discovery, and more engaging experiences than traditional ecommerce. According to our State of Retail Media 2025 report, 68% of advertisers plan to increase their social commerce budgets this year, recognizing that these paths deliver substantial value to consumers. The pandemic accelerated adoption, but the benefits experienced have made social commerce a permanent fixture in retail.

How Consumers Benefit from Social Commerce

The rapid adoption of social commerce isn’t happening by accident. Consumers are embracing these new shopping pathways because they deliver meaningful benefits that address longstanding pain points in the digital shopping journey. These advantages go far beyond simple convenience, creating fundamentally different—and often better—ways to discover, evaluate, and purchase products.

1. Enhanced Shopping Experience Through Social Proof

Perhaps the most powerful advantage social commerce offers is its ability to surround products with authentic social context—something traditional ecommerce has always struggled to replicate. This context creates confidence, reduces purchase anxiety, and helps consumers make decisions they’re less likely to regret.

Real-time Customer Reviews and Ratings

Social commerce platforms integrate reviews and ratings directly into the discovery experience, making them more visible and immediate than on traditional ecommerce sites. Rather than requiring shoppers to actively click through to a review section, these platforms surface feedback at the moment of discovery, reducing the steps between interest and validation.

The real-time nature of social platforms also means reviews often feel more current and relevant. Consumers can see reactions to products posted days or even hours ago, rather than reading feedback that might be months or years old. This recency creates greater confidence that the information reflects the current product experience, which is particularly important for categories where products are frequently updated or where quality can vary over time.

Just as importantly, social commerce often connects reviews to real identities rather than anonymous usernames. When consumers can see that feedback comes from actual people with visible profiles and histories, it dramatically increases the perceived trustworthiness of that information.

User-generated Content and Authentic Product Photos

One of the most persistent challenges in online shopping has been visualizing products in real-world contexts. Professional product photography, while high-quality, often fails to show how items actually look when used by regular consumers. Social commerce addresses this gap by seamlessly integrating user-generated content alongside official product imagery.

When customers can see products being used by real people in everyday settings, it transforms their ability to evaluate fit, size, appearance, and functionality. A piece of furniture shown in an actual home, clothing worn by people with diverse body types, or cosmetics applied by consumers with different skin tones all provide context that professional photography rarely captures. This authentic visual information dramatically reduces purchase uncertainty.

The volume of this content is equally important. While traditional ecommerce sites might feature a handful of customer photos, social platforms can surface hundreds or thousands of real-world examples. This abundance creates a more complete picture of the product experience, showing not just the ideal use case but the full spectrum of possibilities and limitations.

Social Validation Through Friend Recommendations

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of social commerce is its ability to leverage existing social connections as trust mechanisms. When products appear with indications that friends or connections have purchased, recommended, or engaged with them, it creates a powerful form of validation.

This validation operates on multiple levels. At its most basic, seeing that friends have purchased a product creates a simple form of social proof. More powerfully, some platforms enable users to directly ask their network for opinions about products they’re considering, receiving personalized recommendations from people whose tastes and standards they understand. Most sophisticated of all, algorithm-driven recommendations can highlight products popular among users with similar purchase histories or demographic profiles, creating a form of implied social validation even among strangers.

2. Seamless Integration of Discovery and Purchase

Traditional ecommerce often separated product discovery from purchase. Consumers might discover products in one context (advertising, media, conversations) before seeking them out elsewhere. Social commerce bridges this gap in two powerful ways: enabling purchases directly within platforms and creating seamless journeys to retailer sites through strategic advertising. Both paths transform how consumers move from inspiration to action.

One-click Shopping

Social commerce offers consumers flexible purchasing options that align with their preferences. For those who want a quick and easy shopping experience, in-platform purchasing allows completion without leaving the social environment. Meanwhile, advertising-driven journeys to retailer sites provide consumers with additional benefits such as established loyalty programs, broader shipping options, and familiar checkout experiences.

The key innovation is how social commerce advertising maintains the connection between discovery and purchase regardless of where the transaction is completed. In-platform purchasing offers convenience and immediacy, while retailer-site completion provides trust and additional services. According to eMarketer, 67% of US social media users research products on social platforms before making a purchase, demonstrating the effectiveness of this dual approach.

Personalized Product Recommendations

Social platforms possess uniquely valuable data about consumer preferences, behaviors, and connections. This information powers recommendation engines that can identify products likely to appeal to specific users with remarkable accuracy. Unlike traditional ecommerce recommendations, which typically rely only on purchase history, social commerce can incorporate a much broader range of signals: content engagement, friend activities, expressed interests, and even time spent viewing certain types of products.

The sophistication of these systems creates a form of “predictive shopping” that can surface products consumers didn’t even know they wanted. Rather than requiring active search, social commerce allows for passive discovery guided by algorithms that understand individual preferences at a granular level. This creates shopping experiences that feel spontaneous yet remarkably relevant—like having a personal shopper who understands your taste perfectly.

Equally important is how these recommendations are delivered. Rather than appearing as obvious advertising or in dedicated “recommended products” sections, social commerce integrates suggestions naturally within content streams. This contextual presentation makes recommendations feel like helpful discoveries rather than marketing messages, increasing their perceived value and the likelihood of engagement.

Interactive Shopping Features

Social commerce has pioneered interactive features that transform passive browsing into active engagement. These capabilities address longstanding consumer pain points in online shopping, particularly around product visualization and understanding.

Live shopping brings the energy and immediacy of television shopping channels to social platforms, but with critical advantages: two-way interaction, community participation, and flexible purchasing options. Consumers can ask questions in real time, see products demonstrated by hosts they trust, and benefit from the collective curiosity of other viewers. Whether they complete their purchase within the platform or are directed to a retailer’s site through advertising, consumers maintain the engagement and excitement generated during these shared experiences.

Augmented reality try-on features address one of the most persistent barriers to online purchasing: uncertainty about how products will look or fit in real-world contexts. Consumers can now virtually place furniture in their homes, try on glasses, clothing, or cosmetics, and visualize products in their actual environments. These capabilities reduce return rates while increasing purchase confidence, solving problems that have plagued online retail since its inception.

3. Improved Customer Convenience and Support

Beyond discovery and transaction, social commerce is reshaping how consumers get information, assistance, and service throughout their shopping journeys. Embedding these functions directly within social platforms creates more accessible, responsive, and human support experiences, improving customer satisfaction.

Direct Communication with Brands

Traditional customer service required navigating phone systems, writing emails, or visiting physical locations—all high-effort activities with significant time delays. Social commerce platforms collapse these barriers, enabling immediate, conversational interaction.

Messaging functionality within platforms allows consumers to ask pre-purchase questions about specifications, compatibility, or availability without leaving the shopping environment. This immediate access to information often makes the difference between completing a purchase and abandoning it due to uncertainty. Post-purchase, the same channels provide convenient ways to resolve issues, track orders, or get usage assistance. This direct line of communication fundamentally transforms customer relations, creating ongoing conversations rather than isolated transactions.

Equally important is the public nature of these interactions. When communications happen within social platforms, other consumers can benefit from the information shared. Questions asked and answered become a resource for the broader community, creating a more efficient support ecosystem that benefits both brands and customers. The visibility also creates accountability, incentivizing companies to provide responsive, high-quality service.

Community-Based Shopping Assistance

Beyond direct brand communication, social commerce enables peer-to-peer assistance that can be even more valuable in many shopping contexts. When consumers have questions about products, they can tap into communities of existing users who often provide more detailed, honest, and experience-based information than official brand channels.

These community dynamics work at multiple scales. At the smallest level, shoppers can tag specific friends to get personalized advice about products they’re considering. More broadly, product-focused groups or hashtags create spaces where enthusiasts share detailed insights, usage tips, and authentic feedback. At the largest scale, platforms enable questions to be surfaced to anyone who has purchased or engaged with a specific product, creating instant access to relevant expertise.

The real innovation here is how social commerce integrates these community resources directly into the shopping journey. Rather than requiring consumers to seek out separate forums or review sites, assistance is available at the moment of consideration, reducing both the effort required and the likelihood of purchase abandonment due to unanswered questions.

Real-Time Order Updates and Tracking

The post-purchase experience has traditionally been a weak point in ecommerce, with limited visibility into order status and delivery timelines. Social commerce platforms are addressing this gap by integrating real-time tracking and updates directly into the same environments where purchases are made.

Consumers can receive notifications about shipment, delivery, and even product restocks without downloading separate apps or visiting multiple websites. This continuity creates a more cohesive experience while reducing the time and effort required to track purchases across multiple systems.

The social dimension adds value here as well. When delivery issues arise, consumers can often resolve them more quickly through platform-based communication than through traditional customer service channels. The immediacy and informality of these interactions typically lead to faster resolution and higher satisfaction, particularly for time-sensitive situations.

By connecting social commerce experiences with broader retail channels, brands can provide even more comprehensive customer support. When consumers research products on social platforms before purchasing from retailers, their cross-channel history enables more personalized assistance. Data from these integrated journeys helps brands understand the full context of customer interactions, resulting in more relevant recommendations and more efficient issue resolution. This connected approach represents the future of commerce, where boundaries between channels disappear from the consumer perspective.

Reach, Engage, and Acquire Customers with Skai

As social commerce continues to reshape consumer expectations, brands need sophisticated tools to capitalize on these evolving shopping behaviors. Skai’s comprehensive Paid Social solution enables marketers to reach audiences effectively across all major social platforms from one centralized system. With industry-leading capabilities in creative management, audience targeting, and optimization, we help brands deliver seamless social commerce experiences that connect with consumers wherever they engage.

Our platform uniquely positions brands to leverage the full potential of social commerce: optimizing platform-integrated shopping while also maximizing the impact of social advertising on retailer-site conversions. Advanced features like Creative AI automatically classify and analyze performance across visual assets, while Dynamic Commerce Ads create frictionless shopping experiences by linking consumers directly to their retailer of choice with real-time product information.

What sets Skai apart is our ability to connect these social commerce initiatives with broader retail media strategies. Our omnichannel measurement solutions help marketers understand how social engagement influences shopping behavior across the entire consumer journey, providing the insights needed to optimize campaigns for maximum impact regardless of where transactions occur. For marketers looking to master the complexities of social commerce and deliver the benefits customers now expect, Skai provides the technology and expertise to execute effectively at scale.

Ready to transform your social commerce strategy? Book a demo today.

FAQ

What is the main benefit of social commerce for consumers?

The primary benefit of social commerce for consumers is the seamless integration of product discovery with purchase, whether completed directly within social platforms or on retailer sites. Both paths eliminate the traditional disconnect between finding and buying products, creating natural, frictionless shopping experiences enhanced by social proof, personalized recommendations, and community engagement. Effective advertising ensures that consumers enjoy a cohesive journey from inspiration to purchase.

How does social commerce improve the shopping experience compared to traditional ecommerce?

Social commerce enhances the shopping experience by surrounding products with authentic context through real user photos, reviews from actual identifiable people, and friend recommendations—all integrated directly into content streams. It also enables interactive features like live stream shopping while providing more immediate access to brand and community assistance throughout the purchase journey.

Does social commerce actually increase customer confidence in purchases?

Yes, social commerce significantly increases purchase confidence through multiple mechanisms. Access to authentic user-generated content shows how products perform in real-world settings, validation from friends and like-minded community members provides trusted guidance, and interactive features like AR try-ons help consumers visualize products before buying. These social context elements reduce uncertainty and create more informed, confident purchasing decisions.

How do consumers benefit when social commerce and retail media strategies are connected?

When brands integrate their social commerce and retail media approaches, consumers enjoy more consistent, personalized experiences throughout their shopping journey. The discovery process on social platforms informs product recommendations on retailer sites, creating continuity between touchpoints. This integration also enables more relevant advertising based on comprehensive consumer insights, ensuring shoppers see products aligned with their interests regardless of which channel they’re using. For consumers, this means less repetitive messaging, more useful recommendations, and shopping experiences that feel cohesive rather than fragmented.

More like this