ShopAble 2025: Why Social Commerce Is Now Core to Retail Media

ShopAble 2025 is an annual commerce media event hosted by Skai, gathering marketing leaders, industry innovators, and brand executives to explore emerging trends and practical strategies driving the future of commerce. Held in New York, ShopAble offered candid insights, actionable takeaways, and real-world stories from the forefront of retail media, generative AI, and omnichannel marketing.

Social commerce is driving measurable revenue for many brands, but in too many cases, it’s still sitting off to the side of core media and commerce strategy. That’s exactly the conversation this panel took on at ShopAble 2025, as marketers compared where social commerce fits today, and where it needs to go next.

As the space evolves, too many organizations are still treating it as a side project for brand teams, while the rest of the funnel runs on retail media, performance marketing, and data-driven investment. But with 55% of marketers now integrating social commerce into their retail media efforts, that division no longer makes sense.

Host Matt Vignieri, Chief Growth Officer at Skai, opened the session with a clear message: if social commerce is going to deliver measurable results, marketers need to get serious about where it fits, how it’s measured, and how teams are structured around it.

Panelists:
• Kara Babb, Founder, High Tide Commerce
• Joshua Gebhardt, Co-Founder & CEO, Ampd
• Marta Dalton, VP, Marketing & Innovation, PetSafe Brands

Watch the full session recording.

What is social commerce? And why does it matter now?

Babb: “You can’t have commerce without social, right? It’s where people discover products. You have both the hunter and the gathering aspects. It’s where people are influenced… It’s a combination of brands needing to be on those social platforms, talking about their brand through influencers, affiliates, but also organically as their own selves engaging with customers.

“And from an operational and retail perspective, making sure that you’re everywhere a customer wants to shop, with fast shipping, great content, and great reviews. But everything has to start with the social piece.”

Dalton: “We’ve been buying socially for a really long time. This is why infomercials were a thing. You would trust celebrities, your friends, and coworkers. We’re still using the same behavior, it’s just that we’re doing it online now.

“And in our world, it’s not just, ‘Do I want to be on TikTok Shop?’ It’s, ‘How do I get the conversation to have them transact wherever?’ That could even be offline.”

Gebhardt: “Social commerce is not just a nice-to-have. It is a necessity. People are going to these platforms to get inspired, and then they want to buy wherever they want to buy. Brands have to be ready for that.”

What are the challenges with measurement and attribution?

Gebhardt: “A big challenge is being able to understand how it’s impacting your brand and your actual sales… Can you measure the immediate effect? The downstream effect? CFOs are demanding that it’s measurable. You need to show that it’s getting results.”

Babb: “Brands get tripped up when they try to attribute everything to an exact result. Sometimes you just have to go based on directional inputs.

“And it’s not just about ROAS in the next three months. It’s about what seeds are you planting now that will impact your brand visibility—and where your brand shows up—in the next couple of years.”

Dalton: “The one thing to add there is when we talk about niches… [niches are riches, right?] When you go on TikTok, it’s all about the communities you engage with. You don’t have to—we’re beyond the days where you just have to spend a million dollars on one broad campaign to try to hit everybody.

“I look at the examples of Scrub Daddy—if they can sell sponges and make sponges funny, I’m pretty sure you can make your product engaging on TikTok, right?”

How do brands need to evolve team structure and collaboration?

Dalton: “One of the biggest things is being able to work better across teams. In a lot of big brands, you have awareness and upper funnel or organic owned by one group, and paid somewhere else. Are they actually having a conversation about how these things work together?

“You need creative, PR, comms, media—all working together.”

Babb: “When you have really strong brand silos, that’s where you see brands moving too slowly while scrappy upstarts are moving fast and winning on social.

“You don’t need to staff huge teams of analysts. You need to pivot resources and hire content creators and people who can represent your brand on social. That’s where I would invest.”

Gebhardt: “You have to be there, especially if you’re an incumbent brand. The business is at stake here. If you don’t show up in these places, challengers will take your market share.”

What advice would you give marketers on where to go from here?

Babb: “Start doing it organically. Just post as your brand and see how people respond. Understand what you mean in the context of social and your customer. And then think about how you’re going to stay relevant for the next five to ten years.”

Gebhardt: “You need to get all your teams to think and act as one.

“The shopper today isn’t thinking in shopper dollars or trade or brand. They want to shop wherever they want, whenever they want. Your teams need to work together—commerce, brand, sales, ecomm—and start spending in that direction together.”

Dalton: “Find a test you and your executive team can agree on. It should be big enough to be meaningful, but not so big that it scares people. Test, learn, prove, and then grow.”

Key Takeaways for Marketers

Social commerce is no longer optional—it’s a core part of the commerce strategy.
Brands that treat it as a side project for brand teams are falling behind. Social commerce needs to be integrated into retail media and performance marketing strategy.

Measurement remains challenging, but directional impact matters.
Not everything will tie to ROAS in a neat window. Focus on brand visibility, content seeding, and long-term influence on consumer behavior.

Creative and content velocity are critical.
Winning in social commerce requires an always-on approach to content and engagement. Brands need to resource for this and streamline collaboration across teams.

Cross-functional collaboration is a must.
Teams need to break silos and work across media, creative, PR, commerce, and sales to drive results.

Start small, but start now.
Don’t wait for perfect alignment. Identify test opportunities, build internal learnings, and evolve your program iteratively.

Social commerce is moving fast, and as this panel made clear, brands that aren’t building integrated strategies around it risk getting left behind. It’s time to rethink ownership and start aligning teams to drive real impact.Watch the full session recording.