Swipe, Shop, Sell: The New Era of Social Commerce

Social media began as a place for people to post, share, and communicate, but it quickly also became a space where individuals could build significant followings attractive to advertisers and marketers. This corporatization, in part, spawned the “creator economy,” a collaboration of brands and individual “creators” who monetize digital content across various social media platforms and generate income from brand sponsorships, platform ad revenue, advertising, and their own web stores. Alongside the creator economy is the use of social media by small businesses, which can now open a web store on a social platform without necessarily building entire web storefronts or even having their own websites.

Social shopping can be broadly defined as the way consumers research, buy, and sell goods on social media platforms. The concept has been around since the dawning of social media. More recently, social media platforms have launched their own commerce platforms, which have been referred to as social commerce. Some example platforms include Facebook Shops, Instagram Shop, TikTok Shop, and Snapchat Shopping. The idea is that commerce takes place entirely within the social media app and provides an easy way for creators and businesses to list and sell their products.

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Facebook, Instagram, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X