Social media is the single most important channel for a retailer's marketing strategy. Studies show there were 5.22 billion social media users worldwide as of October 2024, representing approximately 64% of the global population. If you’re not already giving the option to shop on their favorite social apps, you might be missing out.
Social commerce is the strategy of marketing and selling your products through social media platforms. Sales through social media channels worldwide are expected to reach 20.8% in 2026—an opportunity that’s too good to miss.
With so much you need to do to make and keep your ecommerce business successful, social commerce may be the last thing on your list. That’s why in this guide, we go over what you need to know about social commerce platforms and features that make social commerce possible, plus a list of companies that have already mastered social commerce for you to learn from and get inspired.
What is social commerce?
Social commerce is the process of selling products directly through your social media channels—platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. Given that 94.5% of internet users log on to social media each month and that the average social media user is active on 6.8 platforms monthly, there’s huge potential to reach and convert new shoppers through your profiles.
Video, influencer marketing, and live shopping are the biggest strategies and trends shaping the social commerce sphere.
Social commerce makes it easy for people to buy at the moment they’re most interested in your product. It’s changing the way we buy because it removes the friction of leaving the social media app to search for the brand or product on Google. It gives customers everything they need to know and do to make a purchase inside the app.
Some platforms and locations even let merchants offer in-app checkout, meaning the customers can complete their order in the social media app instead of on the merchant’s website.
Nine social commerce examples
The best way to explore social commerce features and platforms is by diving into examples of companies that make the most of them. Here are 10 examples of social commerce excellence in the areas of fashion, beauty, home, and food.
1. 100% PURE
100% PURE, a natural and organic cosmetics retailer, is an international powerhouse. They launched from a farm in California and built a digital and physical presence in a dozen countries.
The brand maximizes their Pinterest presence with a storefront packed with hundreds of product-focused pins.
On top of that, 100% PURE leverages Pinterest ads to show promoted pins to users browsing through other beauty brands and cosmetics-focused pins. In addition to Pinterest, 100% PURE is an Instagram force to be reckoned with. With over 273,000 followers, their photos, Reels, and videos make it easy for 100% PURE’s followers to discover and buy products while they browse the Instagram feed.
It’s no wonder that Ric Kostick, cofounder of 100% PURE, told Shopify: “In five years, we believe our ecommerce business will be eight times the size it is today.”
2. Milk Bar
Milk Bar started as a small bakery in New York City’s East Village in 2008, founded by celebrity chef Christina Tosi. Milk Bar has since grown into a nationwide ecommerce force, selling cakes, cookies, pies, and ice cream.
Before the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, 75% of Milk Bar’s revenue came from their physical stores, and the rest came from online sales. The pandemic changed that. Christina leaned on Instagram—and subsequently on its social commerce features—which has played a key role in Milk Bar’s success ever since.
Live videos, colorful product images, customer takeovers on Stories, and video tutorials are among the content formats Milk Bar leveraged to get in front of people during lockdowns, when they spent more time on social media than ever. With over 800,000 followers today, Milk Bar’s videos often get tens (and sometimes hundreds!) of thousands of views.
This, of course, is a brilliant opportunity to feature related products from Milk Bar’s Instagram storefront. It’s a perfect combination of inspiration, engagement, and shoppability.
Milk Bar’s TikTok profile is packed with recipes and baking tips turned into colorful short-form videos. Many of them are sorted into playlists for easy binge-watching—a fun experience for Milk Bar’s more than 200,000 TikTok followers.
The simple call to action that points to desserts on Milk Bar’s website is a definite plus.
3. JUNO & Co.
JUNO & Co. is a DTC beauty brand that uses TikTok to show how their innovative skincare products work. They’re extremely successful at it: the brand has almost 200,000 TikTok followers and millions of video views on the platform.
After JUNO & Co. joined Shopify’s pilot program for brands to sell their products on TikTok, they saw massive results. “We saw an immediate response. Our sales on TikTok are 10 times what we’ve gained from Instagram and Facebook,” Kyle Jiang, JUNO & CO.’s founder, told Inc. magazine.
JUNO & Co.’s engaging videos include product how-tos, giveaway videos, launches, and educational videos. On Instagram, JUNO & Co. has a slightly lighter, more aesthetic approach. Feed posts are focused on inspiring, visually pleasing images, funny videos, and an occasional cross-posted video from TikTok with no product tags.
4. CLUSE
CLUSE is a fashion brand known for modern watches and jewelry. It was founded in 2009 in the Netherlands and launched a global ecommerce operation in 2014. Instagram was instrumental in CLUSE’s climb to global success.
CLUSE’s Instagram feed resembles a fashion magazine, combining closeups of jewelry and watches with photos of people wearing them. Many of the people on the feed are CLUSE customers, ambassadors, and influencers—an approach that played a massive role in CLUSE’s rise to ecommerce success.
CLUSE brings attention to ambassadors on a dedicated ambassadors page on their website and invites people to use hashtags #CLUSE and #CLUSEclub in their Instagram profile, blending the website and Instagram experience together.
5. Glamnetic
Glamnetic is a beauty retailer known for their magnetic lashes and press-on nails. They sell through their website and social channels, as well as in stores like Sephora, Ulta, and Nordstrom.
Glamnetic’s strongest social commerce suit is live shopping. The brand regularly runs live videos on Facebook, with product demonstrations and pro tips for their community, with exclusive offers for viewers.
“My prediction is that in a couple years, the hottest role for a brand to hire is going to be a head of live shopping,” Kevin Gould, Glamnetic’s cofounder, said in Shopify’s 2022 Future of Commerce report. Glamnetic already employs someone in that role.
Beyond live shopping, Glamnetic takes full advantage of product pages, collections, and tags across all four platforms. Glamnetic is a Verified Merchant on Pinterest, has a rich storefront on Instagram, and embeds their Instagram posts on their homepage for a full-circle experience for its customers.
6. Rothy’s
Rothy’s is an eco-friendly fashion brand famous for their washable shoes and bags. Instagram (more than 300,000 followers) and Pinterest (over 10 million monthly views) are important factors in the brand’s marketing stack.
On Instagram, Rothy’s focuses on colorful lifestyle photos showing what their products look and feel like in everyday life. The majority of the photos have product tags, which take followers straight to the product page on Instagram.
On Pinterest, Rothy’s visuals are more muted, polished, and editorialized—while still aligning with the brand’s look and feel.
Rothy’s uses Shopify’s integration with Pinterest to sync product details like names, descriptions, colors, and inventory levels. This enables them to run Pinterest ads that scale their reach and social commerce sales.
Kate Barrows, senior director of growth at Rothy’s, told AdExchanger: “One of the biggest benefits is that Rothy’s data in Pinterest is automatically updated as information changes in Shopify. If a product goes out of stock in Shopify, Pinterest’s feed automatically updates and stops serving ads for that product. Pinterest Shopping campaigns have helped us scale our advertising program efficiently.”
7. Snug
Snug is a London-based sofa-in-a-box company. Snug offers fast delivery and a 100-day trial, and drove much of their £31.6 million (about $41.4 million) 2021 revenue through social media.
Rob Bridgman, Snug’s founder and CEO, told Econsultancy that “people spend more time researching which sofa to buy than which house.” That’s why the brand doubles down on making such a big purchase simple and accessible—and uses social media like Instagram and Pinterest to reach potential buyers looking for inspiration and ideas.
Snug uses live shopping to create buzz around their products. In November 2021, the brand had a record hour of revenue during a live social-selling event on Instagram with comedian Katherine Ryan. This event saw a 450% uplift in sales compared to a similar event in March 2021.
Home décor is a huge category on Pinterest, and Snug built a strong Pinterest presence to take advantage of this. Snug is a Verified Merchant and reaches more than nine million people on Pinterest each month. Their Pinterest boards are categorized by terms Pinterest users often search for, like “sofas for small spaces” and “stylish sofas.”
Snug’s product-focused pins showcase sofas in real-life settings, along with product tags and names. Clicking on a product takes pinners to a product pin with a description and a button that leads to the website and easy checkout.
8. CALPAK
CALPAK is a travel brand selling luggage, backpacks, duffels, and accessories. It was founded in 1989 and rebranded its products with a more modern look in 2013.
CALPAK’s bright Instagram feed reaches more than 380,000 followers. It’s no surprise that CALPAK gives these followers an array of options to view products, engage with the brand, and make a purchase.
For example, there are several product-focus highlights featuring previously published Stories, including those from customers and influencers. Profile visitors who are ready to purchase a CALPAK product can do so directly from their Instagram storefront through in-app checkout. An alternative option is tapping the link in CALPAK’s profile, right below the Shop Our Feed call to action.
CALPAK’s Instagram Reels are a mix of product teases and how-to videos with product tags for easy access to products, allowing visitors to browse, save, and buy.
Finally, on Pinterest, CALPAK showcases their products in real-life settings with happy customers, organized by specific products.
9. Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Cosmetics is a clean, vegan makeup and beauty brand created by Kylie Jenner. Kylie Cosmetics launched their first products in 2015 and helped turn Kylie Jenner into a billionaire by 2019.
The social media reach of Kylie Cosmetics is a definite outlier on this list, but it’s worth looking into and learning from. Kylie Cosmetics makes the most of Instagram’s commerce capabilities, with over 150 products and detailed descriptions. To showcase and promote those products, the brand partners with numerous influencers and tags the products in images and Reels.
Kylie Cosmetics is also an integral part of TikTok Shopping. When Shopify announced a partnership with TikTok to bring ecommerce features to the app, Kylie Jenner said: “I built my business on social media; it’s where my fans go first to look for what’s new from Kylie Cosmetics. I have so much fun creating TikTok videos, and I love sharing posts of my fans using the products. That’s why I’m excited for Kylie Cosmetics to be one of the first to let customers shop directly on our TikTok!”
Kylie Cosmetics can tag their product in TikTok videos and send viewers to an in-app product page, which can then lead them to the website to make a purchase.
What are the features of social commerce?
Brands can leverage social commerce in many different ways. Here are the key features and functionalities that make buying through social media possible and easy.
Storefronts on social profiles
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook let you create a rich social media storefront. In many ways, these storefronts can reflect the structure of your ecommerce website, with collections, product pages with detailed descriptions, and recommended products.
Shoppable organic posts
Let your followers shop directly from your social media posts, like Instagram feed posts (images and videos), Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, Pinterest pins, Facebook images and carousels, and TikTok videos. These posts look like regular images or videos, with an icon or a label in the corner that indicates there’s one or more products tagged in the post.
Shoppable paid ads
Brands can choose to serve shoppable posts to a targeted audience by running paid social campaigns. Shoppable ads are often based on the products and categories a user has already viewed, so they can serve as a great reminder to continue the purchase.
Branded influencer content
Influencers can also share shoppable posts, by tagging products in their feed posts or Instagram Stories. When a user taps on a product tag, they’re taken directly to the in-app product page on the brand’s profile. In other words, the product isn’t part of the influencer’s profile or shop, but of the brand’s. This is a great way to create a smooth shopping experience for customers who found you through an influencer.
But influencers aren’t just helpful for brand awareness. They’re often part of a larger affiliate strategy. Brands with over $1 million GMV are increasingly seeing affiliate channels, like influencer partnerships, consistently act as a strong last-referring channel across industries and order values.
Globally, affiliate marketing ranks higher than ever in driving conversions, and it makes sense: 74% of consumers say they’ve been influenced to buy based on personal recommendations, which naturally includes influencers they follow and trust.
Live shopping
Live shopping merges live video and ecommerce. With live shopping, brands can create a fun, interactive livestream experience and promote their products, which viewers can then buy directly from the livestream.
Live shopping is big in the Asian market, where it reached about $171 billion in 2020. Slowly but surely, live shopping is expanding to Western countries, and it’s predicted to account for as much as 10% to 20% of all ecommerce by 2026. Brands like Aldo and Walmart ran live shopping events with success.
Content from social on brands’ social profiles and ecommerce websites
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for brands to merge organic posts by customers with the capabilities of social platforms. One way brands do this is by featuring their users’ posts on their social profiles, tagging the user and the products they’re wearing.
Messaging capabilities from in-app product pages
In a physical store, potential customers can ask store assistants for help. On ecommerce websites, there’s a live chat option that plays the role of that store assistant. On social media, it comes down to DMs—the option to message a brand directly. The closer the messaging option is to the product or collection page, the smoother the experience will be for users.
How social media platforms enable social commerce
Let’s run through key features and capabilities of four key places to build a social commerce strategy: Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok.
Instagram Shopping lets you take advantage of rich, diverse media formats and options to sell your products through the platform. You can:
- Customize your storefront to sell and showcase your brand.
- Curate products into themes like seasonal trends or new arrivals.
- Display pricing, descriptions, and tagged content on Product Detail Pages.
- Allow direct in-app purchases with Instagram Checkout.
- Highlight products in Feed, Stories, Reels, and profile bios using Product Tags.
- Boost shoppable posts with ads that include Product Tags.
- Manage shop setup and product catalogs through Commerce Manager.
- Collaborate with creators to promote products.
- Access guides, case studies, and events.
One of Instagram’s strengths is its ability to mix content formats to maximize their reach and impact. For example, you can share image posts with product tags in Stories or in Instagram Guides.
Another example is turning a live video into a long-form video that permanently stays on your profile. This way, your product-focused content can get more mileage and make sales long after it was posted.
Shopping on Pinterest lets you upload your product catalog. If you want to show different products in different markets, you can upload multiple feeds to the same account.
From there, you can add a Pinterest tag to your website to measure conversions from Pinterest and optimize ads. Ads on Pinterest include social shopping ads with product descriptions, pricing, availability, and customer reviews, as well as collection ads with slideshows and videos for richer content.
You can apply for Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program, which gives you an exclusive Verified Merchant badge, generates a Shop tab on your profile, and shows your products as related pins.
If your store is on Shopify, you can connect it to Pinterest right within Shopify and automatically add your catalog to Pinterest and set up all the back end you need to sell on the platform.
Once you have a Facebook page, you can create a Facebook shop and add your products to it. Similarly to Instagram, you can direct users to your shop from the top of your profile with a prominent button.
Users can discover your shop and products through product tags in Stories and ads. In your Facebook shop, they can browse product collections, view product descriptions, save products to their wish list, place an order (in-app in the US or on the website), and message you about a specific product.
TikTok
TikTok is the newest social media platform to implement social commerce capabilities for merchants. Through TikTok’s integration with Shopify, you can add a Shop tab to your profile and sync it with your product catalog, if you have a TikTok For Business account.
In regions where TikTok Shop is available (like the UK), sellers can sign up with a phone number or email address—no existing follower count required—to unlock benefits like reduced commissions, no product-listing fees, and direct support from TikTok Shop Experts. You can create live shopping events where viewers purchase in real time, or embed products right into short-form videos so shoppers can tap and buy without leaving the app.
Merchants also have access to resources like feature guides, seller campaigns (e.g., Black Friday promos), and educational courses to help optimize live events, short videos, and in-app store layouts. Once you reach certain sales milestones, TikTok connects you with dedicated account managers for one-on-one coaching.
TikTok also lets you run ads and target demographics, location, and behaviors as broad or defined as you want. With the TikTok pixel, you can track performance of your ads and find opportunities for even better results.
YouTube
YouTube is rapidly becoming a social commerce channel thanks to features like YouTube Shopping, product tagging, and live shopping events. Eligible creators can connect their store, whether it’s a merch provider or another retailer, directly to YouTube.
YouTube also offers multiple tools to promote products, including:
- Tagging products in videos, Shorts, and livestreams
- Featuring products in a dedicated channel store
- Adding products to video descriptions
- Surfacing a product shelf directly under each piece of content
For instance, if you’re a fashion retailer, you can display curated product listings under your latest try-on haul, or if you’re a beauty influencer, you can tag products from your store for viewers to purchase without leaving YouTube. These items can show up in a special Shopping button, making it simple for potential buyers to explore item details (like color or size).
The Shop network and social commerce
The Shop network includes the Shop app, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, Shop Campaigns, and Shop Cash. It’s a mobile-first shopping channel and digital wallet used by more than 150 million shoppers worldwide, and it’s growing fast.
In 2023 alone, the number of buyers purchasing on Shop increased 260%, fueled by features like quick checkout with Shop Pay (chosen 68% of the time when available) and flexible payment options via Shop Pay Installments.
If you already serve customers in the US, chances are 43% of them are Shop Pay users (32% in Canada, 25% in the UK, and 31% in Australia). Why? Because Shop Pay provides a checkout flow that can convert up to 50% better than typical or guest checkout, outpacing other accelerated solutions by as much as 10%.
Once customers buy through Shop, they’re significantly more likely to come back: 59% of orders on the Shop app are from return buyers, while 20% of orders are from buyers who previously purchased from the same business on Shop. Among the top 100 brands using the app, these repeat shoppers make another purchase up to 6.3 times faster than those who only visit a standalone Shopify website.
Shop Campaigns are another powerful growth engine. They help brands increase new customer acquisition by up to 24%, with half of participating businesses capturing a first order within just 48 hours.
In 2023, Shop Campaigns helped brands acquire over one million new customers—and by the 2024 holiday season, more than 10,000 brands saw new shoppers flow in. Orders via Shop Campaigns even tripled between Black Friday 2023 and Black Friday 2024.
How Shopify can power up your social commerce
Social commerce can bring your community, customer loyalty, sales, revenue, and brand awareness to the next level. Just like with many of the brands we covered, it can be the foundation for explosive growth.
When it comes to executing a social commerce strategy, Shopify merchants have an advantage. On Shopify, you can create, run, and optimize social campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok from within your admin and turn them into your shop’s sales channels. For example, Shopify makes it easy to create product links, in-feed ads, and a shopping tab to your TikTok profile.
Beyond that, Shopify’s advanced segmentation and first-party data capabilities help you connect with the right audiences at the right time. You can build customer segments in minutes using ShopifyQL and keep them updated across your entire ecosystem, so you always have accurate data to fuel your social commerce.
Finally, Shopify Audiences supercharges your ads by tapping into a data co-op from participating businesses. You can generate specialized lists like Retargeting Boost to reach those who engaged but didn’t buy yet, or Existing Customer to win repeat purchases, all proven to enhance returns on your marketing investment.
In fact, campaigns using the latest Retargeting Boost lists have seen up to two times more orders per marketing dollar, and using Audiences for awareness campaigns can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%.
Together, these Shopify tools provide you with the data, targeting, and automation needed to maximize every social commerce opportunity.
FAQ on social commerce examples
What is social commerce with an example?
Social commerce is selling products directly through social media platforms, so customers can discover and purchase without leaving the app. For example, a clothing brand tagging products in an Instagram post so followers can tap, view details, and buy on Instagram itself is a perfect example of social commerce.
Is Facebook a social commerce platform?
Yes, Facebook has a built-in Shop feature that businesses can use to list products, create collections, and allow users to buy directly from the platform.
What is an example of social selling?
An example of social selling is a beauty brand using TikTok Shop to embed products directly into short-form videos, so viewers can discover and purchase without ever leaving the app.
Is Amazon social commerce?
Amazon isn’t traditionally considered a social network, so it’s not purely social commerce. However, it has social-like features such as customer reviews, influencer storefronts, and live streams, which are elements that blend ecommerce with social engagement.
