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Why social commerce demands a new kind of strategy
Find out why social commerce needs a new approach that links behaviour, storytelling and data to drive customer trust and performance.
Find out why social commerce needs a new approach that links behaviour, storytelling and data to drive customer trust and performance.
Most retailers still treat social media as a marketing channel. Post content, build awareness, drive traffic to the website, close the sale.
That model is dying faster than we realise.
Retail has experienced continuous digital transformations. Across two decades, each shift has reshaped how people shop. It has become almost a new sales channel, rather than platform for promotion.
But what's happening with social commerce is different.
This isn't about adding another sales channel. It's about recognising that social buying behaviour has fundamentally changed.
The collapsed customer journey we're seeing today compresses what used to take weeks into minutes.
61% prefer completing transactions without ever leaving their social platforms.
Most retailers haven't caught up yet.
When social and sales data sit in silos, retailers lose the ability to see what actually drives customer action.
Engagement metrics might look strong with thousands of likes, shares, and video views.
But without linking those interactions to purchase data, it's impossible to tell which content influences revenue.
This pattern repeats across retail:
Then someone checks conversion data and finds almost no one bought anything.This disconnect leads to misplaced investment.
Retailers promote content that builds visibility but not conversions. They miss signals from social communities that could guide inventory, pricing, or creative decisions.
Data silos leave 60% of business data unknown or inaccessible to the people who need it. Attribution models quickly lose accuracy and marketing spend becomes harder to justify.
When systems connect, retailers gain a single view of performance. They understand not just who engages, but why people buy. Connected analytics turn fragmented signals into commercial clarity.
Without connected analytics, every content decision becomes guesswork.
Previous digital shifts were largely about new sales channels. Mobile meant building responsive sites. Marketplaces meant listing products on Amazon.
Social commerce is different because it's changing behaviour, not just infrastructure.
Before 2020, social content sparked ideas, but buying happened elsewhere.
Today, social shopping behaviour has transformed entirely.
Shoppers discover a product in a creator's video, read peer comments for validation, and complete the transaction in the same feed. All within minutes.
These social shopping trends reflect what's new: not just the speed, but the trust dynamic.
Customers now rely more on social proof than traditional brand messaging. The creator economy influence has reshaped purchase decisions through micro-communities, peer engagement, and authentic recommendations. Not ad campaigns alone.
It's shopping as participation, not promotion. Influence, authenticity, and convenience merge into one behaviour loop.
This is the new reality of social shopping behaviour. When retailers recognise this behavioural shift, they can measure how participation drives revenue in ways traditional advertising never could.
Understanding this behavioural shift helps retailers identify which data points matter most and where to focus creative investment for maximum commercial impact.
Social teams have spent years being measured on reach and engagement. Those metrics aren't wrong. They're incomplete.
Calculating true social ROI requires reframing those metrics as part of a bigger performance story.
When you link social activity to sales and loyalty data, engagement becomes meaningful.
Commerce attribution models can prove how creative work influences real customer decisions.
One of the first insights retailers uncover when connecting data: their most engaged audiences aren't always their best customers.
A campaign might drive massive attention, but buyers often come from a smaller, more specific segment. They interact differently. Through product reviews, tagged posts, referral links rather than likes.
Seeing that contrast helps retailers fine-tune targeting and creative. Instead of chasing broad engagement, they can focus on content and channels that actually convert.
It's the first moment social teams and ecommerce teams start speaking the same language. Retail performance analytics become the shared language.
Value, not volume.
The shift to community-driven content means rethinking the traditional broadcast model. In social commerce, people don't just watch or click. They comment, remix, recommend, and expect to be part of the experience.
Social storytelling works differently. It means shifting from polished, campaign-driven content to more authentic, conversational formats that invite interaction.
Product storytelling works best when it feels collaborative, built around real voices and real moments.
The most successful retailers design customer co-creation loops, not campaigns. They create stories that spark dialogue, reward contribution, and make customers feel seen.
Participation isn't the goal. It's the medium.
When customer co-creation becomes the foundation of content strategy, community engagement translates directly into commercial performance.
Social commerce adoption is accelerating faster than most retailers realise.
The market is projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, representing over 17% of all global ecommerce transactions by 2028.
But the real risk for retailers who ignore this shift isn't just lost revenue. It's lost cultural relevance.
Gen Z shopping habits are rewriting retail rules. Half of them prefer to complete transactions without ever leaving their social apps.
This generational shift isn't a passing trend. It's a fundamental expectation.
These shoppers grew up with social platforms as their primary digital environment. For them, separating social engagement from shopping feels unnatural.
Social commerce adoption among younger consumers reveals where the entire market is heading.
Retailers who stay on the sidelines will find their audiences have moved on. Not out of disinterest, but because trust and conversation will have migrated to brands that meet them where they already spend time.
The brands that thrive will be those treating social spaces as living ecosystems. Places to listen, respond, and change alongside their customers. Not just advertise to them.
The first step isn't technical. It's strategic.
The starting point is mapping where key customer and commerce data actually lives, then building agreement on which metrics matter most across teams. This alignment avoids patchwork fixes that only add complexity.
From there, focus on creating a lightweight integration layer or shared reporting environment. Even a partial connection between sales, marketing, and customer engagement data reveals quick wins and validates investment for deeper integration.
A successful data integration strategy starts with understanding the story data tells. The customer journey gets mapped across touchpoints before building technical solutions.
The toughest barrier is usually ownership:
The fix starts with leadership redefining shared goals. Uniting brand, content, and commerce teams around a single customer outcome rather than separate targets.
Once that shared accountability is in place, technology integration and process change follow naturally.
Connected commerce requires organisational alignment first, technical implementation second. Data collaboration across functions turns theoretical strategy into measurable results.
When leadership commits to shared accountability and cross-functional goals, connected commerce becomes possible.
Without that commitment, even the best technical infrastructure remains underutilised.
Building social commerce maturity now is how retailers future-proof their strategies for a market where social and shopping are no longer separate activities.
Social commerce is reshaping how customers discover, evaluate and buy products.
It is also changing how retailers think, measure and connect across every stage of the customer experience.
These takeaways highlight the most important shifts and where teams can create measurable growth.
Social commerce blends discovery, engagement, and purchase into a single environment, often within the same social feed. Understanding this shift helps retailers meet customers where they already spend time and attention.
Without connected data, retailers can’t see how social engagement influences real purchase behaviour. Unified analytics create a single view of performance, turning social signals into actionable revenue insights.
Start by linking engagement metrics to sales and loyalty outcomes. This approach reveals which content formats and audiences drive true conversion. Adopting modern commerce attribution models makes marketing investment measurable and defensible.
Community-led storytelling generates trust and participation, influencing buying decisions far more than polished campaigns.
Younger audiences view social platforms as natural shopping environments, valuing authenticity and immediacy over traditional retail journeys. Retailers that align to these expectations gain cultural relevance and competitive advantage.
It starts with leadership alignment, shared metrics, and connected data systems across teams. Once these foundations are set, technology integration delivers measurable growth and social commerce maturity.
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