Report Highlights Social Shopping Trend Challenges

Social shopping, the integration of e-commerce within social media platforms, has seen a slow but steady evolution since its adoption in the West. While more prevalent in Asian markets, in-stream shopping has seen a gradual increase in its overall performance – but also a number of major challenges holding it back.

TikTok, for example, is striving to replicate the success of Douyin, its Chinese counterpart, which saw a remarkable $375 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2023. In contrast, TikTok’s in-app spending in the Western market amounted to approximately $4 billion, largely driven by in-app purchases for creator donations.

Research from eMarketer provides insight into current social shopping trends. According to the report, Facebook is the dominant platform for driving shopping behavior among social media users. This is primarily due to Facebook Marketplace, which almost acts like a separate service that users are free to ignore and aren’t regularly served in-stream.

However, audiences haven’t yet warmed up to the idea of buying something directly from a social media site, and instead prefer buying from sites that are advertised on social platforms instead. In many cases, security is one of their biggest hangups about this kind of instant purchase. Data suggests that Western audiences prefer to use specialist shopping platforms that are separate to their social apps, such as using Amazon or Etsy, to purchase products advertised online.

This could be due to security concerns, a preference for keeping socialising and purchasing separate, or just an unwillingness to change their ingraned habits. Even so, as younger consumers become more accustomed to in-app purchases through both mobile apps and video games, social shopping may gain traction over time.