It’s no discovery that social commerce is the future of online shopping.

Social networks and platforms grow and nurture new generations of consumers.

How to navigate the inevitable surge? And how to use the growing supply of your brand’s KPIs?

In Zeropark Commerce Media, Social is one of the fastest-growing placement categories, with an average Conversion Rates exceeding 5% throughout entire available supply.

Social commerce is no longer an emerging trend—it’s a central pillar of global sales and a driving force behind customer experience behavior shifts. Now, it’s projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, taking up 17% of the entire e-com market share.

By integrating shopping customer experience into social media platform, businesses can tap into a dynamic marketplace where discovery, engagement, and purchases occur seamlessly. As the industry evolves, it’s crucial to understand the key platforms, strategies, and trends shaping this space.

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services directly within social media platforms. Social commerce platforms have evolved to offer comprehensive shopping experiences, integrating social interaction with seamless purchasing. Unlike traditional e-commerce, where users are redirected to external websites, social commerce allows purchases to be completed entirely within a platform like Facebook or Instagram.

31% of users make instant purchases through social media ads!

This streamlined approach eliminates friction in the customer journey, making it more likely for consumers to complete their purchases. It also provides businesses with opportunities to expand their reach, foster engagement, and create a more personalized shopping experience. According to Statista global retail social commerce sales are expected to surpass $100 billion by 2025, underscoring its growing influence.

In Zeropark, the social supply available for our advertisers grew 290% just between Q2 and Q4, and the projections are even more promising! Commerce Media is already a stable way of incrementing ad profits with Social Commerce, and we’re beyond excited to see further growth.

Benefits of Social Commerce

Social commerce offers so many benefits for businesses looking to enhance their online presence and drive sales.

Businesses can tap into a vast audience, increasing their reach and brand visibility. One of the primary advantages is the ability to create a more engaging and interactive shopping experience while showcasing products through shoppable posts, stories, and live streams, making it easier for customers to discover and purchase items.

Additionally, social commerce helps improve customer experience by providing a seamless and convenient shopping journey. Customers can browse, engage, and buy products without leaving their favorite social media apps. This convenience often leads to higher conversion rates and increased sales. It also fosters brand loyalty by allowing to build stronger relationships with customers through direct interactions and personalized content.

By analyzing customer behavior and preferences, businesses can create targeted marketing campaigns, optimize their product offerings, and improve their overall social media marketing strategy. This data-driven approach ensures that businesses can meet the evolving needs of their customers and stay ahead of social commerce trends.

Social selling spans across almost all generations. According to research by Statista, Millenials are projected to account for 33% of global social commerce spending with Gen Z accounting for 29% of it.

Top Social Media Platforms for Social Commerce

While many social platforms offer commerce tools, some have emerged as clear leaders. Each platform provides unique features, allowing businesses to tailor their approach:

• Facebook Shops and Marketplace integrate seamlessly with Facebook’s ecosystem, enabling customers to explore product catalogs, engage with brands, and complete purchases through in-app checkout. Setting up a Facebook Shop is a foundational step for utilizing other social media commerce features, particularly on Instagram. It has now become an inseparable part of buying journey for almost all generations.
• Instagram Shopping transforms posts, stories, and reels into shoppable content, providing a visually engaging experience for users.
• TikTok Shop combines entertainment with commerce, leveraging live shopping events and viral trends to drive sales thanks to social proof.
• Pinterest excels at visual inspiration, making it a strong platform for product discovery, particularly in lifestyle categories due to product catalog features.
• Forums like Reddit play a unique role by fostering community-driven trust. Discussions about products often act as valuable social proof, influencing potential buyers’ decisions.

Understanding the nuances of each platform is key to building a successful social commerce strategy.

Trends Shaping Social Commerce in 2025

Social commerce is transforming rapidly, with emerging trends influencing how businesses engage with consumers. One of the most significant drivers is user-generated content (UGC), where authentic reviews and customer-created visuals build trust and credibility.

The integration of AI and AR technologies is enhancing the shopping experience further. For example, AI-powered chatbots will provide personalized customer service, while AR tools could allow customers to virtually try products before purchasing.

Live shopping events bridge the gap between entertainment and commerce, making shopping a more interactive and engaging experience, boosting the Conversion Rates by up to 10% compared to traditional e-commerce.

Micro-influencers also continue to gain traction as they resonate with niche audiences, offering authenticity and transparency. For businesses, this means reaching highly specific groups of potential customers through credible voices.

Social Commerce in Zeropark

While social commerce happens on the surface of social platforms, achieving measurable success often requires specialized tools. The most popular social media platforms offer in-house solutions for social shopping ads and influencer marketing, but there is always a way to increment these.

Zeropark Commerce Media supports ecommerce businesses by providing programmatic advertising solutions tailored for social commerce that are not available with standard paid ads on social media. These opportunities include either brand Homepage endorsement solutions or Deeplink placements with Commerce Media’s trusted publishing partners.

Currently, Zeropark is delivering more than 20,000 monthly sales to brands within our Commerce Media Social placements. These conversions come from sources unavailable within built-in social platform ads.

On top of that, we enable businesses to optimize campaigns at a granular level, have control over chosen targets with placement categories, set targeting of niche audiences, and ensure competitive CPCs. This way, your ad budget does not get burnt out without your control over conversions.

Additionally, Deeplink allows you to guide prospective customers directly to relevant pages, creating a seamless shopping journey, and allowing your CX to take over. By leveraging these tools, businesses can boost sales while maintaining an efficient, scalable advertising strategy.

Building a Social Commerce Strategy

Crafting a successful social commerce strategy begins with understanding your audience. Social media platforms are home to billions of active users, each with unique preferences and behaviors. Businesses must tailor their content to resonate with these audiences, leveraging shoppable posts, influencer collaborations, and, of course, CPC-paid placements.

That is why 92% of companies actually plan to increase their investments in social commerce strategies!

An essential tactic is experimenting with placements and bids. By optimizing your budgets, you are able to increase efficiency on Commerce Media, driving more traffic from social directly to your offer. Additionally, programmatic ads allow businesses to automate and scale their efforts, reaching the right users with precision.

Finally, tracking and analyzing customer data is vital. Insights from social media analytics can reveal what’s working and where adjustments are needed, ensuring campaigns remain effective over time. The problem may be the transparency of tracking options inside social media platforms, and vague metrics available.

It’s always healthy for a business to set up comprehensive tracking of campaigns across all different channels (here’s our article on why it’s so important to diversify these). This way, you make your life easier by operating on one dashboard, and having universe performance metrics to assess entire strategy at once.

Measuring Success in Social Commerce

Measuring success in social commerce is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of your social commerce strategy and making informed decisions. Several key performance indicators (KPIs) can help businesses gauge their performance and identify areas for improvement. Conversion rates, sales, and engagement metrics are some of the essential KPIs to track.

Conversion rates (CR%) indicate the percentage of social media users who complete a purchase after interacting with your content. High conversion rates will suggest that your social commerce strategy is effectively driving results (sales). It provides a clear picture of the revenue generated from social commerce efforts, helping businesses assess their financial performance.

By regularly monitoring these KPIs, businesses can optimize their social commerce strategies, ensuring they remain effective and aligned with their goals.

Collecting and Leveraging Data from Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms are a treasure trove of data that can significantly enhance your social commerce strategy. By collecting and analyzing data from these platforms, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This information is crucial for creating targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience and drive engagement.

Moreover, data from platforms like Zeropark can help businesses identify emerging trends and patterns, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition. Monitor surges and changes in bids to make your strategy stand out. This way, you’ll maximize win ratio and will outpace competitors.

Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and ROI

Tracking KPIs and return on investment (ROI) is essential for measuring the success of your social commerce strategy (and really tracking all your commerce media campaigns). By monitoring key metrics, businesses can identify areas for improvement and optimize their efforts for better results. Some of the critical KPIs to track in social commerce include conversion rates, sales, website traffic, engagement metrics, return on ad spend (ROAS), and ROI.

By tracking these KPIs and ROI, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their social commerce performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategy for better results.

The Future of Social Commerce

As consumer expectations evolve, the importance of social commerce will only grow. Shoppers now expect a personalized, convenient experience across all touchpoints, including social channels. Businesses that adapt to these changes, leveraging new technologies and platforms, will be well-positioned to thrive in this fast-moving landscape.

Social commerce is no longer optional—it’s a cornerstone of any successful e-commerce strategy. By understanding its dynamics and aligning efforts with consumer behavior, businesses can create meaningful connections and drive long-term success.

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