1 in 3 young people shop on social media every week as social commerce surges

Social commerce looks set to be the next great disruptor in the retail industry. E-commerce fundamentally changed the way Millennials shop, and now a similarly seismic shift for Gen Z (and indeed Gen Alpha) is arriving.

A study from Aftership found that 34% of US consumers aged 18-34 are already making purchases through social media on a weekly basis.

They are seeing products they like within their social feeds — often on TikTok. And then buying them without ever leaving the platform.

The study, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, also found that 52% of all American consumers have made at least one lifetime purchase on a social media platform. This way of shopping might be thought of as novel, but it is clearly entering the mainstream.

So what’s behind the explosion in social commerce? Read on to explore the role of TikTok Shop, Pinterest Lens and the rise of visual search, Instagram Checkout and more.

TikTok Shop ushers in new dawn of social commerce

TikTok Shop is at the vanguard of social commerce.

“TikTok Shop” searches have risen steeply since the service launched. 

It’s not the first social media platform to develop a direct retail offering. Instagram Checkout, for instance, has been around since 2019.

But millions of younger users are on TikTok. 60% of its US user base are aged 18-34.

And these shoppers are ready to embrace social commerce. According to the Aftership survey, 65% of consumers in that age group consider themselves likely to buy through a social media platform in future.

That doesn’t even account for the arrival of Gen Alpha on the social commerce scene. Born from 2010 onwards, the oldest members of the youngest generation are certainly beginning to play a part in the economy.

Brands should be increasingly concerned with the preferences of “Gen Alpha”. Searches are up 1875% in 5 years.

Numerator calculates that in the US, through allowance money alone, Gen Alpha has about $28 billion of direct spending power.

As well as its young-skewing user base, TikTok’s video-centric format lends itself well to social commerce.

Sellers can properly showcase the products they are selling. Appearing within feeds full of video content, these clips are less likely to be immediately skipped than traditional ads.

Video unlocks the possibility of live shopping too. In the UK, beauty startup P Louise set a record by selling more than $2 million worth of merchandise during a 12-hour TikTok livestream.

Example of a live TikTok Shop sale.

In the US, by the end of last year, there were more than 500,000 merchants selling on TikTok Shop.

And at the start of this year, TikTok had plans to increase its US E-commerce operation 10x within the next 12 months to as much as $17.5 billion.

That may seem ambitious. But TikTok has the model for this success: Douyin, the version of the app made exclusively for the Chinese market, processed more than $200 billion in social commerce transactions last year.

The blueprint is starting to bear fruit in the US. Every month since July, sales on TikTok Shop have exceeded $1 billion.

And the platform has invested heavily in becoming the go-to destination for the 2024 holiday shopping season. It has hosted a “Brand Palooza” event featuring exclusive discounts and celebrity live shopping streams.

In theory, it’s a win-win for TikTok and for sellers. The social platform recently upped its cut of sales to 6%, but that’s a trade-off many retailers can accept in exchange for direct access to such a huge pool of potential customers — per Semrush data, there were 2.62 billion visits to TikTok in October alone.

TikTok goes from strength to strength

TikTok has a very distinct user base compared to other social media apps. It claims that 1 in 4 app users cannot be found on any other platforms.

It’s a unique audience, and also a large one. TikTok's billions of visits each month come from over 1 billion unique users.

TikTok User Age Stats

TikTok is more popular among Gen Z than other social networks. However, “Zillennial” users aged 25-34 are actually the largest single adult group on the platform, making up 35% of the total user base (those aged 18-24 account for 25%).

Meanwhile, teenagers are spending an average of almost two hours per day on TikTok.

At the other end of the spectrum, 14% of US TikTok users are 55 and over. That’s up from 9% in 2022.

TikTok User Gender Stats

TikTok is slightly favored by men. Overall, 43.8% of adult users are women.

The single biggest user group is men aged 25-34. They make up 21.5% of all adult users.

Males outnumber females in every age group. That might be a good thing when it comes to social commerce — according to the Aftership study, men (22%) are more likely than women (13%) to make a weekly purchase through social media.

TikTok User Country Stats

The US has the second-highest number of TikTok users worldwide. 137.9 million Americans use the platform, a 14.4% quarter-over-quarter increase.

That works out at a little over 50% of all adults in the US. (However, not every user necessarily equates to a unique individual.)

Per Semrush data, TikTok.com is the 27th most popular domain in the US. Unsurprisingly, the majority of visits come from mobile devices.

The average US user spends 41 hours and 37 minutes per month on TikTok. That’s well above the global average of 34 hours and 15 minutes.

Indonesia is the only country with more TikTok users than the US. It is home to more than 165 million users.

Interestingly, however, the US accounts for by far and away the most visits to TikTok. 16.75% of all visits come from the US, compared to just 4.12% from Indonesia.

Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam round out the top 5 countries when it comes to raw user numbers.

Other platforms pivot to social commerce

There’s no doubt that TikTok Shop has taken a lead in the social commerce space. It currently generates more than two-thirds of the total gross merchandise value in the entire sector.

However, we can expect to see other platforms seeking a slice of the pie. Social commerce now makes up an estimated 19.4% of all E-commerce, representing a multi-billion-dollar opportunity.

In fact, it’s forecast that social commerce could be a $1 trillion industry by 2028.

Pinterest has the advantage of a user base predisposed to making purchases. Many people use the platform to curate what are essentially visual shopping lists.

Many Pinterest users treat the platform as a personal wishlist.

“We know users come to Pinterest to shop,” said CEO Bill Ready earlier this year. “We’ve been working to ensure our high-intent audience can find and easily take action on the content they see on Pinterest.”

Unlike TikTok, Pinterest does eventually take buyers off-platform to complete purchases. But the process is being made more seamless — businesses can now insert direct shopping links to Pins.

Outbound clicks to advertisers have more than doubled year-over-year.

Pinterest has been a real leader when it comes to visual search.

“Pinterest Lens” searches have increased by 186% in the last 5 years.

When users see something they like, they can just point their camera at it. They are then presented with two tabs: “Explore” and “Shop”.

The shopping tab features links to a range of similar items from various online retailers. From there, it’s only a matter of a couple of clicks to leave Pinterest and order the product in question.

The “Shop” tab within Pinterest Lens.

Visual search is primarily used by younger consumers (Google Lens gets nearly 20 billion queries a month, with Gen Z the most engaged). And the Pinterest user base skews young.

Pinterest User Stats

Pinterest hit 537 million monthly active users in Q3 2024, its highest ever number of MAUs. Gen Z is its largest and most engaged audience.

In total, Gen Z makes up 42% of Pinterest’s user base. That’s around 225 million people.

Interestingly, and unlike a lot of other social media, Pinterest is heavily favored by women. Female users make up 69.4% of the total user base.

There are currently 99 million Pinterest users in the US and Canada. The Semrush Website Traffic Checker shows that it is the 41st most popular website in the US, up three places from a month ago.

Brazil and Mexico are the next-largest markets, while the app is also popular in Europe.

In the US and Canada, average quarterly revenue per user is $7.31, significantly higher than elsewhere.

Instagram is not out of the game

It may feel like Instagram is being left behind a little amid the surge in TikTok Shop and the progress of platforms like Pinterest. But it enjoys a lot of the same advantages.

In much the same way that TikTok’s video-first format makes product videos less objectionable to consumers, Instagram is a natural home for visual ads and promoted posts.

And like Pinterest, the Meta-owned platform is packed full of high-intent users. According to Capital One, 1.4 billion people use Instagram to shop.

Checkout is Instagram’s “true” social commerce offering, which allows users to complete purchases without leaving the platform. That’s currently only available in the US.

Instagram Checkout in use.

But Instagram Shopping integrates many of the same features, allowing businesses to set up virtual storefronts on the platform and streamlining the process by which purchases can be made. The official “Shop” account has 1.8 million followers.

Instagram User Stats

Instagram has been overtaken by TikTok in the battle for Gen Z audiences. But it’s close — and in the US specifically, Instagram still leads the way, with 65% of Gen Z on the platform (TikTok has 58%).

The platforms now also boast an identical overall user base. Worldwide, they each have 1.69 billion users.

Despite the increased competition, Instagram undoubtedly remains popular among younger people. Users aged 18-34 make up 62.4% of the total advertising audience profile.

With a little over 391 million users, Instagram is most popular in India. The US is the second-largest market, with nearly 166 million users.

Semrush data indicates that Instagram is the 11th most visited website in the US.

Retailers go social

Embracing social commerce can go both ways. Social media platforms are gradually adding retail functionality, but there’s nothing to prevent retailers from adopting social elements too.

To that end, ThredUp recently appointed Danielle Vermeer as Head of Social Commerce. She joins the second-hand marketplace with a brief to “make resale more engaging and accessible to a wider audience through innovative shopping experiences”.

“Second hand marketplace” searches are up 268% in 5 years. ThredUp wants to combine that growth with the growth in social commerce.

Likewise, Zara has started streaming hours-long catwalk sequences, with viewers able to make live purchases. While its first broadcast in November 2023 was on Douyin, it now streams to its own website and mobile app.

Third parties fill the social commerce gap

Social commerce is an exciting space at the moment. But it’s clearly still a nascent market.

Everywhere except the US is still waiting for Instagram Checkout. And while Pinterest has some nice retail features, users are still being taken off-platform to make their purchases.

So in many ways, aside from TikTok Shop, options remain limited for creators and brands looking to monetize their social presence through sales.

While big platforms get to grips with social commerce and what it means for them, third parties have started to fill the gap. For instance, Beacons.AI seeks to give online personalities a better selling experience.

“Beacons.AI” searches have risen by 7600% in the last 5 years. 

It’s not a social media platform, so it can’t enable true social commerce. But it recognizes the desire to be able to buy and sell more easily from existing apps like Instagram.

We’ve all seen “link in bio”. In more than 2 million cases, that is powered by Beacons, which allows creators to set up storefronts that are just one click removed from their social profiles.

CommentSold is another third-party tool. It seeks to leverage basic existing social media infrastructures to make social commerce a reality.

As the name suggests, users simply have to comment “sold”. That creates an order without the consumer having to leave the platform.

“CommentSold” lets businesses sell from within the comments sections of social media.

Again, without the collaboration of the social media sites themselves, there eventually has to be an off-platform element. CommentSold has to prompt users to go elsewhere and actually complete the checkout process.

Searches are down, perhaps as brands finally start to get some native social commerce options. But more than 7,000 retailers have reportedly used CommentSold, generating $4.4 billion in live video commerce sales.

Social commerce still faces challenges

The appetite for social commerce is clearly there, particularly among younger users. So what are social media sites waiting for?

One last thing the report from Aftership revealed is that there are still consumer reservations about social commerce. Users are ready for the practicality, but still feel a little uncomfortable about shopping directly from social media.

52% of those who don’t currently shop via social media cite lack of trust in these platforms as a reason. Correspondingly, 44% say greater trust would persuade them to explore social commerce in the future.

Consumers also want reassurance about the security of these platforms before fully embracing social commerce. 28% say they would be motivated to buy via social media if it was more secure.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that these particular concerns are front and center of consumers’ minds when it is TikTok that has led the way in social commerce. The US has an increasingly fractious relationship with the Chinese-owned app, with a deadline of January for ByteDance to either sell it or shut it down.

Re-elected president Donald Trump has pledged to “save” TikTok, despite once leading the calls to ban it. But with a court case ongoing, it’s unclear exactly how he will fulfil that promise.

Meanwhile, there is a reticence over social commerce from some major brands, especially when it comes to the live shopping element. According to Marketplace Pulse, the relatively niche Goli Nutrition is by far and away the biggest seller on TikTok Shop, bringing in over $7 million per month.

Simply put, there are inherent risks with live content, from which the biggest players have generally so far shied away. For brands with highly established customer bases, there might also be a reluctance to hand over a cut of revenue to social platforms.

The future is social commerce

Regardless of the lingering reservations, social commerce looks set to become a major part of the retail landscape. In fact, it’s already there.

TikTok has catapulted social commerce into the mainstream. Nudged along by third party apps and services, other social media platforms are starting to catch up.

With captive audiences in the billions, it’s a no-brainer for the social giants to explore new retail avenues. As for consumers, social commerce can lead to an easier and more frictionless shopping experience.

Younger shoppers in particular have made their preferences clear: they want to be able to buy through social media. As spending power increases for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, social commerce could well become the norm, and even the most established brands may have to get on board.