What is Social Retailing? Strategies and Examples (2025)

The checkout button is moving from the storefront to the scroll. It’s estimated that by 2026, social commerce will account for 20.8% of all online retail sales. That means nearly one in every five ecommerce purchases will happen inside a social feed.

Social retailing creates a smooth, instant shopping experience for today's busy customers. By putting sales opportunities directly in social feeds, brands make purchasing easier and capture impulse buys. 

Ahead, you’ll learn the basics of social retail and strategies to implement and start making sales. 

What is social retail?

Social retail (or social commerce) means selling products directly on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. Shoppers can find, learn about, and buy products without leaving their social media apps.

These platforms are perfect for selling because so many people use them. Almost 95% of internet users visit social media monthly, using about seven different platforms, according to research from Data Reportal. 

Social retail can also help connect with large, engaged audiences. By selling where people already hang out, you make buying much easier. Customers can browse and buy with fewer steps, helping retailers build stronger relationships and capitalize on impulse buys, without relying on driving foot traffic to a physical store. 

How does social retailing work?

Social retailing turns your social media into a retail channel using creative content, influencer partnerships, and easy checkout. Instead of sending customers elsewhere, you sell them right where they spend an average of two hours and 23 minutes daily. Let’s explore how it works. 

Social media posts

Regular organic social media posts can do more than get likes. They can also drive quick purchases from followers. 

Try offering deals and discounts directly on social networks instead of waiting for email signups. Over one-third of social shoppers say limited-time offers convince them to buy, and most admit to unplanned purchases.

⚡ How to do it:

• Use features like product tags to highlight items in your posts
• Share real customer photos to show authenticity
• Post deals in captions or Stories for customers to use immediately

Influencers

Influencer marketing lets you tap into someone else's loyal following. Nearly three-quarters of shoppers say influencer recommendations affect their buying decisions. In North America, affiliate channels bring in the second-highest average order value, just behind direct traffic.

⚡ How to do it:

• Use Shopify Collabs to partner with influencers who match your brand values
• Give them trackable links or discount codes to measure results
• Ask them to create original content, like product demos that connect with their followers

Virtual shopping

Live selling and video consultations mix shopping with entertainment. When customers see a product and can buy it instantly, they're more likely to complete the purchase. Many social media users enjoy the convenience of one-click buying.

⚡ How to do it:

• Host live streams showing products and answering viewer questions
• Use shoppable video features so viewers stay on the broadcast
• Add seamless checkout options to eliminate extra steps

In-app marketplaces

Many social platforms now have built-in shops where customers can buy without leaving. Facebook Marketplace is the perfect example. Over 40% of the platform’s total user base shops for nearby deals through the in-app marketplace. Some 16% have an account solely to use this feature. 

⚡ How to do it:

• Set up storefronts on each platform with current pricing and descriptions
• Use platform analytics to track sales and customer information
• Make listings mobile-friendly with fast loading and easy navigation

Social retailing strategies

Now we know the types of social retailing and how it works in practice, let’s explore the strategies you can deploy to sell through social commerce.

1. Leverage influencer and creator partnerships

Working with influencers and creators can help your brand reach more social buyers. When you build connections with people who share your brand values, you can reach their followers and turn them into your loyal customers. 

Social media tools like Shopify Collabs make everything easier, from finding creators, sending them products, setting up affiliate links, and keeping track of sales. Send products directly from your store while letting creators choose the items they want. Give each their own tracking code with customized payment rates, and let them monitor earnings in real-time to stay motivated. 

Ramen brand immi demonstrates how well this works. The brand wanted to find ramen fans who would value their healthier version, so they sent hundreds of free samples and invited honest feedback from social media influencers. Creators who loved the product became "Ram Fam" ambassadors.

immi used Shopify Collabs to send samples and create affiliate links, managing everything in one place. The results speak for themselves:

• Built a network of 432 ambassadors
• Generated over $200,000 in sales through affiliates
• Received 4,400+ orders from referrals

Interestingly, smaller creators (under 10,000 Instagram followers) often performed better than bigger ones because their audiences trusted them more. This shows that finding the right partners matters more than finding famous ones.

2. Create shoppable posts

Shoppable posts make buying easier by letting customers purchase directly from social media. Instead of visiting the link in your bio and navigating your site to find the product they’ve seen in their feed, they can tap the post to shop there and then. 

There are a few approaches you can take to make shoppable posts:

• Use built-in shopping tools: On Instagram and TikTok, you can tag products in your posts. These tags connect to your website or let customers check out without leaving the app.
• Tell stories about your products: Pair good product photos with short descriptions that tell a story—how people use it, how it's made, or how it feels to own it.
• Make it work well on phones: Since 9 out of 10 people use social media on their phones, make sure they can easily browse and buy your products on a small screen.

💡Tip: Shopify helps retailers create exciting shopping experiences across multiple social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Sell directly where their customers already spend time with features that sync product catalogs, enable shoppable posts, and integrate checkout solutions like Shop Pay.

3. Share user-generated content

Instead of seeing faceless content from a brand, user-generated content (UGC) puts other people in the driving seat. Happy customers become the face of your social media posts.

Get shoppers to share photos using your hashtag or by tagging you, then repost their content on your own social profiles (with their consent). Around 40% of shoppers say this type of UGC is “extremely” or “very” important to their purchasing decisions.

Away Luggage does this brilliantly in their social retail strategy. In one engaging Instagram post, they showcase a customer playfully "testing the airport theory" by carrying Away suitcases on a walking pad that simulates the airport rush. The content feels less promotional and more like a genuine customer experience.

This approach has clearly resonated with their audience, generating positive comments like "We LOVE her content!!!" and "My kinda cardio"—building community while subtly showcasing their signature silver hardshell luggage design.

4. Create a community

An effective social retailing strategy makes people go from saying “I follow this brand” to “I’m part of that brand”. It’s this type of branded community that gives customers a place to swap tips, show off purchases, and influence future product drops. 

Gymshark, for example, runs a Facebook group with over 38,000 members. Members can share workout tips, show off their gym clothes, and give feedback on products. 

To create your own social media community:

• Choose a platform. Popular options include Facebook Groups, Discord servers, TikTok Live, and the “Close friends” list on Instagram. 
• Seed the first 50 conversations. Ask questions, run polls, and invite feedback to set a friendly tone.
• Schedule one offline event per quarter. Start small with a demo day, maker workshop, or panel with local creators.
• Reward advocacy. Give community members affiliate links via Shopify Collabs so enthusiasm translates into trackable revenue. You could also host exclusive giveaways or run social impact marketing campaigns, like donating a portion of profits to a community-voted nonprofit. 
• Measure what matters. Watch repeat purchase rate, community‑sourced UGC, and event‑day POS lift to prove ROI to stakeholders.

5. Offer exclusive discounts on social

Exclusive social-only discounts tap into customers' fear of missing out (FOMO) and reward engagement. When followers discover deals they can't find on your website or in stores, they're motivated to stay connected with your brand across all social touchpoints.

A follower who sees “15% off for today only” in your Instagram Story, for example, knows they won’t find the same deal on your site or in‑store, so they hang around, watch for the next drop, and share the post with friends who don’t want to miss out either.

💡Tip: In Shopify, you can create campaign-specific discount codes. Choose a code that’s easy to remember and on‑brand (e.g., IGFLASH15). Choose the format that suits your margin—percentage, fixed amount, buy-one-get-one (BOGO), or free shipping—and set an end date so the offer is truly exclusive. These discounts automatically apply wherever the customer completes their purchase, online or offline.

6. Personalize ads on social media

Because Shopify pipes every store, POS, and social transaction into one customer profile, you already own the clean, first‑party data most brands are scrambling for. 

Shopify Audiences converts that data moat into laser‑focused ad lists you can send straight to social media advertising platforms like Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The tool generates up to 50% lower customer acquisition costs on prospecting campaigns.

Happy Hippo, a bath products company that started in Alberta, Canada, leveraged Shopify Audiences to transform its digital marketing efforts. They achieved:

• 4.7X return on ad spend (ROAS) using lookalike audiences built from Shopify Audiences data
• 86% new-to-brand (NTB) customer acquisition rate
• 200% increase in conversion rate

In their initial campaign, 23% of Happy Hippo's sales came from new-to-brand customers directly attributable to Shopify Audiences, with less than 1% of those buyers having any sales activity prior to the social media campaign.

“Shopify Audiences is a huge benefit for Plus merchants,” says its CEO, Adam Biel. “It has helped lower customer acquisition costs so our investments can stretch much further with Facebook ads.”

7. Run omnichannel campaigns with a unified POS

When your physical and digital channels all reference the same customer profile, your omnichannel campaign stops feeling like three separate promotions and starts acting like one continuous conversation, no matter where the swipe, tap, or scan happens.

Shopify’s unified commerce stack makes that connection automatic. Every order—whether it originates in Reels, Shop Pay, or a weekend popup—lands in a single profile that stores lifetime spend, preferences, and loyalty status.

Because points and promo codes live inside that unified profile, a follower who claims a “Story‑only” discount can redeem it in person, and the system instantly deducts the right inventory count online. The reverse works too: an associate can trigger a post-purchase SMS thanking the customer for an in-store purchase and offering a personalized Instagram-only lookbook for their next visit.

Social retailing examples

BÉIS

Travel‑goods brand BÉIS turned its Black Friday doorbuster into a live social spectacle. By replicating the urgency of an in‑store line on Instagram and TikTok, BÉIS showed how a well‑orchestrated social event can translate classic retail hype into measurable digital wins.

More than 60,000 shoppers queued in a virtual waiting room for the live shopping event. The campaign added 5,200 new followers overnight, generated 2.94 million impressions, and drove 55,000 engagements—all before its products ever hit the website. 

Subsequent pop‑ups powered by Shopify POS drove a 30% spike in local traffic and fed fresh UGC to fuel the brand’s next round of social ads. 

“There is a consumer that maybe just loves to do the old school lineup-at-the-door kind of black Friday feel,” said the brand’s CEO, Adeela Hussain Johnson. “That’s really what that Shopify partnership [has allowed] us to offer the consumer.”

DAISO

Japan’s beloved 100‑yen chain pushed its treasure‑hunt experience onto social channels. After moving its Net Store and bulk‑order site to Shopify Plus, DAISO saw a 400% jump in ecommerce sales and a 249% surge in traffic. 

But the real social proof came when the team switched on YouTube Shopping: shoppable videos and livestreams lifted sales on that channel by 350% almost overnight. All of it runs off the same Shopify stack that already syncs 76,000 SKUs across 6,451 stores worldwide, so every viral product video shows accurate inventory and checkout is one tap away.

Social retailing challenges

Social retailing is a powerful lever for retailers to generate sales, but it doesn’t come without its challenges, notably:

• Competition. Shoppers’ feeds refresh every second, and you’re not just up against brands in your category. You’re battling influencers, memes, and the entire entertainment machine for attention. Standing out demands thumb‑stopping creative and a clear value prop that lands in under a second.
• Saturation. TikTok Shop, Instagram, Pinterest Pins—every platform now offers native buy buttons. The upside is reach; the downside is that feeds are crowded with flash sales and discount codes. Brands must rotate formats (live‑shopping, UGC, micro‑stories) and stagger drops to avoid blending into the noise.
• Reputation. One mishandled comment or shipping delay can snowball into public backlash. Because social commerce happens in full view, customer‑experience lapses are magnified. Responsive moderation, transparent order updates, and proactive community engagement are non‑negotiable for protecting trust.

Connect your social channels with Shopify

Social retail delivers its biggest wins when every post, live stream, and marketplace listing flows into the same commerce platform. Shopify gives you that engine. 

By syncing your product catalog to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and dozens of other destinations from a single place, you keep inventory accurate, checkout friction‑free, and customer data unified.