US consumers made 68 billion dollars in social commerce purchases in 2025, with growth concentrated overwhelmingly among consumers under 40 who increasingly discover and evaluate products through short-form video rather than search engines or email marketing. TikTok Shop has grown from launch to a 15-billion-dollar gross merchandise value platform in under two years, demonstrating an appetite for in-feed shopping that surprised even optimistic projections.
Traditional retailers are scrambling to build social commerce capabilities through creator partnerships, shoppable video content, and live shopping events hosted by influencers with relevant audience demographics. The transition requires marketing organizations that were built around search and email to develop fundamentally different content production and performance measurement capabilities. Several companies have made senior marketing leadership changes specifically to accelerate their social commerce transition.
