David Corchado, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy & Technology Officer at Avenue Z, is a leader in automation, media optimization, and e-commerce.
In 2025, global social commerce sales are expected to surpass $2 trillion, making it clear that platforms like TikTok and Instagram are fundamentally changing how brands approach e-commerce.
“Social commerce” is more than just a trendy buzzword nowadays; it’s a tool brands can use to deepen their connection with consumers. My company provides dashboards for tracking social commerce performance, and this experience has shown me that as browsing and shopping on platforms like TikTok, Meta and YouTube grow increasingly popular, the data generated from these interactions presents an opportunity beyond immediate sales. It offers valuable insights that can inform broader business decisions, from product development to customer service strategies.
A New Era For Consumer Insights
Social commerce, where transactions happen directly on platforms like Instagram, TikTok Shop and YouTube Shopping, provides brands with a treasure trove of real-time consumer data. Unlike traditional e-commerce, which often requires customers to leave a platform to complete a purchase, social commerce keeps the entire consumer journey within the app.
This means brands can track every interaction—from clicks and comments to purchases and returns—which provides them with a deeper understanding of consumer behavior. This level of granularity can help companies make more informed decisions and improve product development and marketing strategies to better meet consumer demands.
Best Practices For Leveraging Social Commerce Data
Apply data to product development.
One of the most impactful ways to integrate social commerce data into a broader e-commerce strategy is by using it to drive product development. Social commerce interactions are essentially direct feedback loops. Consumers often comment on product features, request variations or voice their frustrations. For example, a brand might notice that a specific color or size of an item consistently sells out or garners more attention during live shopping events.
Use these insights to optimize your brand’s product offerings. You can also consider using social commerce to test and launch new products with key opinion leaders and influencers. This can allow for rapid feedback cycles and product refinement.
Enhance customer service.
Brands can also use the data they gain from social commerce to improve customer service and ensure they meet consumer needs at every touchpoint. Monitor comments, questions and customer service interactions within the social commerce ecosystem. This can help your brand anticipate issues before they escalate. By staying engaged with customers on social platforms, you can respond to inquiries more swiftly and even prevent common frustrations.
This proactive approach to customer service could help not only increase consumer satisfaction but also improve long-term loyalty. Brands can use the insights gained from these engagements to refine their overall customer service strategy and tailor their communication to match consumer preferences.
Bridge social and search.
As social commerce continues to converge with search, the opportunities for brands to maximize their visibility across platforms are growing. An essential part of a successful e-commerce strategy is knowing how to navigate the overlap between social media and search commerce.
To get started, ensure your social content is optimized for discoverability within platforms like TikTok and Instagram by using searchable keywords in captions, hashtags and product descriptions. Additionally, integrate your social commerce presence with your broader search strategy by cross-linking product pages, social profiles and user-generated content to improve visibility across both search engines and social platforms. By doing so, you can bridge the gap between social and search, driving traffic and conversions from multiple channels.
Consider cross-channel integration.
To truly optimize social commerce, brands should think beyond individual platforms and integrate this data into their broader e-commerce and business strategies. This means syncing insights from social commerce with other data sources like website analytics, customer relationship management systems and sales metrics. The goal? A holistic view of consumer behavior that informs everything from marketing campaigns to supply chain management.
For your company to excel in social commerce, you have to see it as more than just an additional revenue stream. When analyzed and applied strategically, you can use data to reshape how your brand develops products, engages customers and refines its operations.
Acting On Data For Long-Term Growth
I believe the future of e-commerce lies in understanding and acting on the data generated by social commerce interactions. Brands that learn how to successfully integrate these insights into their broader business strategies could position themselves to not only outperform their competitors but also build stronger, more lasting connections with their consumers. Whether you’re developing new products or improving customer service, leveraging social commerce data strategically can help you stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.
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