66 WHAT IS SOCIAL COMMERCE, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? Social commerce is the integration of shopping directly into social media platforms. Rather than a customer seeing a product on Instagram and having to navigate away to a website, they can now browse, evaluate, and purchase, all without ever leaving the app. “It all makes scrolling and messaging in social media directly shoppable,” Alison explained. And the numbers back this up in a big way. According to Emarketer, social commerce sales in the UK are predicted to approach £12 billion in 2026, having nearly quadrupled since 2023. Social shopping has jumped 32 percent since 2022, driven largely by Gen Z and millennials for whom in-app purchasing feels completely natural. Perhaps most striking: 56 percent of UK users have now bought directly through a social platform, and 69 percent report making a purchase after first discovering a product through social media. TIKTOK: THE FASTEST GROWING RETAIL CHANNEL YOU’RE PROBABLY UNDERUSING If there is one platform defining social commerce right now, it is TikTok. There are now over 200,000 UK sellers on TikTok Shop, ranging from household names like M&S to small independent businesses selling hot sauce from a spare bedroom. TWO STRATEGIES ARE DRIVING RESULTS Live Shopping: a QVC-style format where sellers go live, interact with viewers in real time, and offer time-sensitive deals. Alison highlighted a Welsh beauty brand, Mallow’s Beauty, that reportedly makes £5,000 a day through TikTok Live, running sessions in shifts around the clock. “It’s not for the faint-hearted,” she admitted, “but it is incredibly effective.” Affiliates: TikTok’s term for influencers who earn commission on sales. Four in five TikTok users discover brands through peer recommendations, and the affiliate programme enables creators to embed shoppable product links directly into their videos. For sustainable retailers in particular, affiliates offer an authentic route to audiences who care about brand story and values, not just price. The key insight? For products under £100, TikTok can drive impulse purchases from customers who have never heard of your brand before. For higher ticket items, brand awareness work must come first before the sale will follow. INSTAGRAM: PREMIUM FEEL, PARTNERSHIP POWER Instagram may no longer support in-app checkout in the UK (a change made last year), but it remains a powerful discovery Speaking at Spring Fair 2026, Alison Battisby, founder of social media consultancy Avocado Social, delivered a session that stopped the room. Her message was clear: social commerce is not a trend on the horizon, it’s already here, it’s accelerating, and retailers who ignore it risk being left behind INVISIBLE INFLUENCE: HOW SOCIAL COMMERCE IS REDEFINING RETAIL “Social media was once a place to browse, scroll, and be inspired. Today, it’s where billions of pounds change hands, and for independent retailers across the UK, understanding this shift is no longer optional. It’s survival.”
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