The Emerging Trend of Shoppertainment

In the age of social commerce, window shopping happens from a consumer’s couch.

From the comfort of our homes, we now have access to every product and brand in the world. Without leaving our desks we can discover, research, watch product demos, interact with brands, and even through augmented reality try out items on our mobile devices.

Social commerce, unlike e-commerce, is uniquely collaborative offering a two-way conversation between brand and consumer with customers creating content for their communities.

Driving awareness and desire to purchase products has also evolved through the creator economy as word-of-mouth spreads instantly creating interest and FOMO among consumers. It is reaching people within their niche areas of interest where advertisers can actively seek out and distribute content that feels personal to them.

And mobile continues to offer significant opportunity for brands with 92 billion pounds spent on mobile devices in 2023 and 55 million active social media users in Britain alone.

"We are a nation of shoppers - the third largest e-commerce market after China and the United States," reveals Marina Michelson, business director, social content specialist for EssenceMediacom. "In particular, mobile offers a significant opportunity for the UK market... globally over half of consumers want to shop over platforms. In the UK there are 55 million active social media users, meaning there is an appetite for this type of shopping."

Introducing Shoppertainment

The way selling through social media works, and why the creator content is well placed to take it forward, is that it blends ecommerce and entertainment to engage consumers and drive sales.

As with all media, competitors will vie for attention, awareness and time from their desired audience, and social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat and even X (yes still) to name a few are at war for users. They each have their merit to different people, and they are all now using video content in some shape and form to produce entertainment.

That is key to the growth of social commerce but which one will come out on top?

There are also various solutions to engage with consumers. Perhaps set to become the norm is livestream shopping - QVC for young people where influencers showcase and demo products and push buyers to the client or brand's site to purchase directly.

Another useful method of showcasing products, especially fashion or cosmetics, is through the use of augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) tools such as Virtual Try On, an AI solution/ AR lens that allows users to visualise what a piece of clothing or accessory might look like worn by them through the use of an AR filter on their phone. This can also be used for testing out whether a piece of furniture looks good in a particular space within a household before purchase.

Or a retailer may turn to gamification which taps into the game playing habits of the majority of the majority of the Gen Z audience. That could manifest as a ranking list of the most loyal players, or extend to brand loyalty schemes and interactive challenges for engagement.

"Social commerce is uniquely collaborative. It is a two-way conversation between brand and customer and your customers are out there creating content for their own communities," says

Facebook growth is slowing when it comes to social buying at 2 per cent year on year as opposed to TikTok at 41% with TikTok Shoppers 81% more likely to cite its buy button as a driver for purchase. Meanwhile, YouTube continues to allow businesses to own the customer transaction and Snap continues to be all in on augmented reality tools to drive social commerce.

Each platform also hosts its own section of the creator economy and new creators continue to emerge, offering unique perspectives and higher engagement too. In 2023 it was estimated that the creator economy represented roughly $250 billion revenue opportunity and was set to grow to around $480 billion by 2027. 

Social Commerce 2.0

The continued evolution and growth of the social media space indicate that the appetite for consumers to shop via their social media channels won’t go away. That means that platforms and brands are increasingly going to find it difficult not to have a footprint in the space too.

To see how things could develop, look East where APAC is about seven-to-eight years more advanced in its social commerce development. It’s been over a decade since Xiaohongshu launched in China, allowing users to share product reviews and brand experiences. This led to several similar launches across the region including Douyin which offers functionality for users to create and share short-form video content. That’s a similar offering to TikTok, whose parent Bytedance has now included commerce features of its own, joining up entertainment, social interaction and commerce.

As a result, a new business sector has emerged, the multi-channel network - e-commerce-focused influencer agencies that offer content production, presenting talent, studios and tech for brands to tap into. It’s surely only a matter of time until agencies in the UK expand to offer these services too.

Exacerbating that potential demand will be the growth of live shopping – similar to the QVC TV network but with more interaction. Live streamers in China host several hours of content daily to showcase products to their audiences. While this reaches huge audiences, a caveat for marketers is that due to their live nature, they have little control over how much is shown and what is said about their product.

Messaging apps have also contributed to the growth of online commerce. Take WeChat which introduced its digital wallet WeChat Pay offering users their own accounts through the platform to make digital transactions. This has become the main competitor to online marketplace Alibaba in the region, growing to over 800 million users. It’s not hard to imagine Meta introducing similar systems within WhatsApp and Messenger. 

China especially has recognised the power of online sales during holiday periods such as Golden Week, New Year and Single’s Day when major sales are planned – these are now seen as shopping moments to pre-plan for, similar to Christmas and Black Friday. However, these occasions happen throughout the year and offer more opportunities for brands to plan and produce promotional content ahead of.

The potential of social commerce is still in its infancy and working alongside creators to drive awareness of products, it’s difficult to see this trend being derailed in the future.