Social Commerce and Live Shopping: Industry Report 2025

As social platforms evolve into powerful commercial channels, businesses and marketers face a rapidly changing landscape. Understanding how social commerce and live shopping work, who the key players are, and where growth is coming from is essential for making informed strategic decisions. This report aggregates recent research from respected firms (Grand View Research, Mordor Intelligence, IMARC Group, The Business Research Company, McKinsey, Accenture and others) to provide an up to date view of market size, adoption rates, conversion metrics and regional differences. It also illustrates real world examples of how brands and platforms are using these features

Introduction

Social commerce refers to commerce that is completed inside social networks, from discovery to checkout. A study by Accenture found that the global social commerce market was worth US$492 billion in 2021 and is expected to triple to US$1.2 trillion by 2025, driven mainly by Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, who are forecast to account for 62 % of global social‑commerce spending. This is pretty much an expected outcome as the followers economy grows wild. Nearly two‑thirds (64 %) of social‑media users in Accenture’s multi‑country survey said they made at least one social‑commerce purchase in the previous year, implying almost 2 billion social buyers globally. The popularity of social commerce has spurred platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook to integrate direct shopping and live‑commerce functionalities, while research firms are tracking adoption rates and conversion metrics worldwide.

Global Market Overview

Global Social Commerce Market Growth The social-commerce market has grown at a remarkable pace:
  • Grand View Research estimates the global social-commerce market at US$1.16 trillion in 2024 and projects it to reach US$17.83 trillion by 2033 (CAGR 36.4%). Asia-Pacific commanded 71.6% of global revenue in 2024, and B2C formats dominated with a 58.8% share.
  • Mordor Intelligence provides a similar baseline: the market is estimated at US$1.63 trillion in 2025 and forecast to reach US$6.23 trillion by 2030, growing 30.7% annually. Smartphone-based shopping represents 91.34% of social-commerce value, video commerce captured 43.71% of sales and Asia-Pacific held 34.74% of market share in 2024, while North America is the fastest-growing region (CAGR 33.46%).
  • IMARC Group estimates the market at US$1232.43 billion in 2024 and projects it to US$7822.54 billion by 2033 (CAGR 22.66%). It notes that Asia-Pacific accounts for about 70% of the market due to high mobile internet penetration and localized social-commerce experiences.
  • The Business Research Company expects the global social-commerce market to grow from US$764.49 billion in 2024 to US$872.71 billion in 2025 (CAGR 14.2%) and to US$1.44 trillion by 2029. Its report attributes growth to live-shopping experiences, social-payment options and niche community engagement.

The variation across forecasts reflects differing methodologies and definitions, yet all sources agree on strong double-digit growth fueled by mobile-first social platforms. Asia-Pacific’s dominance stems from mature live-commerce ecosystems, digital-wallet penetration and consumer willingness to shop through social apps. North America’s growth is accelerating because platforms are investing aggressively, and Gen-Z habits are shifting. Europe and Latin America show moderate growth but still lag behind Asia in live-commerce adoption according to McKinsey.

Key Market Segments

Segment Evidence (Research) Highlights
Business model Mordor Intelligence states that B2C social commerce led with a 56.21% share in 2024, while C2C is the fastest-growing format with a 35.23% CAGR. IMARC notes that B2C accounts for 55.9% of social-commerce sales because it allows brands to directly connect with consumers via ads and influencer partnerships. B2C dominates but peer-to-peer reselling is rising quickly, propelled by community trust and micro-entrepreneurs.
Device Smartphones accounted for 91.34% of social-commerce value in 2024. Mobile shopping is popular because social platforms are optimized for mobile and integrate payment options like digital wallets. Social commerce is overwhelmingly mobile-first; desktop plays a minor role.
Product categories According to Mordor, apparel held a 28.32% share in 2024 while beauty & personal care is growing at 34.81% CAGR. IMARC similarly notes that apparel is the largest segment (23.4%). Accenture predicts that by 2025 the largest social-commerce categories will be clothing (18%), consumer electronics (13%) and home décor (7%), while fresh food/snacks are significant in China. Fashion is the dominant category, with beauty/personal care rising quickly. Regional differences exist: groceries lead in China whereas clothing dominates in the U.S. and Europe.
Geographies Asia-Pacific holds 34.74% (Mordor) or 70% (IMARC) of global social-commerce revenue. Asia leads because of mature livestream platforms, integrated payments and consumers’ trust.
Segment North America is the fastest-growing region (CAGR 33.46%), while Europe and Latin America lag due to lower adoption of live shopping. Business Research Company forecasts the market to grow to US$872.71 billion in 2025. Highlights in buying through social apps. North America is catching up but live commerce adoption remains lower.
Regional Revenue Share
2025 Largest Categories

Conversion Metrics and Consumer Behavior

High conversion rates

Live commerce compresses the customer journey from awareness to purchase. McKinsey’s survey across China, the U.S., Europe and Latin America shows that conversion rates during livestream shopping sessions can be up to ten times higher than in conventional e-commerce. On China’s TaobaoLive, top sessions achieved conversion rates around 28%. Factors driving high conversion include entertainment value, real-time scarcity signals and social validation.

Frequency and adoption

  • China is the most mature live-commerce market; 57% of surveyed users have shopped via livestreams for more than three years, and only 2% were first-time users in the past year. 87% of Chinese respondents attend live-shopping events at least monthly.
  • In contrast, just 43% of U.S. users and 52% of European users attend live-shopping events monthly; 78% and 82% respectively were new users within the past year. Latin America sits between these extremes, with 64% monthly attendance.
  • Chinese consumers also show the highest appetite for more live commerce: 72% want to buy more products this way, compared with 63% in Latin America, 49% in the U.S. and 38% in Europe.
Monthly Live Shopping

Barriers to adoption

Surveyed consumers outside China cite timing and convenience of live shows as the top barrier (29 % in Europe, 32 % in the U.S., 44 % in Latin America). Other concerns include value for money and limited product choices. In China, the main issues are product availability and finding better value elsewhere. Trust is a persistent global concern: an AfterShip/Ipsos survey found that 76 % of U.S. consumers browse products on social platforms but complete purchases on retailer websites, largely because 52 % don’t trust social‑media shopping. The same survey reported that 34 % of U.S. 18–34‑year‑olds shop on social platforms weekly, and 65 % expect to continue, whereas only 49 % of 35–54‑year‑olds expect to keep shopping via social apps.

Platform Deep Dive

Social Commerce Adoption Growth

Instagram (Meta)

  • Shopping Features: Instagram allows merchants to tag products in feed posts, stories and Reels. Product tags open shoppable detail pages and redirect users to in-app checkout (where available). Instagram Shops give brands a customizable storefront, and creators can add product links to their content. Instagram previously offered Live Shopping, but Meta discontinued the feature in March 2023 to focus on Reels (users can still tag products in live videos but cannot host dedicated shopping streams).
  • Usage metrics: Meta hasn’t released recent user counts, but earlier announcements noted that over 130 million Instagram accounts tapped to reveal product tags each month. This indicates strong engagement with product-tagged posts.
  • Adoption: eMarketer projects 46.8 million U.S. social buyers on Instagram in 2024 and expects that number to climb to 50.3 million by 2025, trailing Facebook but ahead of TikTok. Instagram benefits from its visual nature—fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands use high-quality images and influencer collaborations to stimulate impulse buying.
  • Regional Dynamics: Instagram’s adoption is high among younger consumers in North America and Europe. The AfterShip survey found that U.S. consumers often use Instagram for inspiration but switch to retailers’ sites to complete purchases, underscoring trust and customer-service issues.
  • Real-life examples: Meta has experimented with shopping posts as ads and with product tagging in Reels. In 2019, news outlets reported that more than 130 million accounts tapped to reveal tags from Instagram Shopping posts each month. Recent events include Meta’s partnership with Amazon (November 2023) that allows U.S. shoppers to buy Amazon products directly through Instagram and Facebook using their Prime credentials.

TikTok (ByteDance)

  • Shopping Features: TikTok Shop, launched in 2023, integrates a dedicated shop tab, product links in short-form videos and live-stream shopping with secure in-app checkout. TikTok offers affiliate programs where creators earn commissions for promoting products, and it has rolled out cross-border logistics programs to enable direct fulfillment.
  • Adoption: TikTok’s social-commerce user base is smaller than Facebook’s but growing rapidly. eMarketer estimates that TikTok will have 35.8 million U.S. social buyers in 2024, rising to 40.7 million in 2025. eMarketer notes that TikTok added more shoppers than the net increase of Facebook and Instagram combined. Nearly 49.7% of TikTok social-commerce users buy at least once per month, and TikTok Shop’s gross merchandise value (GMV) exceeded US$1 billion per month in late 2024.
  • Conversion: AdvantageSolutions research (quoted in the Michigan Journal of Economics) found that 50% of TikTok users have made a purchase after watching a TikTok Live, demonstrating the platform’s power to turn entertainment into sales.
  • Real-life examples: In 2023, TikTok rolled out “Deals for You Days” in the U.S., offering exclusive discounts on brands like L’Oréal and Maybelline and using live-shopping events and content challenges to drive engagement. ByteDance launched DouyinMall—a standalone shopping app—in China in 2024 and integrated live-streaming and short-video commerce. The Business Research Company reports that TikTok Shop’s U.S. launch involved 100,000 creators and 200,000 sellers and capitalizes on the fact that 57% of users discover products through social media.
  • Regional Dynamics: Live commerce is deeply ingrained in China’s Douyin ecosystem. McKinsey data show that Chinese live-commerce users are predominantly female (58%), whereas in the U.S. and Latin America frequent live-commerce users are mostly male. Younger audiences (25–34 years old) represent the largest share of frequent live-shopping users.

Facebook (Meta)

  • Shopping Features: Facebook offers Facebook Shops (mini storefronts that integrate with Instagram), Marketplace (peer-to-peer listing platform) and allows product tagging in posts and Reels. It previously hosted Facebook Live Shopping, but Meta announced in August 2022 that the feature would be shut down on October 1, 2022 as the company shifted focus to short-form video Reels. Businesses can still livestream products using Facebook Live but cannot create product playlists or tag items during the live stream.
  • Adoption: Facebook remains the largest social-commerce platform in the U.S. eMarketer projects that 64.6 million U.S. social buyers will use Facebook in 2024, dropping slightly to 63.2 million by 2025, yet still leading other platforms.
  • Real-life examples: The Amazon–Meta partnership announced in November 2023 allows shoppers to purchase Amazon products directly from Facebook and Instagram without leaving the apps. By 2024, Facebook Marketplace had become a vital channel for peer-to-peer commerce, though detailed adoption figures are scarce.
  • Regional Dynamics: Facebook’s stronghold is in North America and Europe, where its marketplace and shop tools complement local e-commerce ecosystems. However, the shutdown of live shopping indicates slower adoption of livestream commerce outside Asia.

Consumer Trust, Payments and Regulatory Issues

Trust remains a major hurdle for social commerce. Accenture’s study found that half of social media users are concerned that social-commerce purchases will not be protected or refunded properly. AfterShip/Ipsos research shows that 76% of Americans browse on social platforms but prefer to purchase via retailers’ websites, citing lack of trust and security. Platform-regulated refunds, buyer protection and transparent return policies are therefore critical.

Payment innovations are reducing friction. Mordor Intelligence notes that one-click payments and social wallets such as WeChat Pay and KakaoPay are driving conversion and injecting approximately +5.2 percentage points into market CAGR. Gen-Z consumers are especially enthusiastic—79% prefer wallet-based settlement. Embedded logistics and cross-border APIs are also removing geographic barriers and add +6.1 percentage-point uplift to growth. Nevertheless, rising customer-acquisition costs on mature platforms (e.g., Facebook and Instagram) subtract 3.2 percentage points from social-commerce growth, prompting brands to explore emerging networks and retention tactics. Regulatory fragmentation, such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act and state privacy laws (CPRA), creates compliance burdens and can reduce personalization effectiveness.

Regional Market Differences

Monthly Live-Shopping Attendance by Region

Asia-Pacific

The region leads social commerce for several reasons:

  • Market share and scale: Asia-Pacific holds between 34.74% and 71.6% of global social-commerce revenue, depending on the source. Live commerce originated here; platforms like Alibaba’s Taobao Live, Douyin and Kuaishou dominate with high conversion rates and integrated payments.
  • Consumer behaviour: McKinsey reports that 87% of Chinese users attend live-shopping sessions monthly, and 72% want to buy more this way. They also spend heavily—over €4.5 billion (approx. US$4.5 billion) in China alone in 2024 on live commerce.
  • Platform innovation: The prevalence of digital wallets (WeChat Pay, Alipay) and logistics infrastructure facilitates smooth in-app checkout and cross-border fulfillment. Douyin’s Mall extension and Pinduoduo’s group-buying exemplify social commerce tailored to local preferences.

North America

North America is the fastest-growing social-commerce region. Mordor Intelligence forecasts a 33.46% CAGR for the region through 2030. However, adoption levels vary:

  • U.S. social buyers: eMarketer counts 110.4 million U.S. social buyers in 2024, representing 6.6% of total e-commerce sales. Facebook remains the leading platform with 64.6 million buyers, followed by Instagram (46.8 million) and TikTok (35.8 million).
  • Live shopping adoption: Only 43% of U.S. live-commerce users attend sessions monthly, and 50% of shoppers purchase after watching TikTok Live. Many consumers use social platforms for product discovery but finish purchases on retailer sites due to trust concerns.
  • Regulatory & cost pressures: Rising customer-acquisition costs and stricter data-privacy laws (e.g., CPRA) dampen growth. Partnerships (e.g., Amazon–Meta) and innovation in payment/checkout aim to improve conversion.

Europe

Europe’s social‑commerce market is growing slowly due to cautious consumer habits and regulatory constraints. Only 52 % of European users attend live‑shopping sessions monthly, and 38 % say they want to buy more this way. Convenience is a major barrier—29 % cite inconvenient show times. Europe’s strict data‑privacy rules (GDPR, DMA) add compliance costs and may limit personalization. Nonetheless, fashion and beauty brands are experimenting with live‑shopping events on Instagram and TikTok; local players like Zalando integrate social influencers into shoppable shows. Mordor Intelligence notes a growing impact from hyper‑personalized AI recommendation engines, which increase average order value by roughly 25 % among European fashion retailers.

Latin America

Latin America shows strong interest in live commerce, with 64 % of users attending sessions monthly. According to McKinsey, 63 % of Latin‑American consumers want to buy more via live commerce. Barriers include show timing and perceived value, while male users predominate (59 %). Ecommerce platforms like Mercado Libre and Shopee are integrating livestream shopping, and regional creators are building communities around beauty and apparel. Payment and logistics infrastructure remain uneven, but smartphone adoption is high, driving mobile‑first commerce.

Real-Life Success Stories

  • TikTok’s rapid growth: According to AdvantageSolutions and news reports summarized by Michigan Journal of Economics, TikTok Shop sells about US$7 million worth of products per day in the U.S. and contributed US$24.2 billion to U.S. GDP in 2023. Roughly 39% of small-to-mid-sized businesses consider TikTok critical for their operations, and 69% report increased sales.
  • Live-commerce conversions: McKinsey’s data show that top TaobaoLive sessions achieve conversion rates around 28%— an order of magnitude higher than typical e-commerce conversion rates (2–3%).
  • Amazon–Meta partnership: The November 2023 deal allows U.S. shoppers to purchase Amazon products directly from Facebook or Instagram. It is considered a pivotal moment in social commerce, bridging e-commerce and social media.
  • TikTok Shop U.S. launch: ByteDance’s September 2023 launch attracted over 100,000 creators and 200,000 sellers, reflecting strong supply-side momentum.
  • Instagram product tagging: News reports in 2019 noted that more than 130 million accounts tapped to reveal tags in Instagram shopping posts each month. Although dated, the figure illustrates early engagement with shoppable posts.

Future Outlook and Considerations

  1. Strong growth with regional divergence: All major research firms forecast double-digit growth through 2030, but Asia-Pacific will continue to dominate. North America will expand quickly due to platform investments, while Europe’s growth depends on balancing innovation with regulation.
  2. Live commerce as a catalyst: Livestream shopping yields dramatically higher conversion rates than traditional e-commerce. Brands should test formats such as product tutorials, limited-time deals and collaborations with influencers. However, timing, content quality and trust need improvement to convert more viewers.
  3. Trust and safety: Surveys show that distrust is the primary barrier to social-commerce adoption. Platforms must invest in escrow, buyer protection and transparent return policies. Regulation will likely increase, particularly around data privacy and product authenticity.
  4. Payments and logistics: Seamless checkout is critical. One-click payments, social wallets and integrated logistics APIs can add several percentage points to market growth. Cross-border shopping will expand as logistics become more reliable.
  5. Creator economy and C2C growth: C2C social commerce is growing fastest, enabling micro-entrepreneurs and user-generated recommendations. Platforms that support creators with monetization tools and data analytics will capture a share of this growth.
  6. Platform strategies: TikTok is investing heavily in commerce features, aiming to replicate China’s success internationally. Instagram is integrating shopping into Reels, while Facebook is focusing on partnerships and ads after shutting down Live Shopping. Competition from marketplaces like Amazon, Pinduoduo and newcomer Douyin Mall will intensify.

Conclusion

Social commerce has shifted from an experimental channel to a multi‑trillion‑dollar industry. Research from Grand View Research, Mordor Intelligence, IMARC Group, The Business Research Company, McKinsey and Accenture reveals a consistent narrative: rapid growth driven by mobile‑first platforms, integrated shopping features and the power of live and short‑form video to convert viewers into buyers. Asia‑Pacific continues to lead, but North America and Europe are catching up as platforms refine trust, payments and creator tools. Businesses planning to leverage social commerce should adopt localized strategies, invest in livestream content and ensure robust buyer protection. With innovation and regulation evolving simultaneously, social commerce and live shopping will remain dynamic—and potentially disruptive—forces in the global retail landscape.

Written by Mairead Fraser

As a senior editor, Mairead Fraser creates SEO optimized website contents, manages social media, and has a special interest in YouTube.