Gen Z Social Commerce: New Trends Shaping the Digital Marketplace in 2025

Introduction to Gen Z Social Commerce in 2025 

Current Social Commerce Landscape in the US 

Social commerce – where users can discover, learn about and buy products through their social app of choice – is changing the shape of online shopping. 

Social commerce is surging in popularity because it’s highly effective, and that’s because it combines influencer-led marketing with a near-frictionless pathway to purchase. 

As a sales funnel, it’s demonstrating incredible engagement rates and broad adoption, suggesting that the future of ecommerce is increasingly within the confines of social platforms.

• U.S. social commerce sales are expected to surpass $90 billion in 2025, coming close to $150 billion by 2028. 
• 82% of consumers use social media for discovering and researching products
• As a share of total ecommerce sales in the U.S., social commerce sales have grown from 5.1% in 2022 to 7.2% in 2025

The Growing Influence Of Gen Z Consumers 

Consumer adoption of social commerce is spearheaded by the younger generations. Millennials are projected to be the largest demographic by spend in 2025, at 33%, but Gen Z aren’t far behind at 29%. Given that Gen Z is predicted to be the highest spending generation in history, it’s safe to say this Millennial lead is unlikely to last for long.

Gen Z’s habits are playing a significant role in the growth of social commerce. Unlike previous generations, Gen Z turn to social media first when they want to find the best product, experience something new, or get inspired. They’re responsive to interactive and shoppable content, and are highly receptive to influencer opinions and reviews.

While the ground of this new era of social commerce is broken by an innovative Gen Z, marketers are finding that Millennials are quick to jump on new features and content types, responding positively to low friction purchase opportunities brokered by trusted voices.

Understanding Gen Z’s Social Commerce Behaviours 

Platform Preferences and Usage Patterns 

When it comes to product discovery, YouTube remains by far and away the leading platform – with 70% of Gen Z respondents to a Hostinger survey saying they use it, compared to 60% for Instagram and 55% for TikTok. Facebook and Pinterest sit at 30%.

However, when surveyed on which social platforms they used for purchasing products, the numbers flip. Due to YouTube’s lighter social commerce integrations, such as a lack of seamless purchasing from short form content, they don’t feature: TikTok Shop is the leader for social purchases, with 40% saying they’ve used it in that way. Facebook comes in at 30% and Instagram 20%, behind Pinterest at 25%.

The Shift from Traditional E-commerce to Social Shopping 

The above numbers highlight the power of social commerce. While YouTube is the established product discovery platform due to its long history of long-form review content, users typically have to navigate themselves to traditional ecommerce portals once they’ve come to a purchase decision.

Users will always appreciate being able to discover and purchase on a single, social platform. We’re also seeing increasingly that social commerce users aren’t always following the traditional purchase process with distinct discover, research and buy stages. With shoppable content that entire process can be compressed, occurring within minutes or even seconds.

Gen Z’s Purchase Decision Journey 

While traditional ecommerce pathways involve product discovery sites (YouTube, blogs, etc.) and purchase platforms (Amazon, company websites) without much overlap, commerce-enabled social platforms get to be a part of the entire process.

Gen Z want speed, ease, and to buy products that they’ve seen in action. Even if the user wasn’t searching for a product on TikTok or Insta, they might find themselves discovering and purchasing one in a very short timeframe. How are social platforms driving these impressive levels of engagement?

Key Social Commerce Trends Driving Gen Z Engagement 

Live Shopping Experiences 

Livestreams and real-time shopping experiences have entered the forefront of influencer marketing, primarily through TikTok Live and Insta Live. Over half of marketers in 2025 named livestreaming as a leading component of their content strategy for influencer campaigns, and almost 70% of Instagram creators in the U.S. went live with a brand on Instagram in 2024.

User-Generated Content and Trust 

Gen Z users go to social apps for user-generated content. Influencers are simply users who have elevated themselves due to their creativity, personality and trustworthiness. 

User generated content is a powerful conduit for trust. Integrating social commerce into UGC and UGC-adjacent content (i.e. influencer content) is an increasingly preferred route to find recommendations they can act on with confidence.

Micro-Influencer Impact and Community Building 

2025 is shaping up to be the age of the micro-influencer. These creators have small but mighty followings, building communities of users united around their interests and values. 

The result is exceptional engagement rates. Value-aligned brands can become a part of this community, leveraging incredible collaboration results economically and quickly compared to the mega- and celebrity-influencer options.

Sustainability and Ethical Consumption 

Ethics and sustainability are a major driver of Gen Z purchase decisions:

• 81% of Gen Z have changed a purchasing decision based on a brand’s actions or reputation
• 77% of Gen Z don’t want to buy from companies with poor environmental track records

Social proof is one of the most effective ways for brands to communicate their ethical and sustainable performance to users, by giving them real, direct insights into the products, production processes, and people behind the brands.

Platform-Specific Gen Z Social Commerce Insights 

TikTok Shop’s Evolution 

TikTok Shop first came about in 2019 on Douyin, the original Chinese version of the platform. It’s since developed into a major force in digital commerce, seeing millions of shoppers make purchases through it each year.

TikTok Shop is growing exponentially – global sales volumes for 2025 are estimated to grow from $33bn to $66bn, a staggering 100% increase vs. 2024. 

By 2027, around 42% of TikTok users are expected to make purchases directly through the platform.

Instagram Shopping Features 

While Instagram removed its dedicated Shop tab in 2023, social commerce features are intelligently woven through content and community functions, making it a strong contender platform for in-app commerce.

Features include product tags in Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore, allowing users to click for product details or proceed directly to purchasing via Instagram Checkout. Businesses can also set up customizable digital shops, making it easy for users to browse and buy a particular brand directly on the app. 

Emerging Platforms Capturing Gen Z Attention 

Pinterest is one of the dark horses of the social commerce world, carving out its own space as a dedicated place for inspiration, consumer planning and niche purchases. 

With limited social functions compared to its rivals TikTok and Instagram, combined with a unique visual search engine and super-smooth purchasing via ‘shoppable Pins’, it’s a strong performer across verticals like DIY, craft, home and fashion.

Effective Strategies for Brands Targeting Gen Z 

Creating Subtle Social Commerce Experiences 

Social commerce works best when it’s not in your face. You don’t need to advertise to your users in order to get them to click your shoppable links.

Instead, simply let consumers see your product or experience in action, see how it can improve their lives, and let them make the logical decision to click.

Using Creator Partnerships for Maximum Impact 

When you work with creators, you’re not only opening up a far larger creative toolbox for communicating to your potential customers, but you’re getting direct access to their high-engagement audience too.

When it comes to social commerce, equipping value-aligned influencers with shoppable links and integrations with your storefront works just like a ‘standard’ collaboration, except you benefit from enhanced conversion rates and crystal clear performance tracking.

Social Listening and Responsive Marketing 

With social commerce, you’re bringing the ‘Buy’ button into the frenetic world of scrolling, trends and infotainment, and that button needs to sit naturally in the discourse of the day as a result.

Social listening means just that – consuming what your consumers are, tracking the conversation, and getting a feel for customer pain points and sentiment. Putting out responsive content that perfectly fits the style, priorities and inside jokes of your audience is the path to optimal results. 

Influencers are the ultimate social listeners, and their livelihood is responsive content creation – use them.

Case Studies: Successful Gen Z Social Commerce Campaigns Brand 

Innovation in Social Shopping 

Rhode Beauty leveraged its founder’s celebrity for a full-funnel social commerce strategy that used TikTok virality as its engine, setting a new benchmark for effective ‘scroll to sale’ experiences. Their lip gloss phone case was a hit – not just because the product was innovative and chic, but because Rhode got their marketing and ecommerce actions into perfect alignment, using influencer content to drive pre-launch hype before dropping a range of shoppable short form content.

Community-Driven Approach 

Djerf Avenue has collected a loyal Gen Z following by celebrating them as #djerfavenueangels. Instead of relying solely on top-tier influencers, their shoppable content was democratized, featuring a mixture of everyday followers and micro-creators in their campaigns. By folding purchase opportunities into a landscape rich with user-generated content, users are primed to trust – and therefore buy.

Sustainability-Focused Strategy 

Patagonia is a champion of radical transparency and environmental activism. Shoppable content allowed them to increase that transparency when promoting their ‘Worn Wear’ line. Their posts featured tags or links that took users directly to that specific used item on the Worn Wear section of their site, giving shoppers a way to inspect and get inspired by a second hand item before buying.

By increasing the legitimacy, trust and transparency of used item wearing, Patagonia helped to remove a common ‘pain point’ of buying second hand, driving sustainable product re-use as a result.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Gen Z Social Commerce 

Predicted Trends for the Remainder of 2025 

• Live content is here to stay, but it’s always adapting. We’re seeing streams move from scheduled ‘events’ to casual, always-on formats that are geared towards organic interaction and impulse buys.
• Brands continue to wake up to the outsized potential of nano-influencers, as part of an overall move away from views and follower counts to a ‘conversion is king’ attitude. 
• Emerging technologies are shaping how social commerce will look in 2025 and beyond, with augmented reality experiences like ‘try-ons’ continuing to have their day, while AI tools for tracking and analysis are unlocking even more advanced levels of personalization.

Preparing for the Next Generation of Shoppers 

For too long, social marketers have focused almost entirely on the top end of the sales funnel: awareness building, product marketing and trying to catch viral hype.

Social commerce means that marketers and influencers need to bring the decision-to-buy and checkout stages firmly into their on-app content strategy – because their competitors certainly will be. 

This means building content that supports mobile-first, seamless purchase experiences, where users aren’t just enabled to click ‘buy’ at some point in the future, but are activated to do so with speed and enthusiasm.

How to integrate social commerce into your influencer marketing strategy

Convincing the next generation of social shoppers to click ‘Buy’ needs the right creators, creative approaches and product choices to come together at once, based on an intimate understanding of your audience and their communities. If you need help building a perfect pipeline for the social commerce age, we can help.