5 minutes
How to sell on social media
Your customers are already shopping on social media. Here’s how to make sure they’re shopping from you.
Key points
- The UK social commerce market was worth an estimated $40 billion in 2024 and is growing at 22% a year.
- Not all platforms convert equally. TikTok Shop outperforms Facebook Shops by nearly 3x.
- Getting seen is only half the job. Checkout drop-off – wrong payment methods, too many steps – is where most social sales are lost.
Social media has moved beyond discovery. It is now where purchases happen – in-app, in the moment, with no need to visit a separate website. For small and medium businesses, that changes the opportunity considerably.
How big is social commerce for small businesses?
The UK market is one of the fastest-growing in Europe. Research from ResearchAndMarkets values it at $40 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of around 22% – putting it on track to exceed $83 billion by 2029.
Consumer behaviour is shifting accordingly. According to Sprout Social's UK Index, 35% of social media users in the UK make spontaneous purchases based on social media content several times a year, and 33.5% do so at least once a month. A separate Adobe Express survey found that 29% of UK consumers are buying more through social media than they were previously.
For SMBs operating on lean teams and tight budgets, those figures point to where buying decisions are being made. Being visible on social media is no longer enough – you need to be purchasable there, too.
- £9B+ Annual social media advertising spend in the UK in 2025 – up 13.8% year on year. (Birdeye, 2026)
- 35% of UK social media users make spontaneous purchases through social content several times a year. (Sprout Social UK Index)
- 48% of UK consumers use TikTok Shop to make direct purchases on social media – the highest of any platform. (Bazaarvoice Shopper Preference Report 2025)
Which platforms should you prioritise?
Not all platforms drive the same results. Conversion rates vary considerably – and your choice of platform should follow your customers, not the platform with the most users.
Platform | Best for | Conversion rate | Key feature |
TikTok Shop | Product discovery, Gen Z/Millennial buyers | 4.7% | Creator-led purchase triggers |
Instagram Shopping | Visual products, lifestyle brands | 2.1% | Product tagging, Reels integration |
Facebook Shops | Broad reach, local businesses | 1.8% | 280M+ monthly Shops users |
Sources: eMarketer 2026; SellersCommerce 2026. Conversion rates reflect platform averages and will vary by product category, audience and content quality.
TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop converts at 4.7% – more than twice the rate of Instagram Shopping and nearly three times Facebook Shops. It is built for fast discovery driven by short-form video and creator content. If your products are visual, demonstrable or impulse-friendly, TikTok Shop deserves serious attention.
TikTok's own UK newsroom reported crossing 30 million regular UK users in late 2025, and 52% of weekly TikTok users say they are interested in buying products directly through the app, according to Talkwalker's 2025 UK report. Around 1.5 million UK businesses already use the platform to promote products or services.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram Shopping converts at 2.1% and remains the strongest platform for lifestyle, fashion, food and home goods. Product tagging within Reels and Stories keeps your inventory visible during content that already performs. The platform has 35.5 million users in the UK alone, according to Metricool's 2026 UK social media study.
Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops converts at 1.8% and reaches the broadest demographic range. Over 280 million people engage with Facebook Shops every month globally. In the UK, Facebook remains the most widely used platform for paid social ads, with 89% of marketers using it, according to Birdeye. For businesses targeting consumers aged 35–54, or running local campaigns, Facebook remains a reliable channel – particularly when combined with Marketplace and Groups.
How do you turn social followers into paying customers?
Platform choice gets you in front of buyers. What converts them is execution. These four approaches consistently move people from browsing to buying.
1. Make your products natively purchasable
If your social profiles do not have shops set up with full product catalogues, start there. Buyers who cannot purchase without leaving the app frequently do not return. Native checkout removes the gap between interest and transaction. Connect your inventory to the platform's shopping tools and make sure product images, descriptions and prices are current.
2. Use short-form video as your primary format
Video commerce captured 43% of the social commerce market in 2025, per Mordor Intelligence. The format works because it shows products in context rather than against a white background. You do not need a production budget. Authentic, well-lit demonstrations – showing how a product works, fits or solves a problem – consistently outperform polished ads. Aim for 15–60 second formats on TikTok and Reels.
3. Work with micro-influencers in your niche
Eighty-two per cent of consumers say they are highly likely to act on a recommendation from a micro-influencer, according to Hostinger research. Micro-influencers – those with between 5,000 and 50,000 followers – typically have more engaged audiences than larger accounts, and their endorsements carry more credibility. Bazaarvoice's Shopper Preference Report 2025 found that 30% of UK shoppers have bought a product based on a creator recommendation. Food, fitness, home, beauty or fashion merchants can often reach the right buyers more cost-effectively through one well-chosen micro-influencer than through paid ads alone.
4. Treat reviews and user-generated content as a sales asset
Peer recommendations influence 59% of shoppers globally, according to Mordor Intelligence. Ask customers to tag you in posts, share their experience in Stories or leave a review on your shop page. Resharing genuine customer content is among the most cost-effective ways to build social proof – and it signals authenticity to prospective buyers who are wary of polished brand messaging.
What does checkout look like on social media – and why does it matter?
One of the most common reasons buyers drop off at social checkout is a mismatch between the payment methods offered and what they actually want to use. Consumers who shop on social platforms skew younger and mobile-first. That means digital wallets – Apple Pay®, Google Pay™ and buy now, pay later options – are often expected rather than optional.
When you set up your social shop, check which payment methods are accepted and whether they align with your customers' preferences. Worldpay®, now part of Global Payments, supports a wide range of payment methods across social-connected checkout flows, helping you give buyers the options they expect at the final step.
Also watch for abandoned carts. Social platforms provide seller analytics showing where buyers drop off. If the data points to checkout, the issue is often payment method availability, page load speed on mobile or the number of steps required to complete a purchase.
Social commerce FAQ
What is social commerce?
Do I need to be on every social platform to sell on social media?
How much does it cost to sell through social media shops?
Is social commerce suitable for service businesses, or only product sellers?
How do I know if my social commerce efforts are working?
What payment methods should I accept on social commerce?
Get the payment mix right at checkout
Worldpay supports flexible payment methods designed for how people shop on social and mobile – including digital wallets, buy now, pay later and card payments – so your buyers get the options they expect at the final step.
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