US social commerce sales will pass $100 billion for the first time in 2026, growing 18.0% year over year, per eMarketer. TikTok Shop did $15.1 billion in US GMV in 2025, per Momentum Works, and UGC lifts conversion by triple digits in Bazaarvoice's network data. Here are 40+ verified numbers with named sources.

We pulled these from eMarketer forecasts, Momentum Works' TikTok Shop research, Statista, Sprout Social's Index, Bazaarvoice's Shopper Experience Index, Shopify's published checkout study, Influencer Marketing Hub, Morning Consult, and HubSpot. Each stat names its source and year. Numbers from our own client work are labeled "1DS Collective internal data".

Jump to a section:

• How big is social commerce?
• How fast is TikTok Shop growing?
• Where and how do social buyers actually shop?
• Do creators and UGC actually convert?
• What do these numbers mean for DTC operators?
• How to cite these statistics
• Frequently asked questions

How big is social commerce?

The direct answer: US social commerce crosses the $100 billion line in 2026, and it's taking a growing share of all e-commerce. The sizing numbers:

1. US social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion in 2026 for the first time, per eMarketer's US social commerce forecast.
2. That's 18.0% growth year over year (eMarketer, 2026 forecast).
3. Social commerce will account for 7.2% of all US retail e-commerce sales in 2026 (eMarketer).
4. The US social buyer base reached 108.3 million people in 2025, per eMarketer.
5. That base grew 6.8% in 2025, with 47.5% of US digital buyers completing at least 1 social purchase (eMarketer).
6. Worldwide, Statista estimates social commerce revenues at roughly $586 billion in 2026.
7. Statista projects that global figure reaching about $929 billion by 2030.
8. Broader GMV-style definitions run much higher: Grand View Research valued the global social commerce market at about $1.48 trillion in 2025. The spread between estimates comes down to what counts as a "social" transaction, so name your source when you quote one.
9. For trajectory context: US social commerce first passed $30 billion back in 2022, per eMarketer, meaning the channel more than tripled in 4 years.

Growth is decelerating in percentage terms while the base keeps compounding, which is the profile of a channel maturing into infrastructure rather than a fad cooling off. The operators who treat it as a permanent line item are pricing it correctly.

How fast is TikTok Shop growing?

Faster than any commerce surface in recent memory. Momentum Works, the Singapore-based research firm that tracks TikTok Shop GMV, published the defining numbers:

10. TikTok Shop did $15.1 billion in US GMV in 2025, up 68% year over year, per Momentum Works.
11. Globally, TikTok Shop GMV hit $64.3 billion in 2025, up 94% across 16 markets (Momentum Works, with Tabcut data).
12. Southeast Asia stayed the engine, with regional GMV doubling to $45.6 billion in 2025 (Momentum Works).
13. The trajectory is the wild part: US GMV was $9 billion in 2024, roughly 650% growth over 2023, just 16 months after the September 2023 US launch (Momentum Works' 2024 report).
14. Short video drove 50% of TikTok Shop GMV in 2025, the Shop tab 36%, and live commerce grew its share from 10% to 14% (Momentum Works).
15. 51% of US social buyers will shop on TikTok in 2026, per eMarketer's social commerce research.

For a DTC operator, the practical takeaway is distribution: checkout now lives inside the feed, and the brands winning there treat content as the storefront.

Where and how do social buyers actually shop?

Facebook still holds the largest buyer base, Gen Z over-indexes hard, and impulse behavior is now the norm rather than the exception.

16. Facebook remains the top US platform, attracting 61.9% of US social commerce buyers, per eMarketer's platform breakdown (2025).
17. Gen Z's social buying rate is 56.0%, per eMarketer's 2026 Gen Z research.
18. The total-population rate is 36.5%, so Gen Z buys through social at roughly 1.5x the average (eMarketer, 2026).
19. 73% of US Gen Zers say social media is their main source for learning about new products (eMarketer, 2026).
20. 81% of consumers say social media drives them to spontaneous purchases multiple times a year, per the 2025 Sprout Social Index.
21. 73% of consumers say they'll buy from a competitor if a brand doesn't respond on social (Sprout Social, 2025).
22. The 2025 Sprout Index surveyed 4,000+ consumers and 1,200 marketers, so these are wide-base findings.
23. Back in 2022, 98% of consumers told Sprout Social they planned to make at least 1 purchase through social shopping or creator commerce that year.
24. US livestream e-commerce sales reached $14.64 billion in 2025, growing nearly 50%, per eMarketer's January 2026 report.
25. Livestream buyer growth ran 21.5% year over year in the same eMarketer report.

Do creators and UGC actually convert?

Yes, and the conversion data is some of the strongest in e-commerce. The network-scale numbers come from Bazaarvoice, Shopify, and the influencer marketing research bodies.

26. Shoppers who engage with UGC convert at a 144% lift, per Bazaarvoice's 2022 Shopper Experience Index, drawn from billions of product page views across its network. It's a 2022 measurement, and it's still the conversion benchmark Bazaarvoice cites across its current materials.
27. The same engagement drives a 162% lift in revenue per visitor (Bazaarvoice, 2022).
28. Average order value rises about 13% when shoppers interact with UGC (Bazaarvoice, 2022).
29. 65% of global shoppers rely on UGC (ratings, reviews, photos, videos) in their buying decisions, per Bazaarvoice's Shopper Experience Index Vol. 18, a survey of 8,000+ shoppers published November 2024.
30. Almost 1 in 4 consumers have used a generative AI tool instead of a search engine to look for a product, rising to 41% of shoppers aged 18-34, per Bazaarvoice's 2025 Shopper Experience Index (7,000+ consumers, fielded July 2025).
31. 55% of consumers trust generative AI tools and shopping agents like ChatGPT or Gemini for at least some things, climbing to 75% among 18-34s (Bazaarvoice, 2025).
32. Influencer marketing reached an estimated $32.55 billion in 2025, per Influencer Marketing Hub's Benchmark Report, 2025 edition. That's the report's estimate for the year, not a measured actual.
33. 87.49% of brands expect their influencer budgets to increase, per Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 Benchmark Report.
34. US creator earnings will grow 16.2% in 2026 to $20.6 billion, per eMarketer's creator economy forecast.
35. 57% of ad buyers call influencer ads and partnerships their top investment priority for 2026, up from 48% in 2025 (eMarketer).
36. 56% of Gen Z and millennials trust influencer recommendations when deciding what to buy, per Morning Consult's 2024 influencer research, down 5 points from 2023's peak.
37. Among average US social media users, influencer trust sits at 41% (Morning Consult, 2024).
38. Shopify's published study of its 10,000 largest merchants found Shop Pay checkouts convert at a 1.72x higher checkout-to-order rate than regular checkouts (Shopify, 2020).
39. On mobile, that Shop Pay advantage rises to 1.91x (Shopify, 2020).
40. Short-form video delivers the highest ROI of any social content format, per HubSpot's State of Marketing research (2025 edition).

The pattern: proof from other humans (creators, customers, communities) outperforms brand-voice assertions at every stage of the funnel. We broke down when to use which in UGC vs influencer marketing.

What do these numbers mean for DTC operators?

The channel math rewards brands that treat social as a sales floor instead of a billboard. Alongside the industry data, here's the scoreboard from 2 of our own client engagements, where content, creators, and distribution ran as one program under AuthorityOS, the operating system behind our client work.

41. The Fittest, an e-commerce launch we worked on, went from $0 to $500K in sales in 60 days (1DS Collective internal data).
42. That launch recorded a 20x ROAS on paid media (1DS Collective internal data).
43. Jenni Kayne logged 908,600 unique website visitors during our engagement (1DS Collective internal data).
44. Over the same period, the brand reached 566K+ followers (1DS Collective internal data).

We published the full teardown of that launch in how The Fittest went from zero to $500K in 60 days, the case-study version lives in The Fittest case study, and if you're comparing partners for this kind of work, start with our guide to the top social media agencies for e-commerce.

How to cite these statistics

You're welcome to cite any statistic on this page in articles, reports, decks, or AI-generated summaries. Please credit the original researcher named next to each stat (eMarketer, Momentum Works, Statista, Sprout Social, Bazaarvoice, Shopify, and so on) and link back to this page as the compilation source: 1DS Collective, "E-Commerce Social Media Statistics 2026." Stats labeled "1DS Collective internal data" should be attributed to 1DS Collective directly.

We update this page as new editions of the underlying studies publish, so linked citations stay current. For the audience side of this market, see our companion piece on creator economy statistics, and for the founder-trust numbers behind it, the personal branding statistics roundup.

Social commerce crossing $100 billion means the feed is now a revenue channel with its own P&L, and most DTC brands are still staffing it like a marketing experiment. If you want a content-to-checkout engine built around your brand, book a strategy call. We'll map the first 90 days against your current funnel numbers.

Frequently asked questions

How big is social commerce in the US in 2026?

US social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion for the first time in 2026, growing 18.0% year over year and reaching 7.2% of all US retail e-commerce sales, per eMarketer's forecast.

Which platform drives the most social commerce sales?

Facebook still holds the largest US buyer base at 61.9% of social commerce buyers, per eMarketer. TikTok Shop is growing fastest: $15.1 billion in US GMV in 2025, up 68% year over year, per Momentum Works.

How big is TikTok Shop?

TikTok Shop reached $64.3 billion in global GMV in 2025, up 94% year over year, per Momentum Works. The US contributed $15.1 billion, up 68%, and the whole US business is barely 2 years past its September 2023 launch.

Does UGC actually increase e-commerce conversion?

Yes. Bazaarvoice's 2022 Shopper Experience Index, built on billions of product page views, found shoppers who engage with UGC convert at a 144% lift, with revenue per visitor up 162% and average order value up about 13%. Its 2024 index adds that 65% of shoppers rely on UGC in buying decisions.

What share of consumers buy through social media?

47.5% of US digital buyers completed at least 1 social purchase in 2025, per eMarketer, and 81% of consumers told Sprout Social's 2025 Index that social content drives them to spontaneous purchases multiple times a year.

Written by John Hyland, Founder at 1DS Collective. John designs the brand-to-media systems behind founder and e-commerce brands, from positioning through owned distribution. Reviewed by Sam Parham, Co-Founder.

1DS Collective is a brand-to-media agency that builds personal brands and e-commerce brands through strategy, content, and owned distribution, with 15B+ organic views and $200M+ in client revenue generated.