Brands have long treated social media as a channel for distribution, a place to push content and acquire attention. But consumers have reshaped the landscape far faster than legacy marketing models can keep up.
With more than 5.4 billion people on social platforms and nearly 19 hours a week spent scrolling, social media has become far more than the top of the funnel. It is now the arena in which discovery, trust-building, conversation and purchase coexist in a single motion; one uninterrupted swipe.
The Digitas Future Talks session on the future of social commerce demonstrated a profound shift: the strongest pathway to conversion is the community.
Social commerce has matured into a default buying environment where influence, intent and transaction converge almost instantaneously. The data speaks plainly: 76% of global social users say the content they consume directly affects what they buy, and among Gen Z that influence climbs to 90%.
The TikTok engine
TikTok, now on track to surpass Instagram in monthly active users, has become the engine of this behaviour. Users spend more than an hour and a half a day on the platform, immersed in creator-led storytelling that dissolves the traditional boundaries of the shopping journey. In this world, content is commerce.
Behaviour, credibility and community are at the centre of great brand strategy. Rather than segmenting people by age or income, cohorts form organically around shared habits. Influence flows from creators whose credibility is earned through lived experience rather than celebrity polish.
Communities build momentum as consumers discuss, challenge, recommend and validate one another, turning comment sections into trust engines.
And content succeeds only when it is native to the platform’s language rather than repurposed from above-the-line campaigns that feel out of place in the scroll.
When these elements align, social stops functioning as an awareness mechanism and starts behaving like a genuine conversion channel.
Embracing the shift
The real proof lies in the brands that have already embraced this shift. PepsiCo reimagined its snacks as culinary ingredients after noticing how TikTok users folded them naturally into their cooking content. Crocs turned criticism into cultural currency by leaning into negative sentiment with humour and speed.
Burger King revived a discontinued product because the TikTok community wouldn’t let it die. SA Tourism uncovered an entirely new and high-value audience segment (pensioners) simply by paying attention to who was engaging with its content, ultimately driving a 44% increase in bookings.
And NedBank used influencer unboxing to challenge South Africa’s premium-consumerism culture, reframing responsible spending as a lifestyle choice. In each example, the community steered the conversations.
What comes next
TikTok in particular, is shaping the architecture for what comes next. The platform has evolved beyond social commerce into community commerce; an ecosystem where people discover, debate, learn and purchase without stepping outside the app.
The scale is staggering: more than 143 billion views on #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, and an algorithm able to surface micro-interests with precision.
The introduction of AI tools such as TikTok’s Symphony, now accessible through Adobe Express, further lowers the barrier for brands to create content that matches the pace and texture of the platform, enabling them to participate rather than broadcast.
While cross-platform conversion loops between TikTok and Meta have not yet materialised, the expectation is that integrated pathways are on the horizon, which will only strengthen the fluidity of discovery-to-purchase behaviours.
Social as media placement
When brands treat social as a media placement, audiences behave like viewers. But when brands behave as contributors within a community, responsive, human, attuned to cultural rhythms, then viewers shift into participants and participants shift into purchasers.
The onus lies with brands to create content that invites interaction rather than demands attention.
The future of commerce will favour brands that embrace this collapsing of the funnel, where behaviour, authenticity and community carry more weight than demographics or production quality.
Shopping will increasingly feel woven into the social fabric, shaped by the creators people trust and the communities they choose to belong to. The feed is already becoming the new storefront, and each micro-interaction acts as a new kind of sales moment.
The path forward requires brands to rethink their presence on platforms as an ongoing dialogue. If shopping is to become as social as the feed, then brands must be willing to meet consumers inside communities that shape what they discover and what they buy.
Digitas is the connected marketing agency, built on the principle that there are better ways for brands to connect with people. We leverage comprehensive data, technology, creative, media and strategy capabilities to deliver media-fuelled creativity via connected solutions that include connected campaigns, social marketing, brand experience, CRM & loyalty, and marketing transformation. Digitas South Africa has Head Offices in JHB and CT.
