From scroll to sale: How to turn social commerce into serious growth

We’ve seen it all: TikTok hauls, Instagram drops, influencer tagging, and livestream shopping taking over our feeds. Social commerce is no longer an emerging trend. It’s a central part of how people discover, evaluate and purchase products today. And it’s here to stay. 

But while many brands experiment with it, only a few are turning social commerce into a scalable and measurable growth strategy.

Social commerce belongs at the core of your acquisition and conversion strategy. It’s not just another channel; it’s a shift in how people shop and how brands grow.

During our most recent CroudX Talks, I shared a clear framework on how brands can operationalize social commerce in a strategic, sustainable way. And drive real results. Because the reality is: without structure, social commerce is just content. 

Here is my deep dive into the four building blocks to move from nice content to measurable results. 

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Reimagining the customer journey: From discovery to purchase in one flow 

The core power of social commerce lies in collapsing the funnel. It transforms top-of-funnel (TOFU) platforms like TikTok and Instagram into conversion machines, bridging the gap between inspiration and purchase. By uniting discovery, engagement and conversion in one platform, brands reduce friction and accelerate decision-making. 

To do that effectively, brands need a fully integrated approach that covers every touchpoint of the customer journey, backed by the right data, technology, and content strategy. 

Key building blocks:

1. Optimizing your feed & product catalogue
Success starts with structure. A well-structured, real-time product catalogue is the foundation of any effective social commerce strategy. The feed is the bridge between your content and your conversion. That means it has to be smart, structured and synced in real-time. 

• Feed optimization: Enrich product data with clear, search-friendly titles and high-quality visuals.
• Smart product segmentation: Group products into thematic collections or seasonal drops to support shoppable storytelling and personalized campaigns. 
• Real-time syncing: Automate your catalogue updates so product availability, stock and pricing are always current, on both TikTok and Instagram.
  
  

2. Tracking & attribution for full-funnel visibility
If you can’t measure it, you can’t scale it. Too many brands run paid campaigns or creator collabs without solid tracking in place. Therefore brands should build an attribution structure that connects every piece of content to performance. 

• Track shop interactions: Track additional events such as product clicks, show views and add-to-wishlist actions to better understand behavior.
• UTM clarity: Structure your campaign tags to tie performance back to content, creators and channels. 
• Continuous optimization: Use tracking data to refine content, audience targeting and content tagging based on real performance. We often use Billy Grace as a live monitoring layer to make decisions faster.
  
  

3. Shoppable content that converts
Inspiration is good. Conversion is better. Shoppable content should not be purely visual. It must be functional. Every video, Reel or livestream needs to serve a specific purpose in the customer journey. And when done right, shoppable content becomes your best-performing advertising. 

• Purposeful content planning: Define a clear content strategy with clear goals per campaign, select the right formats and align products and visuals with key themes, seasons or product drops.
• Strategic creator partnerships: Brief creators with intent (tone of voice, CTAs, product focus). Decide when and with what creator to collaborate and boost their content with Spark Ads or Meta Boosting to maximize both reach and conversion.
• Tagging with precision: Determine who can tag which products, how often and which collections show up in content vs. shopping tabs.
  
  

4. Strategy & activation: Turning planning into performance
Once the foundation is in place, it’s all about smart activation. Because successful activation requires more than pressing ‘publish’. By activating for growth, brands can scale content efficiently while driving sales, building community and boosting visibility. 

• Clear KPIs and platform alignment: Translate brand goals into a clear strategy. Allocate budget across paid and creator-led content, based on funnel priorities and growth targets. 
• Campaign types & format selection: Based on your campaign objectives and creative assets, we select the most effective ad formats. Whether it’s TikTok Video Shopping Ads, Spark Ads or Instagram Collection Ads, choose the formats that deliver on your goals. 
• Test and iterate: Every campaign is a learning loop. Track the performance of every content format, creator and ad. Based on real-time insights, we adjust targeting, budgets and content strategy to continuously optimise campaign impact.
  
  

Proven impact: Brands that are leading the way

I have seen what’s possible when brands commit to this framework:

Crocs
Leveraged platform-native content (challenges + influencer UGC) to drive over 2 billion views and 40% revenue growth on TikTok.

Olivia & Kate
Turned organic creator content into high-performing Spark Ads and achieved 300% more conversions and 150% lower CPA.

Odd Muse
Scaled to £22.5M in annual revenue by building community-driven styling content that directly supported new product launches and sales velocity.

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Social commerce isn’t just about selling on TikTok and tagging on Instagram. It’s about rethinking how your brand shows up, connects and converts in a frictionless way. It’s a new operating model for e-commerce brands. But to turn it into a true growth driver, brands need a clear framework, strong foundations, and a partner who understands both the data and the creative. 

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