What is social commerce?

Social commerce is buying and selling directly inside social media, without ever leaving the app. A shoppable post, a checkout inside a chat, a video you can buy from, that is social commerce turning scrolling into shopping.

It collapses the gap between discovery and purchase. Instead of seeing a product on social, then hunting for it on a website, the customer buys right there in the moment they want it.

For brands it means meeting customers where they already spend their time, and treating community and content as part of the storefront rather than a separate marketing channel.

Sthenos built a multilingual social commerce platform for a Saudi marketplace, blending commerce and community at scale.

Related terms: headless commerce, subscription commerce.

How is social commerce different from social media marketing?

Marketing drives people to a store. Social commerce is the store, with the actual purchase happening inside the social platform.