Social commerce is growing, but its headline figures measure different things: DHL reports what shoppers say they have bought and where businesses say they sell, EMARKETER forecasts where U.S. social buyers will shop, and Circana estimates TikTok Shop’s influence on U.S. sales. Read together, the data point to TikTok’s rising role and the importance of separating social-led discovery from purchases completed inside an app.
What are the latest social commerce statistics for 2026?
The figures below cover different populations, geographies, and measures. They are useful for understanding the landscape, but they are not interchangeable totals or a single platform ranking.
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- Social selling by businesses and shoppers: DHL eCommerce reports that 63% of surveyed businesses sell on social, while 45% of surveyed shoppers say they buy through social-commerce channels. The results come from separate respondent groups, so the gap is not a conversion rate.
- U.S. TikTok forecast: EMARKETER forecasts that 51% of U.S. social buyers will shop on TikTok in 2026. This is a forecast share of social buyers, not TikTok’s share of ecommerce sales.
- Global market projection: Shopify relays an EMARKETER projection that the global social-commerce market will reach nearly $102 billion in 2026. This is a projected market value, not a survey result or a measured 2026 outcome.
- TikTok Shop’s U.S. sales influence: Circana estimates that TikTok Shop influences about 1% of total U.S. retail sales and 3% of U.S. ecommerce sales. These are estimates of influence, not the same measure as the EMARKETER forecast.
DHL describes its 2026 E-Commerce Trends research as a survey of 29,000 online shoppers and 5,800 ecommerce businesses across 29 countries. Survey answers describe what respondents reported; they are not transaction records verified by platforms.
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Which social platform has the most shoppers?
In DHL eCommerce’s 2026 survey, Facebook had the highest reported “ever purchased” rate both globally and among U.S. respondents. TikTok ranked second in both groups. The survey asked whether respondents had ever purchased items on each platform, so a person could be counted under multiple platforms.
#1 Best Overall
| Platform | Global respondents | U.S. respondents |
|---|---|---|
| 63% | 70% | |
| TikTok | 50% | 67% |
| 48% | 47% | |
| YouTube | 29% | 41% |
| Snapchat | 11% | 19% |
| 10% | 16% | |
| Twitch | 5% | 8% |
These percentages are self-reported, non-exclusive “ever purchased” responses. They do not show how much people spent, which platform they use most, or what share of sales each platform captured. The U.S. and global columns are separate survey results, not a comparison of identical national populations.
How many people buy products on TikTok Shop?
The 2026 figures answer different versions of that question, and none gives a verified count of individual TikTok Shop buyers:
- 51%: EMARKETER’s forecast says this share of U.S. social buyers will shop on TikTok in 2026. The public forecast page presents this as a future-facing estimate, not an observed result or a percentage of all U.S. shoppers.
- 50% globally and 67% in the U.S.: DHL eCommerce’s 2026 survey respondents who said they had ever purchased on TikTok. The measure is self-reported and does not establish that the purchase was made through TikTok Shop specifically.
- About 3% of U.S. ecommerce sales: Circana’s 2026 estimate of TikTok Shop’s influence on ecommerce sales. This is a sales estimate, not a buyer percentage.
Circana also estimates TikTok Shop influences about 1% of total U.S. retail sales. That denominator includes retail sales beyond ecommerce, which is why the estimate differs from its ecommerce-sales figure.
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Shopify’s 2026 explainer defines social commerce as “the use of social media platforms to promote and sell products or services.” Ecommerce is the broader activity of buying and selling online; social commerce describes a role social platforms play in product discovery, promotion, and the purchase journey.
Native in-app checkout
A shopper may discover a product in a social app and complete the purchase there, as with a TikTok Shop checkout. The platform is involved in both discovery and transaction.
Social discovery that leads elsewhere
A social post or creator recommendation can instead send the shopper to a retailer’s website. Shopify’s examples include tagged products during YouTube livestreams, Pinterest product tags, and creator affiliate links in Instagram Stories. The path still begins on social even though checkout happens on the retailer’s site.
Rank #4
This distinction affects how businesses track attribution, coordinate inventory, fulfill orders, and handle returns: a purchase completed in-app and one completed on a retailer’s site may follow different systems.
What do the 2026 social-commerce trends mean for businesses?
EMARKETER’s public 2026 forecast frames creators, younger shoppers, and built-in checkout as forces behind social commerce’s growth. Its public page highlights a TikTok forecast; detailed figures for other trends require access to the full report, so the available evidence does not support assigning additional percentages to Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, Pinterest shopping, or live shopping.
Best Value
DHL’s business and shopper responses suggest a practical challenge: more surveyed businesses report selling on social than surveyed shoppers report buying through social-commerce channels. Because the groups and questions differ, this does not prove a performance gap for any particular seller. It does make it important to assess whether a social channel is producing measurable purchases, rather than treating presence alone as success.
- Choose a channel based on audience and purchase path. Global and U.S. DHL responses differ by platform, and the “ever purchased” measure does not tell a seller which channel will perform best for its customers.
- Keep product information and inventory aligned. Product feeds and stock levels need to stay consistent wherever customers can discover or buy the item.
- Measure the full journey. Track whether a social interaction leads to an in-app checkout or a visit and purchase on the retailer’s site; the distinction matters for attribution.
- Plan fulfillment and returns around the transaction channel. A social-led sale still has to be delivered and supported, regardless of where checkout occurs.
What broader online-shopping data should not be mistaken for social commerce?
Circana’s Annual Holiday Survey, reported in October 2025, found that 81% of consumers shopped online during the 2025 holiday period and 47% used a smartphone to browse and buy. These figures describe general online shopping and device use, not social-shopping behavior. They provide context for digital commerce, but should not be presented as social-commerce adoption rates.
How to compare social-commerce statistics accurately
Before using a platform percentage or market figure, check what it actually measures:
- Geography: global, U.S., or another named market.
- Population: all shoppers, online shoppers, social buyers, platform users, or businesses.
- Metric: market value, sales influence, forecast share, reported past purchase, or business adoption.
- Time basis: a past-behavior survey answer, a current estimate, or a forecast for 2026.
- Purchase path: checkout inside the platform or social discovery that sends the buyer to an external store.
A forecast is not an observed outcome, a survey answer is not a verified transaction, and a platform’s “ever purchased” rate is not its market share. Keeping those distinctions visible makes the 2026 figures useful without implying they measure the same thing.
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