Over two thirds of Americans (68%) have bought products directly on social-media apps, and 26% buy products in-app more than once a week, a new survey from the creator-management platform Grin found.
The research surveyed 1,000 US consumers 18 and older. The majority were Gen Z and millennials, while about 30% were Gen Xers and boomers.
For years, social-media platforms have worked hard to find ways to bring social shopping to the US, motivated by its success in China and Southeast Asia. Instagram had big plans to turn its app into a digital mall with shoppable content (though it has since pulled back), and YouTube also launched an affiliate program to incentivize creators to sell products via their videos.
Most recently — and successfully — TikTok has been building an infrastructure to facilitate in-app shopping with TikTok Shop. This includes a “Shop” tab, affiliate programs for creators to earn commissions on the sales, and a variety of perks for merchants who start selling.
Ali Fazal, VP of marketing at Grin, told Business Insider that social-media platforms may finally have made a breakthrough.
“Grin has run this survey, or versions of this, in the past, and this is the first year that we really saw a large amount of people commit to not just using social media to gather recommendations, but actually shopping on social media itself,” Fazal said. “Networks have made it easy now, especially TikTok, to make it so that social-media users can shop without ever really leaving the app.”
Not all consumers are sold, however. Fourteen percent of respondents said they shop through a social-media app once a year or less, while 13% said they shop in-app once per season.
“There is certainly room for growth, because of the way that the algorithm works and because of the diversity of content that is displayed,” Fazal said. “Social media allows for brands to have a better chance of reaching consumers outside their target demographic. Obviously, that is a huge benefit because your brand’s consumer base is growing.”
TikTok Shop
Here are four takeaways from the survey:
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Seventy-six percent of people said they had at least considered purchasing digital products like an app, subscription, or software because of a social-media recommendation.
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In-app shopping is more popular than ever, with 68% of people saying they had purchased products directly through a social-media app. More than 26% of those people said they took advantage of in-app shopping more than once a week.
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Over half of consumers said they would use social media to research holiday gifts this year, while 20% said they would buy gifts directly on social media.
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When looking at which platforms consumers preferred for in-app purchases, TikTok reigned supreme for Gen Z. Millennials, Gen Xers, and boomers said they still used Facebook most.
It’s not surprising that TikTok has found success among Gen Z, given how much it’s invested in Shop. But while many creators and small businesses have reported cashing in on the offering, some users have expressed frustration at the number of shopping-focused videos that have started popping up on the app.
Based on Grin’s survey findings, Fazal thinks TikTok Shop is here to stay, and consumers are growing accustomed to it.
“Historically, there’s been a subset of consumers who find advertising of any kind frustrating or annoying, but for the most part, it evens out,” he said. “TikTok does a good job of trying to calibrate the right amount of content that’s sponsored or shoppable versus not, so that people are still engaging with the app.”
