Social commerce strategy: Grab a slice of the $1 trillion pie
Social commerce is anticipated to surpass $1 trillion. A winning social commerce strategy positions your brand for growth.
Marketplaces are a dream come true for the modern consumer: with just a few clicks or taps, and they can browse an endless selection of items and deals.
Just like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, marketplaces have become a popular leisure activity. And – even better for retailers – this often leads to spontaneous purchases.
According to ChannelEngine’s Marketplace Shopping Behavior Report 2025, 59% of US shoppers will browse marketplaces for fun and 56% make unplanned purchases at least sometimes.
So how can brands and retailers maximize this selling opportunity? Let’s look at the top five marketplace trends for 2025, to see what e-commerce brands should expect in the year to come.
5 top marketplace trends in 2025
The growing importance of online marketplaces reflects an ongoing shift in shopping behavior. The key trends for 2025 show that this evolution is continuing, but it’s also changing the shape of the typical shopping journey.
Search engines have now taken a back seat, and less than a quarter of consumers will start their journey with a search like Google or Bing.
Instead, 47% of shoppers head straight to their go-to marketplace to check availability, read reviews, and benchmark prices, according to our global survey of 4,500 shoppers.
This shouldn’t be surprising: people love marketplaces because they offer convenience within a unified and trusted shopping environment that lets them compare multiple options.
The transparent selling environment means that 80% of buyers will trust the deals they find on marketplaces, which stimulates even more shopping behavior.
While marketplaces are a key part of the shopping journey, new shopping trends are changing people’s expectations and the way they find inspiration for their next purchases.
Here are the top marketplace trends for 2025:
- Continued growth of social commerce
- User-generated content drives more sales
- Managing omnichannel shopping challenges
- User experience matters more than ever
- AI platforms become the new marketplaces
1. Social commerce factors into more marketplace sales
The rise of social commerce will continue to be a significant marketplace trend for 2025, for both in-platform purchases and direct referrals to marketplaces or online stores.
While social commerce currently takes a relatively small slice of the total e-commerce market, this share will grow steadily in the next five years.
Social commerce is predicted to grow nearly 32% worldwide between 2025 and 2033, and the amount each person spends on social commerce will more than double during this period.
While millennials and Gen Z account for 45% of shoppers, social commerce isn’t just for younger consumers. There are opportunities for brands to attract any demographic, provided they target the right social commerce channels.
2. The power of user generated content
User generated content can be a powerful marketing tool, as it makes combined use of the bandwagon effect and social proof to drive sales. In a nutshell, UGC is content created by regular, everyday people based on their experience with your brand. Unlike content from paid influencers or collaborations, UGC reflects real-life experiences – and this is why people trust it.
Forty-five percent of consumers will trust a brand more when it’s recommended by a content creator they already follow and trust.
Controlling the narrative with UGC is naturally harder, because you can’t predict what content creators will post. But, if harnessed correctly, it can be a powerful (and free) way to promote your brand.
So, it’s important to make user-generated content a core part of your online and social media presence. For example, your brand can encourage semi-controlled engagement with specially targeted events, competitions, or online promotions that encourage content creation.
And, by offering first-class customer experiences, you can guarantee that content creators have plenty of good things to say about you.
3. Marketplace trend: Managing the omnichannel shopping journey
The consumer shopping journey has become more complex, with many more touch points along the way.
Marketplaces are the central hub where the buying happens, but the shopping experience now spans social media, a brand’s own website or app, and, of course, the marketplace itself.
Omnichannel shopping presents two clear challenges: content management, and multichannel order management.
To create a consistent experience across all channels and touchpoints, all your content must align perfectly. This requires centralizing content management and using automation wherever possible to rapidly publish new content and listings.
From the order management side of things, the market is already moving ever closer towards a headless e-commerce ecosystem in which software simplifies the complexity of omnichannel selling.
This way, orders can automatically flow from any channel to the right fulfillment location, where they can be handled in a streamlined and uniform way.
How to craft the best omnichannel retail experiences for out of this world results
With 73% of shoppers researching and buying products across multiple channels, retailers must deliver omnichannel CX. Here's how to get it right.
4. User experiences matter more than ever
User experience (UX) is one of the most crucial elements to successful e-commerce, and an important marketplace trend for 2025.
Without a good UX, any platform or sales channel can expect high cart abandonment rates and fewer sales. As the user is in the marketplace environment, you might think that this isn’t something to worry about, but you should.
The content you decide to add to your product listings has a huge impact on click through and conversion rates, and these metrics–as well as other factors like ratings and reviews–greatly influences your position in marketplace search results.
Pro tip: Clear descriptions, titles, and product content must be considered a key part of the user experience.
Also, while AI and other algorithms can play a useful role in providing users with personalized recommendations and offers, this capability will rely (in part) on the quality of your own product content.
5. AI platforms as new marketplaces
AI platforms are increasingly integrating marketplace features, transforming traditional search engines into holistic e-commerce environments.
For example, platforms like Perplexity allow users to purchase directly through their interfaces, simplifying the shopping experience by eliminating the need to visit separate merchant sites. These types of platforms offer value-added services such as personalized product recommendations and AI-generated summaries, enhancing user engagement.
As these technologies evolve, they’re poised to redefine the boundaries between search engines and marketplaces, influencing future marketplace dynamics and competitive strategies in the digital economy.
Keep in mind that AI tools also can assist with customer service by boosting efficiency and CX. With 63% of service professionals seeing its benefits and 80% of teams expected to adopt it in 2025, now’s the time to integrate it into your service operations.
What does it all mean for brands and retailers?
It’s clear from these trends that people still see marketplaces as a core part of their shopping journey, but it’s also part of a much wider experience.
For the consumer, shopping experiences will become increasingly channel-agnostic and seamless. For brands and retailers, it’s not so simple.
Remaining present at each point in the journey requires a holistic approach, in combination with the right tools for making this complex shopping experience easy to handle and efficient.