Social commerce and the shrinking funnel
Discovery, consideration and checkout are collapsing into a single feed. What e-commerce brands need to change before they lose the margin.
In vape and consumer categories I watched the buying journey compress from a multi-visit research process to a single scroll: creator video, comment-section proof, checkout. That's great for velocity and dangerous for margin, because platform-owned demand is rented demand.
Creators are the new category page
For impulse and low-consideration products, a creator's demo now does the job a product page used to. Brands that win treat creator content as a merchandising channel with briefs, volume and iteration — not as a one-off PR spend.
- Brief for objections and use cases, not brand adjectives
- Run enough variants to find winners, then put paid spend behind them
- Reuse the best-performing hooks on-site and in email
Margin discipline, not just growth
In-feed checkout adds platform fees, higher return rates and thinner ownership of the customer. Contribution margin after fees, returns and creator costs is the only number worth optimising — top-line social revenue flatters everyone.
Own the second purchase
If the platform owns acquisition, retention has to be yours. Post-purchase flows, subscription or replenishment offers, SMS and community are where a rented first order becomes an owned customer.
International is the real unlock
The same content engine ported into a new market — with local language, compliance and fulfilment sorted — is usually a bigger step change than squeezing another few points out of a mature one. That was the pattern behind the strongest growth I've been part of.