Social Commerce Market Size (2020–2026)
With more and more people using social media and an increasing amount of money being spent on social media ads, it’s no wonder total social commerce sales worldwide have also been increasing.
Social media is commonly hailed as one of the most effective marketing platforms for businesses. To understand why, we only need to look at how social commerce sales have performed in recent years.
According to recent research, the social commerce market size is expected to hit $1.3 trillion in 2023, exceeding the $1 trillion mark for the very first time. This is a 30.8% increase from the previous year, when social commerce sales worldwide amounted to $958 billion. The growth of the global social commerce market size is nothing short of impressive, especially considering that in 2020, total sales from social media were $560 billion.
Experts say the biggest drivers of this growth experienced in recent years are Chinese consumers. For instance, in 2021, nearly half of all internet users in China bought items via social networks. In fact, on Singles Day, the country’s largest shopping event, a pair of livestreamers sold over $3 billion worth of merchandise—around three times the average daily sales of ecommerce giant Amazon.
The global social commerce market size is expected to continue growing over the next few years. In 2024, it’s forecast to increase by another 30.8%, to around $1.6 trillion. This is set to rise to $2.1 trillion in 2025 and by 2026, social commerce sales worldwide are set to total $2.9 trillion.
Growth of the global social commerce market size
Even though it’s common for markets to experience a deceleration in growth as sales increase, this is clearly not the case for social commerce sales.
Social commerce statistics show that from 2021 to 2025, sales are expected to increase at around 30.8% per year. The difference in annual growth rates is negligible, with a consistent and sustained rate of around 30%, and just 0.2% separating the fastest and slowest growth rates. Here’s a breakdown of the growth in this period.
- 2021: 30.7%
- 2022: 30.9%
- 2023: 30.8%
- 2024: 30.8%
- 2025: 30.8%
In 2026, the global social commerce market size is expected to grow at an even faster rate of 35.3%.