19% of India’s online shoppers are now buying through social commerce: Kantar
You see a product on your social media feed. Maybe it’s a creator trying it on Instagram, a YouTube video showing how it works, a friend sharing a recommendation on WhatsApp, or a piece of user-generated content showing the product in use. You weren’t necessarily looking to buy anything. But you click, discover the product and, before you know it, you’re shopping.
That is the appeal of social commerce, where product discovery and recommendations happen through platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp, using formats ranging from influencer content and shoppable posts to user-generated content and live shopping. With product links, tags and, on some platforms, built-in shopping or checkout features, the distance between seeing something and buying it is getting shorter.
Unlike conventional online shopping, where consumers typically search for a product they already have in mind, social commerce can begin with a piece of content, a recommendation or a demonstration. The product is discovered first, and the decision to buy can follow.
The trend is already finding a sizeable audience in India. Social commerce has reached 19% of the country’s 230 million online shoppers over the past year, with adoption highest among younger, affluent and urban consumers
Around half of social commerce shoppers come from NCCS A households and live in the Top 9 cities. The shopper base is slightly male-skewed, with men accounting for 56% of social commerce shoppers, while South India accounts for 34%.
Social commerce complements e-commerce
“Social commerce is complementing rather than replacing traditional e-commerce. Its adoption is particularly strong in the fashion category, with 60% of social commerce shoppers purchasing apparel and fashion accessories. Only 7% of online shoppers rely exclusively on social commerce apps,” said Biswapriya Bhattacharya, Director – B2B & Technology, Kantar.
Credibility is central to social commerce
Harish Bijoor, brand strategy expert, said social commerce has an advantage in customer acquisition when it comes to connecting with consumers through a credible voice.
“By and large, social commerce is a softer format of customer acquisition. In terms of the ability to emote with the end consumer, with a more credible argument, social commerce typically wins. To an extent, social commerce is all about peer-to-peer commerce, coming from a peer who you already know.”
Bijoor said consumers tend to trust recommendations from peers and often perceive their views as credible. He said credibility plays a role in product discovery, recommendations and the convenience consumers associate with a product.
“From a consumer standpoint, social commerce is all about, you know, credibility, and everything that revolves around social commerce being led by the needle of credible voice. Credible voice in the discovery of the product, credible voice in the recommendation of the product, and credible voice in the convenience aspects that you attribute to the product coming from a peer.”
The hidden costs behind ‘zero commission’
Dr Rutu Mody Kamdar, Founder of Jigsaw Brand Consultants, said the costs associated with social commerce can come through areas other than marketplace commissions.
“The fee never really disappears; it only changes address. A marketplace bills you visibly: commission, shipping, returns, all of it on one statement. Social commerce bills you invisibly, in content you have to keep making, creators you have to keep paying, and an operations burden that quietly moves onto your own team. Even the platforms that advertise zero commission are taking their share, just through logistics and advertising instead.”
Kamdar also said customer acquisition costs on social platforms have increased as competition has grown.
“It is cheap while you are early and expensive once everyone else arrives, which is roughly where we are now. Acquisition costs on social have more than doubled in two years because it is the same auction with far more bidders. And the trust you are buying is rented. The creator’s audience was always hers, and you find that out the month you stop paying.”
Marketplace commission and advertising are different costs
Kamdar said brands should distinguish between marketplace commissions and advertising expenditure when comparing the two models.
“A marketplace commission is paid on what you sold. Advertising is paid on what you attempted. One is a tax and the other is a bet, and brands routinely compare them as though they were the same kind of number. If your product is distinctive and people come back for it, owned social eventually pays for itself. If it is easily compared on price, the marketplace will win that argument every time.”
From search to discovery: how social creates demand
Kamdar said social commerce can introduce consumers to products they may not have searched for directly.
“A search bar asks you to already know the name of what you want, and most wanting has no name. A woman who feels her kitchen is chaotic cannot type that. Social commerce sells her the thing she could never have searched for.”
“The creator also hands her an alibi: it’s a dupe, it’s under five hundred rupees, she showed three uses for it. Something that makes the purchase sayable at the dinner table. And watching someone actually use a product is how Indians have always checked things, the same way we press the tomato before buying it,” Kamdar added.
Who is really driving India’s social-commerce boom?
Kamdar said social commerce includes different consumer groups, including Gen Z consumers in metros and women in smaller towns.
Kamdar said social commerce encompasses two distinct consumer groups. While Gen Z consumers in metros treat their social media feeds as shopping platforms, a larger volume comes from women aged 25 to 45 in smaller towns, who are buying products priced at around ₹300-500.
“The third group is the one I find most interesting: in reselling, the consumer, the media and the shop are the same woman.”
Fashion, beauty and other categories
Kamdar said whether social commerce works as an alternative to a marketplace depends on what consumers need from the purchase.
Kamdar said the role of social commerce depends on the type of question a consumer has about a product. When consumers are looking to compare products, marketplaces are better suited, while social commerce works better when shoppers want to understand a product and see whether it would suit them.
“So it is a genuine alternative in fashion under a thousand rupees, beauty, decor, jewellery, regional food. Everywhere else, social creates the want and someone else closes it.”
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First Published onAugust 19, 2026, 08:53:43 IST
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