Social Media That Actually Supports Ecommerce Growth

Why most DTC brands misunderstand social and how to use it properly

Most DTC brands are active on social media, but very few are using it effectively to support Ecommerce growth.

Posting regularly, running ads, building audiences and seeing engagement is now standard – anyone can do that (sorry Social Media Managers, we love you really.). But, when you look behind the curtain, social often feels disconnected from revenue, difficult to justify, and frustrating to report on.

That usually leads to one of two outcomes:

• Social is underfunded because it “doesn’t convert”
• Social is overfunded without a clear role, because “everyone says it matters” and the budget is wasted

Both are symptoms of the same issue: social is being judged as a performance channel, when its real value sit in a more nuanced area.

Social is not there primarily to sell directly. It is there to reduce friction.

The biggest mindset shift DTC brands need to make is this: Social rarely creates demand but it supports decisions that are already forming.

Modern ecommerce journeys do not move in straight lines. In a multi-channel marketing world, where users hop between sites, devices and apps, they:

• Discover brands socially
• Validate them socially
• Look for reassurance before committing
• Compare alternatives, often repeatedly
  

Social sits across this entire journey, quietly influencing whether someone feels confident enough to buy. When it is used properly, social:

• Reduces perceived risk
• Reinforces credibility
• Answers unspoken questions
• Makes conversion feel safer

That is why brands who treat social as a direct-response lever usually feel disappointed. They are asking it to do the wrong job, they’re asking it to do the selling itself, rather than support the selling.

“Users typically engage with about 6.8 different social media platforms each month.”

The real role of social in Ecommerce Growth

For brands that are just in the early stages of ECommerce selling,, social works best when it plays three clear roles:

• Discovery:  Helping the right people find you at the right moment, without forcing a sale.
• Validation: Showing that real customers buy from you, trust you, and come back again.
• Reassurance : Supporting what the website, reviews, email and ads are already saying.

Social does not replace your ecommerce engine, it should support it. That distinction changes everything from content strategy to measurement.

Why social traffic often doesn’t convert

When brands say that social traffic does not convert, the problem is rarely social itself. More often, social is simply revealing weaknesses that already exist elsewhere in the ecommerce experience.

Traffic from social platforms arrives curious rather than committed. People are browsing, comparing, and making quick judgements. If they land on product pages that feel generic, slow to load on mobile, or light on reassurance, confidence drops quickly. The same happens when delivery, returns, or product quality are not made clear, or when the messaging on-site does not match what first caught their attention on social.

In these moments, social has not failed. It has done its job by bringing potential customers to the door. The issue is that the experience beyond that point asks too much of them.

This is why increasing spend on social rarely solves the problem. It does not fix friction. It simply sends more people through a journey that is not yet ready to convert them.

“Nearly 70% of people in the world use social media.”

UGC is not a trend. It is commercial reassurance.

One of the most underused assets in ecommerce is customer-generated content. Your customers can be brand advocates and micro-influencers.

Not polished brand campaigns or studio photography, but real customers using real products in real situations. The kind of content that shows context, scale and everyday use, not just aspiration.

UGC works because it quietly answers the question every buyer is asking, whether they say it out loud or not: will this work for someone like me? When used properly, UGC should support the parts of the journey where decisions are made. That usually means:

• Strengthening product pages
• Reinforcing paid social messaging
• Appearing across email and remarketing
• Sitting naturally alongside reviews and ratings

This is not about chasing reach or virality. It is about reducing uncertainty. And that is where social content and ecommerce performance genuinely start to overlap.

“Facebook has 3.07 billion active users globally & Instagram 3 billion.”

Social proof is bigger than social media

A common mistake is treating social proof as something that only exists on social platforms.

In reality, it needs to run through the entire ecommerce experience. Wherever a customer is weighing up whether to trust you, social proof should be present and easy to find.

That includes:

• Reviews and ratings that are visible without effort
• Customer imagery used where buying decisions happen
• Language that reflects real usage, not marketing claims

If someone clicks through from social and lands on a sterile, generic product page, the momentum is lost almost immediately. Social can spark interest, but it cannot compensate for an experience that does not back it up.

Social should reinforce what your site already proves, not try to make up for what it lacks.

Assisted conversion is not a dirty word

Many brands still struggle with the idea that social does not always “close” the sale. That is not a weakness. It is simply how modern ecommerce works.

Social tends to:

• Introduce the brand
• Build familiarity over time
• Increase confidence before a decision is made
  

Search, email and direct traffic often take the credit later in the journey. If social is only judged on last-click revenue, it will almost always appear underwhelming. More importantly, it will be misused.

A better internal question is not did social get the sale?  It is did social help this customer feel confident enough to buy? That shift alone changes how social is planned, funded and evaluated.

What good social support actually looks like

When social is doing its job properly, the impact tends to show up indirectly rather than loudly. Over time, you will often see:

• Branded search increasing
• Higher conversion rates from returning visitors
• Stronger engagement with email and remarketing
• Fewer impulse purchases and more considered decisions

For brands like Tricker’s (who saw a 14x Return on Ad Spend in 2025 with us), this comes through in practical ways. Building the right audience rather than the biggest one. 

Using platforms such as Pinterest, where intent already exists. Supporting longer purchase cycles instead of forcing urgency where it does not belong. The results are rarely dramatic but they all add up.

 A simple framework for using social to support ecommerce

If you want social to drive commercial impact without forcing it to behave like a performance channel, the order matters.

Start by:

1. Fixing the Ecommerce fundamentals:  Speed, clarity, trust and reassurance need to be in place on your website first.

2. Using social to reflect real usage: Customer stories, UGC and context should lead, not polish.

3. Aligning social messaging with on-site reality: What people see on social must match what they experience on the site.

4. Measuring influence, not just attribution: Assisted metrics matter more than vanity numbers. Stop caring about likes, honestly.

5. Being patient but consistent: Social compounds over time. It rarely delivers sustainable spikes.

This is not glamorous work, it’s not making cool videos and b-rolls,, but it is what makes social commercially useful.

The uncomfortable truth about Social Media

Most wasted social spend is not caused by platforms, algorithms or content formats but it is caused by asking social to fix problems it did not create.

Social works best when it supports a strong ecommerce system, not when it is expected to replace one. When it feels expensive, underwhelming or hard to justify, that is usually a signal worth paying attention to.

Fix the overall system and social becomes an asset. Ignore it, and social will continue to expose what is already broken.