What Is Social Commerce? A Beginner's Guide for Nepal (2026)

What Is Social Commerce?

A Complete Guide for Nepal

Millions of people in Nepal already buy products through Instagram DMs and TikTok comments — with no buyer protection, no tracking, and no recourse if something goes wrong. This guide explains what social commerce actually is, why it is growing so fast globally, what makes it risky right now, and what every buyer and seller should know before transacting online.

Social commerce is the process of discovering, evaluating, and buying a product directly inside a social media or video app — without being redirected to another website. The entire experience, from watching to paying to tracking your order, happens in one place.

In this article

What is social commerce? — Simple definition

Think about the last time you were scrolling TikTok or Instagram and spotted a product you immediately wanted. The old process was exhausting: screenshot it, reverse image search it, find the right website, create an account, add to cart, re-enter your address, pay, and hope it arrived looking anything like the listing photo. That chain of friction cost buyers time and sellers sales.

Social commerce collapses that chain. Discovery, evaluation, purchase, and order tracking all happen inside the same app — the one you were already using for entertainment.

But social commerce is more than a UX shortcut. It represents a structural shift in three things: how products are found (algorithmically surfaced to you, rather than searched for deliberately), why people trust them (video evidence and real community commentary rather than brand-controlled descriptions), and when buying happens (in the scroll, not in a planned shopping session).

Social commerce is also not one format. It includes: short-form video feeds where individual sellers showcase items, live shopping streams where hosts demo products with live Q&A, shoppable posts where tapping a tag opens an in-app checkout, and peer-to-peer video marketplaces where individuals sell directly to other individuals with platform-enforced trust and payment. What all of these share is the collapse of the gap between content and commerce.

How does social commerce work? Step by step

The mechanics vary between platforms, but the underlying buyer journey follows a consistent pattern. Here is what it looks like end to end — and where the risk points are at each stage.

Algorithmic discovery — the product finds you

Unlike e-commerce, where you arrive with a search query, social commerce starts with you doing nothing deliberate. A recommendation algorithm — trained on your past behaviour, watch time, engagement, and interests — surfaces a product video into your feed while you scroll for entertainment. This is called passive discovery, and it is one of the most economically powerful dynamics in digital commerce today. You were not looking. But the product found you at a moment when you were open to being interested.

Video builds real trust before any commitment

Instead of a product photo and a written description, you see the item in context. A jacket on a real body. Skincare applied on real skin. A phone held so you can judge its size. If the seller is speaking, their confidence, product knowledge, and personality are additional trust signals. Comments from previous buyers appear below in real time, adding unfiltered social proof that is visible to every potential buyer simultaneously. All of this happens before you have done anything more than watch.

In-app interaction and purchase

On a well-structured social commerce platform, the purchase happens inside the app. You do not leave, re-enter your address on a website you have never heard of, or create a new account. The fewer steps between interest and checkout, the lower the likelihood of abandonment. Research consistently shows that each additional step in a checkout flow causes meaningful drop-off in conversion — and social commerce eliminates most of those steps by design.

Payment — this is where platforms diverge enormously

This is the most critical stage, and the one where social commerce platforms vary most widely in how much protection they offer. On mature, structured platforms, payment is processed and held by the platform in an escrow arrangement — your money does not reach the seller until delivery is confirmed. On informal social commerce — the dominant form in Nepal and much of South Asia — payment goes directly to the seller via a mobile wallet, with zero platform enforcement if the product never arrives.

Delivery, tracking, and post-purchase trust

Structured platforms integrate third-party logistics APIs to provide real-time order tracking from pickup through confirmed delivery, all inside the app. Dispute resolution, return handling, and support are also platform-managed. Informal social commerce provides none of this — order updates happen over WhatsApp, and disputes are handled (or not) between the buyer and seller directly. The post-purchase experience is where the long-term trust in social commerce is won or lost.

Social commerce vs. e-commerce: key differences

Social commerce and traditional e-commerce are not competing technologies — they serve fundamentally different moments in a buyer's life. The fact that both are growing simultaneously, rather than one replacing the other, tells you they are capturing different kinds of demand.

Dimension

E-commerce (e.g. Daraz, Sastodeal)

Social commerce (e.g. TikTok Shop, Instagram)

How products are found

You search with intent — you already know what you want

Algorithm surfaces products based on your behaviour — you were not looking

Content format

Static photos + written specifications + star ratings

Short-form video, live demos, creator-generated authentic content

Trust signals

Verified purchase reviews, seller ratings, return policy text

Video evidence, comment sections, seller personality, community reaction

Purchase location

Dedicated website or app — you navigated there specifically to shop

Inside the social or video app you were already using

Buyer psychology

Rational, planned, comparison-driven — high purchase intention before opening the platform

Emotional, discovery-driven, impulse-friendly — low purchase intention at the point of discovery

Seller barrier to entry

Higher — requires product photography, catalogue management, SEO, and platform fees

Lower — a smartphone video is enough to start. Individual sellers can compete with businesses.

Best purchase types

Known brands, planned purchases, high-consideration categories (electronics, appliances)

Discovery purchases, trending items, local sellers, new or emerging brands, fashion

The critical insight here is that social commerce does not cannibalise e-commerce demand — it creates new demand. People who would not have gone to Daraz to search for a jacket might still buy one if a compelling video appeared in their feed while they were watching other content. This is largely additive behaviour, which is why the total addressable market for both keeps expanding simultaneously.

The psychology behind why social commerce works

Social commerce converts better than most digital channels not simply because it is convenient, but because it is psychologically engineered — whether intentionally or not — to align with how human beings actually make decisions. Understanding these mechanisms helps buyers recognise when they are being influenced, and helps sellers understand why certain approaches work.

Parasocial trust: familiarity without meeting

When you watch the same creator or seller post videos regularly, you develop a genuine sense of familiarity with them — even though they have never interacted with you personally. This is a parasocial relationship, and it produces measurable trust signals in the brain similar to those created by real relationships. When that creator recommends a product, the recommendation registers less as advertising and more as advice from someone you know. This is why influencer-driven social commerce consistently outperforms banner ads and search result placements for discovery and impulse purchases — the relationship doing the work was built before the product ever appeared.

Social proof at scale — and in real time

Comments on a product video are visible simultaneously to every viewer. When hundreds of people write "I bought this and it's great" or "delivery was fast," that public, real-time validation creates a powerful herd effect. Traditional e-commerce reviews require a buyer to actively navigate to the reviews tab. In social commerce, the social proof is built directly into the content — unavoidable, immediate, and community-generated rather than platform-managed.

Loss aversion and scarcity framing

Live shopping streams, which announce limited quantities and time-bound prices, exploit one of the best-documented principles in behavioural economics: people feel the pain of losing something more intensely than they feel the pleasure of gaining it. "Only 3 left" or "price returns to normal in 8 minutes" are not just sales tactics — they activate a genuine psychological response that accelerates decision-making and bypasses the slower analytical processes that might otherwise generate hesitation.

Reduced conversation anxiety — particularly relevant in Nepal

In Nepal and across South Asia, many buyers experience genuine anxiety about initiating a purchase conversation with a seller. Uncertainty about language register, how formal to be, whether the price in the video is negotiable, how long to wait for a reply — these micro-frictions create barriers that result in abandoned intent and lost sales. Structured social commerce removes this barrier entirely. The video answers the questions. The price is listed. The purchase is a swipe or a tap, not a conversation that must be navigated.

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Behavioural insight: Research consistently shows that reducing the number of decisions a buyer must make — not just the number of steps — significantly improves conversion. Social commerce wins not only because it is faster, but because it reduces the cognitive load of buying. The algorithm pre-selects relevance. The video pre-answers objections. The platform pre-handles trust. The buyer just decides.

Why video beats photos for shopping

The shift from photo-based to video-based product listings is one of the most consequential changes in online retail in the past decade. It is not an aesthetic preference or a generational trend. It solves a fundamental problem that has plagued online shopping since its beginning: the gap between what you see on screen and what arrives at your door.

The structural deception problem with product photos

Product photos are almost universally optimised rather than representative. Professional lighting, post-processing, proprietary lens choices, and strategic framing make products appear larger, brighter, and more textured than they are in person. This is legal, standard practice — but it consistently creates a gap between buyer expectation and delivered reality. The problem is particularly acute in fast fashion, electronics accessories, and beauty products — precisely the categories that dominate social commerce.

Video makes this deception structurally harder. A seller who holds the product in their hand cannot fake its size. Real-world lighting reveals actual colour more faithfully than a studio setup under a ring light. Motion reveals texture, flexibility, and construction quality. The presence of the seller's face and voice adds implicit accountability — an anonymous listing has no face attached to it; a video seller does.

What video communicates that photos simply cannot

check_circle→Real size context. A seller's hand or body gives instant scale that a ruler graphic in a product photo never communicates accurately.
check_circle→Unfiltered colour. Ambient lighting in a real environment shows colour accuracy that a controlled studio shoot obscures.
check_circle→Demonstrated function. A blender making a smoothie. A jacket being zipped. A phone screen responding to touch. Functionality demonstrated, not claimed.
check_circle→Seller accountability. A face and voice attached to a product listing creates implicit accountability. Video sellers cannot be anonymous in the way that text listings can.
check_circle→Live community feedback. Comments persist on recorded videos and appear in real time on live streams — buyer reactions visible to every potential buyer who watches afterward.

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Research finding: Nearly 46% of shoppers say short-form videos are the most influential format for their purchase decisions — more than written customer reviews, celebrity endorsements, or display advertising. Among Gen Z buyers this figure is significantly higher. (Bazaarvoice / inBeat Agency, 2026)

Video also reduces return rates — an underappreciated benefit

When buyers have accurate expectations of what they are purchasing, they are less likely to be disappointed and therefore less likely to return it. For sellers, lower return rates mean lower costs and higher effective margins. For buyers, it means fewer disputes and a better overall experience. For platforms, it means fewer fraud claims and healthier seller-buyer relationships. The trust built by video pays forward through the entire transaction lifecycle.

For more on this shift, see our post on why video is making static product photos obsolete.

Social commerce by the numbers (2026)

These figures come from independent research organisations and give context for the scale and direction of social commerce globally and in Nepal.

$114.7B

US social commerce market in 2025, growing 14.4% year over year (Flywheel Digital)

82%

of consumers globally use social media to research products before buying (Hostinger, 2026)

$2T

projected global live shopping market by 2030 (Flywheel Digital)

$889M

Nepal e-commerce market revenue in 2024, growing year on year (eCommerceDB)

46%

of shoppers call short-form video their most influential purchase format (Bazaarvoice)

73%

of Gen Z identify social media as their primary product discovery source (Salsify)

What these numbers collectively indicate is not just a large market — it is that the underlying behaviour (social discovery, video content, peer recommendation) has already become the default for a generation of shoppers. The platforms and infrastructure are not creating the demand; they are finally catching up to behaviour that already existed.

Nepal's $889M figure matters because it demonstrates that digital commerce activity is already significant — but the infrastructure supporting it has not kept pace with how young Nepali consumers actually want to discover and transact.

Major social commerce platforms explained

Social commerce is a category of behaviour implemented across many platforms, each with a different approach, audience, and level of buyer protection. Understanding the differences helps you know where to look — and what questions to ask before transacting.

TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop integrates product listings directly into TikTok's video feed and live streams. A creator tags products in their video; viewers tap and purchase without leaving TikTok. Launched globally in 2023, it is currently the fastest-growing social commerce platform in most markets it operates in. TikTok's recommendation algorithm is exceptionally powerful for product discovery — videos from small sellers can reach millions of users if the content performs well. Note that TikTok Shop is not available in Nepal, and its buyer protection infrastructure varies significantly by country.

Instagram Shopping

Instagram allows businesses to tag products in posts, Stories, and Reels. Tapping a product tag opens a product page inside Instagram where users can purchase. It works well for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. However, it is primarily designed for established businesses with product catalogues — not individual sellers. For informal sellers in Nepal, Instagram functions as a discovery tool only. The actual transaction almost always happens over DM, outside any platform protection.

Facebook Marketplace and Shops

Facebook Marketplace has over 1.1 billion monthly users globally and is one of the most-used peer-to-peer commerce surfaces in the world. In Nepal, Facebook is often the first platform small sellers use — particularly for second-hand goods and home businesses. Facebook Shops allows businesses to build storefronts inside Facebook, but buyer protection is limited, and most transactions in Nepal still flow through direct messages with no platform enforcement or order tracking.

YouTube Shopping

YouTube has integrated shoppable product cards into video content, allowing creators to tag products that appear during playback. Given YouTube's search-driven, long-form nature, it tends to support considered purchases — tutorials that lead naturally to product recommendations — rather than impulse buying from discovery feeds.

Pinterest Shopping

One of the earliest social commerce platforms, Pinterest has offered shoppable pins for years. Its audience is typically in a planning mindset — actively researching home decor, fashion, events, and recipes — which gives it different (and often higher) purchase intent compared to TikTok or Instagram.

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Important for buyers in Nepal

None of the global platforms listed above offer structured buyer protection, verified seller identity, or localised logistics integration for transactions made by buyers in Nepal. Purchases initiated on these platforms and completed over DM carry the full risk of informal commerce: no escrow, no tracking, and no recourse if something goes wrong.

The real risks of social commerce — and how to protect yourself

Social commerce's greatest strengths — speed, discovery, informality — are also its most significant vulnerabilities. These risks are real and common, particularly in markets like Nepal where informal social commerce dominates. Understanding them does not mean avoiding social commerce. It means knowing which protections to demand before any transaction.

Risk 1: No buyer protection on informal transactions

The most common social commerce scenario in Nepal — discovering a product on social media and completing the purchase over DM via eSewa or Khalti — leaves the buyer with zero platform-enforced protection. Once the payment leaves your account, you have no contractual mechanism to force a refund. Your only options are personal negotiation with the seller or, in rare extreme cases, a police complaint. This is not a hypothetical risk — it happens regularly, and the victims are disproportionately first-time online buyers who trusted a well-presented social media account.

Risk 2: Unverifiable seller identities

Social media accounts are free to create and easy to make look credible. A polished Instagram profile with product videos, a few thousand followers, and a professional-looking bio tells you very little about whether the seller is who they say they are. Red flags to watch for: accounts created very recently, no independently tagged customer photos, no publicly visible reviews with specific details, reluctance to answer specific product questions before payment, and requests to pay through channels other than the platform's standard checkout.

The critical structural problem is that on platforms without identity verification, a fraudulent seller can create a new account after a scam. There is no consequence tied to their real identity, and therefore no deterrent beyond the risk of account removal.

Risk 3: Product misrepresentation even in video

Video reduces misrepresentation risk significantly compared to photos, but does not eliminate it. Sellers can demonstrate one quality of product and ship another grade. Videos can use controlled lighting conditions or strategic angles that flatter a product. The risk is compounded when there is no dispute resolution mechanism, no third-party delivery confirmation, and no way to enforce accountability post-purchase. The absence of a structured platform is what turns misrepresentation from an inconvenience into a loss.

Risk 4: No order tracking or delivery confirmation

Informal social commerce provides no structured logistics. "I'll send it tomorrow, should arrive in a few days" over WhatsApp is the standard. The buyer has no visibility, no tracking number, and no leverage if the package is delayed, lost, or delivered to the wrong person. Without a confirmed delivery event tied to payment release, the seller faces no accountability for the final stage of the transaction.

Risk 5: Payment manipulation and advance deposit scams

Common fraud patterns include: asking buyers to pay on an external platform "because this one is having issues," requesting payment screenshots before shipping as "confirmation," demanding advance deposits to "secure" limited stock, and sending fake delivery tracking links to stall a buyer who is asking questions. Legitimate sellers on properly structured platforms do not need buyers to do anything unusual outside a standard checkout flow.

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The buyer protection checklist

Before paying any seller you found on social media, confirm all four of these: (1) the platform holds payment in escrow until delivery is confirmed; (2) the seller has completed identity verification with the platform; (3) there is a published dispute resolution process with defined timelines; (4) real-time logistics tracking is available inside the platform. If any are absent, the risk is entirely yours.

Social commerce in Nepal: current state and challenges

Nepal has the conditions for social commerce to thrive. Over 32 million mobile connections. More than 90% of internet users browsing on smartphones. A young, digitally fluent population that already spends significant time on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. A widespread culture of small-scale entrepreneurship — tailors, craft sellers, homemade food businesses, resellers — that has always needed better tools to reach buyers beyond their immediate network.

Social commerce activity is already widespread. Walk through any Nepali social media feed and you will find sellers posting product videos on Instagram Reels and TikTok, managing enquiries through Facebook groups, and coordinating orders over WhatsApp. The demand is real, the behaviour is established — but the infrastructure has not kept up.

What is currently missing from Nepal's social commerce ecosystem

What buyers and sellers need

Current reality in Nepal

Verified seller identities

Anyone can create a seller account on any social platform. No identity check. No consequence tied to real identity in case of fraud.

Escrow-protected payment

Payments flow directly to sellers via eSewa or Khalti. No platform holds the funds. No enforcement mechanism.

Real-time order tracking

Informal coordination over WhatsApp or phone call. No structured tracking. No delivery confirmation event.

Dispute resolution

Disputes are handled personally between buyer and seller. No platform authority. No timeline. No guaranteed outcome.

Inventory management

Sellers manage stock manually. Buyers can complete payment for out-of-stock products with no automatic notification.

Seller analytics and growth tools

Sellers have limited data on which products perform, who their buyers are, or what to stock more of.

The result is a market where buyers and sellers both want to transact — and frequently do — but both carry disproportionate and avoidable risk. Trust is built through personal reputation networks rather than platform-enforced accountability. Scale is limited by how far word of mouth can travel. And growth is capped by the number of people who are willing to accept that risk.

What this gap means

This infrastructure gap is exactly the opportunity that dedicated social commerce platforms can address. The platform does not need to convince Nepali buyers and sellers to engage in social commerce — they are already doing it. What is needed is a layer of protection, verification, and logistics structure that makes what is already happening safer and more reliable for everyone involved.

What to look for before buying on any social platform

Whether you are buying from an Instagram seller, a Facebook group, or a dedicated video commerce app, these are the questions to ask before any transaction. Getting these answers takes five minutes. Losing money to an unprotected purchase can take months to recover from — financially and emotionally.

1. Can you verify the seller's identity independently?

A legitimate seller should be traceable. On a structured platform, this means they have completed identity verification — at minimum a phone number tied to their account, ideally a government-issued ID. On informal platforms, look for: a consistent posting history spanning months (not days), customer-tagged photos showing real deliveries, a publicly listed phone number or business address, and specific responses to specific product questions. A seller who only responds with "DM me" to every enquiry and will not answer questions publicly is a meaningful red flag.

2. Does the platform hold payment until delivery?

This is the single most important protection for buyers. Escrow — where the platform holds your payment and releases it to the seller only after you confirm receipt — changes the risk profile of the transaction completely. You are guaranteed either to receive your product or get your money back. Many platforms claim buyer protection but rely on post-delivery dispute resolution rather than pre-delivery escrow. The difference matters: recovering money after a fraud is significantly harder than preventing it.

3. Is order tracking integrated and real?

Real tracking means: a tracking number tied to an actual logistics partner, visible inside the platform, updating in real time from pickup through confirmed delivery. "I'll let you know when it ships" from a seller's WhatsApp is not tracking — it is a promise with no accountability mechanism attached.

4. What happens when something goes wrong?

Before purchasing, find and read the platform's dispute resolution policy. Specifically look for: who initiates a dispute, what evidence is accepted, how long the process takes, and what the possible outcomes are. A platform with a published, specific dispute resolution policy is meaningfully more trustworthy than one where this is handled informally or where no such policy exists.

5. Are there independent reviews with specific details?

Reviews that simply say "great product, five stars" can be fabricated. Look for reviews that mention the specific product, the actual delivery time, what the product looked like on arrival, and whether it matched the listing. A seller with a small number of detailed, specific positive reviews — and perhaps one or two negatives that they responded to constructively — is often more trustworthy than one with hundreds of identical five-star ratings.

How to sell on social commerce — what actually works

Social commerce has genuinely lowered the barrier to starting a product business. A smartphone and a product you believe in are enough to begin. But there is a significant gap between starting to sell and building something sustainable. The sellers who convert consistently and build loyal buyers over time do several things that casual sellers miss.

Video quality matters more than production value

The most common mistake new social sellers make is conflating quality with production value. Professional equipment, branded overlays, and high-budget editing do not consistently outperform authentic, clearly shot smartphone videos. What actually matters: the product is the focus, the lighting is natural and accurate, the framing is steady, and the video runs long enough to show the item properly but short enough to hold attention. A 30-second video that shows a real person using a product in real conditions will outperform a 90-second branded ad almost every time on social platforms.

Answer the three questions every buyer has before they ask

Every product video should proactively address three things that buyers always want to know: What does this actually look like in real life? How big is it? Does it work as described? Hold the product next to something familiar to give size context. Show it functioning, not just being held. State the price clearly and early — buyers who have to work to find the price will often not bother.

Respond to comments — especially the sceptical ones

A comment asking about dimensions, colour availability, or delivery time is a buyer with live purchase intent. Responding quickly and specifically converts that intent into a sale. A critical comment that you respond to honestly and helpfully is visible to every future viewer of that video — and builds more trust than a comment section with no negative feedback at all, which most buyers recognise as a red flag.

Complete identity verification on any platform that offers it

If a platform offers seller identity verification — whether phone OTP, government ID, or tax registration — complete it immediately. Verified sellers consistently convert at higher rates because buyers are willing to pay and transact at all when they know the seller has made themselves accountable. The time cost of verification is low. The long-term return in trust and conversion is significant.

Never process payments outside the platform's system

When a buyer proposes paying directly via wallet transfer or bank transfer outside the platform, decline. Not because all such buyers are fraudulent — many are not — but because off-platform payments remove all protections for both parties, create tax complications that platform-processed payments handle automatically, and eliminate the dispute mechanism if anything goes wrong. Convenience in the short term is not worth exposure in the long term.

What a safe social commerce platform should offer

Not all social commerce platforms are built to the same standard. In markets like Nepal where informal social commerce is the current baseline, the platforms that earn and keep user trust will be those that get these fundamentals right — for buyers and sellers simultaneously.

Minimum buyer protection requirements

check_circle→Verified seller identities. At minimum, OTP phone verification for all users. Ideally, government ID or PAN-based KYC for sellers, with a visible, unambiguous trust badge.
check_circle→Escrow payment protection. Payment should not reach the seller until delivery is confirmed. A short hold window (typically 2–3 days after delivery) allows time to verify the product before funds release.
check_circle→Real-time logistics tracking. Integrated from pickup through to confirmed delivery, visible inside the platform without requiring the buyer to use an external tracking tool.
check_circle→Published dispute resolution. A specific, accessible policy with defined timelines, evidence requirements, and outcome options — not a vague promise to "resolve issues."
check_circle→Enforceable consequences for fraud. Verified identity means fraudulent sellers can be permanently banned and, where necessary, referred for legal action. Without identity, there is no enforcement.

Minimum seller protection requirements

check_circle→Automatic inventory management. Stock should update in real time, with automatic out-of-stock flags and buyer notifications, to prevent double-selling and buyer disputes.
check_circle→Transparent payout terms. Commission rates and payout timelines should be published and unchanging. Sellers should know exactly what they will receive before listing a product.
check_circle→Platform-managed logistics. Coordinated pickup and delivery rather than leaving sellers to arrange their own shipping, which introduces inconsistency and failure points.
check_circle→Protection from fraudulent buyers. Delivery confirmation events tied to payment release protect sellers from false non-delivery claims, which are as real a problem as seller fraud.

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The core principle: Social commerce is not inherently risky. Informal social commerce — buying and selling through chat with no platform enforcement — is risky. The difference is infrastructure. When a platform does its job correctly, both parties are protected. When it does not, both parties are exposed. The question to ask of any platform is not "does it have a video feed?" but "what happens when something goes wrong?"

In Nepal, Troverve is built around these principles — OTP phone verification for every user, PAN-based KYC for sellers who want the trust badge and higher feed ranking, escrow-protected payments with a 2–3 day hold window, real-time logistics tracking, automatic inventory management, and permanent bans for verified fraud. If you want to experience structured, protected social commerce in Nepal, join the waitlist here.

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What Is Social Commerce? Everything You Need to Know