Social Commerce Intelligence Report · 2026

Trust, Discovery & Purchase Behavior
Across Platforms

What 1,000 US social commerce buyers reveal about which platforms they trust, how they discover products, where purchases complete, and what would make them buy more. Platform-vs-platform benchmarks from an independent source — no platform funding, no outside agenda.

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Report methodology
Survey size
1,000 US consumers
Eligibility
Social commerce buyers, past 6 months
Platform
Pollfish consumer panel
Platforms covered
TikTok Shop, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook
Quotas
Age and gender balanced
Funding
No platform or brand sponsorship
Published
2026
What's inside

Six research questions.
1,000 consumers. No agenda.

Each section of the report answers a specific question that brand marketers are asking — but don't yet have reliable, independent data to answer.

01
Platform trust rankings
How consumers rate TikTok Shop, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and brand websites for purchase confidence — all on the same 5-point behavioral scale.
02
Discovery & purchase path
How products are found, what content formats trigger purchase, and where checkout actually completes — inside or outside the social app.
03
The leakage problem
Why 57% of social commerce purchases leave the platform — and where they go. What this means for brand attribution and budget allocation.
04
Category-platform fit matrix
Which platform consumers prefer for beauty, fashion, electronics, home, food, health, and jewelry. The most directly actionable data in the report.
05
What drives more buying
The five factors consumers say would significantly increase their social commerce purchases — ranked by stated importance across all platforms.
06
Momentum & future intent
Which platforms are gaining share of consumer wallet, which are losing it, and where consumers intend to spend in the next 6 months.
Selected findings

A preview of what the data shows.

Full findings — including all platform breakdowns, category matrix, and methodology — are in the report.

4.2
Brand website trust score
On a 5-point behavioral scale. Top-rated social platform scores 3.8 — a gap that defines the central challenge in social commerce conversion.
74%
Impulse or unplanned purchases
Nearly three quarters of social commerce purchases were unplanned — the consumer saw it and bought it. Social commerce is an impulse economy.
43%
Complete checkout in-app
43% of purchases complete without leaving the platform. The remaining 57% click out to brand websites, Amazon, or physical stores.
91%
Rate secure payment as critical
Ranked the single most important trust factor. Creator recommendations — despite driving discovery — score just 50% on the same importance scale.

Source: Social Commerce Intelligence Report 2026 · n=1,000 US social commerce buyers · No platform funding

Licensing

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Every paid license includes the full report PDF. Team and enterprise licenses add data tables and extended use rights.

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8-page highlights with headline findings and key platform rankings. Free — email required.
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Full report PDF plus data tables. Up to 5 named users within one organization.
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Why ScrollSignal

Independent by design.

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