‍"Building culture is pre-commerce infrastructure."‍

Josh Maynard, MrBeast's GM of Global eCommerce, dropped that line midway through this year's SoCom conference, and it landed like a thesis statement for the entire day. Not because it was new to us at Future Commerce (we've been making a version of this argument for years), but because the room full of creators, platform executives, and merchants received it as obvious.

The opening talk at SoCom touted social commerce GMV, expecting to top out at $2.9 trillion by the end of this year. The opportunity is so vast because it reflects just how large and diverse the ecosystem is. Under that “social commerce” umbrella are the small moments of monetization, such as dynamic social-first advertising and shoppable creator posts, as well as immersive platform experiences that turn live shows into commerce events. The platforms themselves have diverged so sharply that a single “social commerce playbook” is now fiction.

This fragmentation explains why standalone sessions at your typical industry conference tend to feel surface-level (at best). They treat social commerce as a tactic rather than a cultural system, and they fail to get to the heart of what we believe social commerce is actually about: cultural belonging and social participation.

That conviction is why SoCom hosted another sold-out crowd eager to discuss where social commerce is today and what the future may hold. As we sat through the day's sessions, we realized the concepts shared throughout reflected a lot of what we've noticed, analyzed, and shared here at Future Commerce over the years. Not the major platform developments and advertising advancements, but the underlying philosophies and cultural foundation that make the social commerce sector what it is.

Here are five things we saw coming, and what they mean now that they've arrived.

Context Over Channels

Since 2024, we've studied the evolution of omnimodal shopping. While the industry at large believes that consumers exhibit omnichannel behavior, reflecting the incessant "jumping" between digital and physical touchpoints, we argue the reality is more nuanced: commerce is omnimodal, a contextual behavior shaped by mindsets, emotions, and unique scenarios.

Like other industry conferences, SoCom doubled down on "the collapse of the funnel." Authentic, social content (especially video) creates fluidity across all stages of the customer journey, making it more personal and more human. The psychology of how and why consumers engage with social content is why so many turn to Instagram and YouTube for discovery and inspiration, per our latest New Modes Report.

Kritika Pande, Director of Digital GTM and Experience at e.l.f. Beauty took the idea a step further, noting the “flywheel effect” that creators and social-first content can activate across platforms, driving demand through various channels, even without a direct sales-oriented call to action. “If you do it right, it’s actually going to help you on every single touch point where the consumer finds you,” Pande said. 

A great example of this flywheel effect in action is Gap’s campaign with KATSEYE. Damon Berger, Head of Consumer Digital Engagement for Gap Inc., explained how TikTok-first content was an accelerator for the broader partnership. (Damon shared even more details on this highly successful campaign on the Future Commerce podcast.) 

“It was people, particularly Gen Z, going into stores, hand-raising, and saying, ‘I want that denim that I saw on KATSEYE.’ When you do that right, you can get that cultural halo across whatever channels they are and capture those new customers in your own channels, as well. I think there’s a really good interplay between aspects of how the platforms work.” 

Consumers now spend more than two hours per day on social media—algorithmic channels with infinite, contextual content.” These new modes of search and discovery require thinking in “context over channels, intent over segment, and streams over search. Creators are the perfect shepherds to guide this shift. 

Creators are the Identity Distribution Layer 

More than 87,000 fans gathered at the American Dream mall to celebrate the launch of skincare brand Sincerely Yours with teenage YouTuber Salish Matter. Their motivation for traveling near and far wasn't to buy the product the moment it hit shelves. It was about being there: in the same room with a person they had connected with and shared with.

"The whole reason why people care [about your brand] is because you remind them of themselves, or a version of themselves they want to be, or a relationship they want to have," said Jordan Matter, photographer, creator, and father to Salish. "That doesn't work with a corporation." Consumers actively participate in a form of identity exchange when engaging with creators. They see Salish Matter as a source of aspiration and inspiration, and Sincerely Yours as a vehicle for investing in the relationship they've formed and nurtured through social media.

The Matters built Sincerely Yours on the back of the Sephora Kids movement, a trend with strong ties to personal identity. Salish herself had an interest as a teenage creator already experimenting on YouTube with makeup and skincare, and it was their chance to own a piece of a market that was growing in demand.

Although Salish is now a "brand founder" with her products sold in Sephora stores, she's still mindful not to use her social presence to build her brand alone. "Salish has her own strategy for TikTok and Instagram, which includes very infrequent mentions of Sincerely Yours," Matter said. "Because when she frequently mentions that, she starts feeling that she's just selling to her audience, and she wants to keep that connection...she's very aware of not trying to monetize our audience every week. But when we do remind them, we try to make it creative."

The Creator Is Not a Channel

The organic-to-paid acquisition panel, moderated by Future Commerce CEO Phillip Jackson, reaffirmed that creators aren’t just tools for organic engagement and community building. They are conduits for advertising impact. 

Marketers keep filing creator marketing under “brand” or “growth,” making it a sub-branch on an org chart built for a media world that no longer exists. Ethan Kramer of Go Fish Digital explained that creators are actually the “foundational root system of your tree. It should touch every aspect. Your paid team should work very closely with your creator team. They should be sharing insights across all aspects of the funnel.” That re‑orientation means that creator budgets should be integrated into overall marketing spend rather than treated as an isolated line item.

The panelists, representing agencies and major platforms including Meta, Pinterest, and TikTok, echoed a sentiment shared by Jonathan Cohen, CMO of Onyx Global Group, who has seen incredible growth for its Aquasonic and Pure Daily Care brands since engaging creators on TikTok: creators are the new CMOs.

“You are the expert in our brand, in your business, and you know you want to give as much information around your audience, but you want to leave some open-ended as well because it’s a collaboration and a partnership,” explained Lindsay Gash, Creative Innovation Lead, NA Agency at Meta. “You should always look at the intention; this isn’t just one campaign, this is something that could become a long-term business partnership.” 

As brands more thoughtfully curate the creators they partner with, creators, too, are becoming more discerning. They vet brands carefully because it’s their credibility on the line, and they want their audience to trust the partnership. 

“We want to work with these people because of their expertise and the credibility of their storytelling, but we also know the trust that they've built,” noted Lauren Glaubach, VP of Global Content Partnerships for Pinterest. “That is also why we want to work with them, and it’s the same trust their fans have for them.” 

By extending that creative power and autonomy to creators, brands are allowing them (and their followers) to interpret and experience the brand in new ways. This ultimately gives the brand more creative fuel to power holistic advertising strategies that align with the distinct experiences and opportunities of each platform. 

The Future of Social Commerce is Participation

Future Commerce has been skeptical of livestream commerce and its framing in US culture. The hype has always been about replicating a Chinese retail model in a cultural context that was never asking for it.

The team behind MrBeast, however, noticed that to create a successful "live-selling show," you shouldn't think about selling at all. At least, not directly. That's why Maynard indicated that "participatory commerce" was their "big bet" for 2026. Participatory commerce is "this idea that we can activate our community and make them feel like they are a part of something bigger through every channel, through everything they purchase."

What Maynard is describing is a new kind of relationship between a brand and its community, where the act of purchasing is a vote, a gesture, and a way of showing up. Each person contributes to the future of the brand, whether that means voting on a new product design or sharing who they think should be in a future video.

"Getting our community to participate more will help us scale in the long run, which is not easy to do, even with [our] massive audience," Maynard said. MrBeast got an early taste of this strategy via a Super Bowl collaboration with WhatNot, which he clarified was a "participatory show," not a live selling event.

"You had the opportunity to win lots of different prizes, but you also had the opportunity to be part of its cultural events," he added. For example, an exclusive jersey was created for the event, and the proceeds from sales went to charity. "If you bought that jersey, it felt like you were part of that moment. It felt like you were part of something."

What Maynard's example illustrates is how the multiplayer brand can translate to different channels and media experiences. Beyond passive consumption, creators are inviting their audiences to co-create and participate with them.

You Can’t Achieve Scale Without Humanity

The most honest moment of the day came when fashion model, actress, and Cay Skin founder Winnie Harlow got to the soft, human center that powers this industry. Despite many sessions touching on the power of AI, and how platforms are empowering creators with tools and insights to achieve scale, Harlow gave attendees the ultimate gut-check: 

“If you don't step back for a second and let your own brain do the creation for you, you can kind of get lost in the sauce of following the trends.”

The moment came when Harlow was unpacking the pressure of achieving relevance in a dynamic, social-first world. With cultural trends and social media “movements” shifting so quickly, it’s tempting to always “be on” and create content for the sake of virality, not meaningful connection. 

Without a distinct perspective and point of view, these attempts at relevance will fall flat. Or worse, they’ll be perceived as desperate attempts for likes and shares. Harlow herself drew on her own lived experience with vitiligo to create her skincare brand. (Again, commerce is identity exchange.) It also serves as a constant inspiration for her as a creator, offering quality, consistency, and coherence amid selective, intentional moments when she embraces a timely trend. 

“So many times people can be like, ‘Oh, you've got to jump on the latest trend,’” she said. “But if it doesn't suit you or your brand, maybe you just sit that one out.” In a feed optimized for volume and timely trends, intentional non-participation is a form of brand integrity.

Culture Was Always the Product 

"Culture is pre-commerce infrastructure…"

Maynard said it plainly, but every session at SoCom made the same argument from a different angle. The flywheel that e.l.f. activated through creators. The 87,000 fans who showed up to a mall for Salish Matter, the jersey MrBeast sold on WhatNot to celebrate the Super Bowl. These were all cultural investments that included commerce, not commercial strategies dressed up in cultural language.

The brands that understand this aren’t capturing market share; they’re breaking ground for a new layer of cultural infrastructure.