A customer sees a coat in a creator’s video on Sunday night, taps through to the brand’s website on Monday, and walks into the store on Tuesday ready to buy. What started as virtual shopping for the customer turns into an in-store purchase for the retailer. The shopper arrives knowing what they want, and what they need next is an associate who can handle the online to in-store handoff with confidence.
Social browsing turned virtual shopping
Social shopping is an eCommerce channel for discovering and buying products through social platforms, from creator posts to in-app shops. An undecided shopper might click through from an influencer’s post to find the shoes she saw, start browsing other pieces, and if she isn’t sure what goes together, she can live chat with the brand or send them a message.
What begins as social browsing can convert into a sale on the brand’s website, during a styling appointment, or in the store. Omnichannel commerce makes it possible for these paths to meet.
Social is driving a growing share of what people buy. Adobe Analytics found social media drove 4.6% of U.S. online holiday revenue from November 1 to December 31, 2025, up 40.3% from the year before. For the 2026 season, Adobe forecasts that social media will post the biggest gain in share of revenue among the marketing channels it reports, up 17%, compared with 4% for paid search.
Both figures count only sales completed online. The shoppers who found a product on social and bought it in a store, or after a conversation with the brand, sit outside them. Without proper attribution, a retailer may judge social by the sales it closes online, crediting the website conversations and store visits influenced by social to other channels. Social looks smaller than it is, and the customer who walks in after browsing online looks like ordinary foot traffic.
Every new channel becomes another job for the associate
Each surface a retailer adds, whether a social shop, a messaging account, or live chat on the website, creates another place a customer can start a conversation. Someone has to answer it, and in premium retail that someone is usually an associate. When those conversations are spread across separate apps, the associate spends the day checking channels instead of selling to the customer in front of them.
Retail leaders want their associates selling. When the associate can see the customer’s history at the moment of interaction, they can spend the conversation on what helps the customer decide: the fit, the alternatives, and what goes with it.
Continuity is key to the virtual shopping experience
Virtual shopping pays off for premium retailers when what the customer saw and said travels with her. Say the customer bought a dress from the brand last spring. With Live Connect, she can shop with the same associate who helped her, starting a video call with them or the first available associate at her nearest store. After the call, the associate can build a Look that includes pieces she requested and items the associate recommends, and send it to her on WhatsApp. When she replies to the message, it lands in Tulip Clienteling’s Unified Inbox, so the conversation can continue leading up to, and after, her store visit.
Customers want the same things from a virtual conversation that they want in the store: continuity with someone who knows them, and confidence in the brand and in what they are buying. Tulip’s Clienteling Benchmark Report found that clienteling on messaging apps such as WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, and LINE carried a 362% higher average order value than sales without clienteling. Voice and WhatsApp convert best, yet they were among the least used.
These channels do the most for everyone in the conversation. They’re the ones customers already use regularly, the easiest for an associate to pick up, and the highest value for the retailer.
Clienteling turns social interest into sales
Brand content on social does the work of reach: the creator partnerships, the campaigns, and the moment of discovery. Clienteling is how premium retailers continue the customer’s experience, with assisted selling from an associate who has the context of the customer’s needs and preferences.
Tulip benchmark data shows clienteling converts 5x better than corporate marketing. Both have a job in a retail growth strategy, and retail leaders who run marketing and clienteling side by side have to decide which moments call for a campaign and which call for an associate.
Holiday traffic will test this at volume. The discovery that starts on social between Black Friday and December will reach brand websites, inboxes, and stores as customers who already know what they want, and the stores that serve them best will be the ones whose associates have the context in hand.
