The future of shopping is social: insights from Drop's CEO, Benjamin Benichou
Understanding social commerce
Let’s start with a first question to help our readers understand the subject of today. How would you define social commerce? How does it differ from traditional e-commerce?
Benjamin Benichou: Social commerce is all about enabling a commerce experience to happen directly on a social media platform. It could be Instagram, TikTok, Facebook – any of them, really. The simplest way to define it is giving merchants the opportunity to present their products directly on the platform and allowing customers to purchase them without having to leave their favorite social media application.
The biggest difference between traditional e-commerce and social commerce is this: for the past 10 years, brands have been building their audience on social media. They use organic engagement and run ads, but ultimately, they redirect users to their website.
That's a big ask for consumers. They're consuming content on social media; that's where they spend most of their time. Traditional e-commerce funnels force them to click an ad or a link in the bio, go to a website, and continue the entire experience outside of their favorite social media application, having to look for the item again etc.
Social commerce removes that friction. It lets users engage with the brand, the content, and the products they like, and gives them the opportunity to purchase directly without having to leave the social media ecosystem.
What are the key drivers behind the growth of social commerce?
The number one driver is that the audience is already on social media. Think about it: 94.5% of the world's internet users now use social media each month*, and most people spend hours a day scrolling through their feeds. It's where they connect with friends, discover new trends, and get their information. So, getting them to leave that environment and navigate to a separate website is a big effort. That's why acquisition costs for driving traffic to traditional e-commerce sites are continuously increasing, while conversion rates are decreasing. It's just not as seamless or convenient for consumers anymore."
The second reason is that brands are becoming much more mature in how they use conversational commerce.
We've been building chatbots since 2016, and back then, no one would have believed that consumers would be open to interacting with them. But thanks to advancements in AI, like ChatGPT, people are now comfortable with chatbots, as long as the experience is easy and meaningful.
One effective strategy within social commerce is enabling conversations through direct message. When a user engages with content or an ad on Instagram, we start a conversation through DM. This allows us to capture data, nurture the relationship, and provide exclusive content such as behind the scene content, all the way to giving them access to the product directly through DMs.
To give us a sense of scale, can you share some insights into the current size and projected growth of the social commerce market?
The social commerce market is growing very fast.
For example, Meta's newer “business messages” product, which facilitates conversations with customers, is already generating around 10 billion dollars, even though it's relatively new.
We see a huge potential for this market, especially with projections indicating it could reach nearly $80 billion by next year*.
Social commerce solves a lot of the pain points that traditional advertising doesn't address.
We believe the future of commerce is more socially integrated. We also need to consider the CRM side of things. Traditional methods like email marketing are becoming less effective, especially with younger generations. Brands need to adopt a more holistic approach, integrating their social media, acquisition, and CRM strategies to create a cohesive customer experience.
What are the unique business opportunities that social commerce presents for brands and retailers?
At Drop, we’re focused on mid-market and enterprise clients who are looking for more than just software—they want a full solution. There are platforms like ManyChat and ChatFuel that work well for SMBs, but our clients are typically larger brands that don’t just want a tool to figure out themselves. They need guidance to tap into the potential of social commerce, which is still a relatively new space with different ways of engaging customers and running campaigns.
For established brands with strong social followings, the opportunity is in getting their audience into their own ecosystem, where they can foster deeper engagement and drive conversions. For other brands, it’s more about building that audience from scratch. Either way, we’re helping them unlock the power of social by bringing everything into one smooth experience, often through direct message ads and other targeted strategies.
Social commerce often provides a strong ROI. Brands see a noticeable difference in engagement and conversion compared to traditional e-commerce and email marketing, which have lower open rates and click-through rates. Even with a small user base, it doesn’t take long to show the value of social as a primary channel.
This is why we focus on more mature businesses—they’re ready to invest and scale this kind of initiative. Smaller businesses, especially those making under $2-3 million a year, often have more immediate priorities. However, we do have some early adopters that have embraced Drop as their main strategy for social commerce. We've seen strong results with some early adopters, with some attributing up to 40% of their revenue to their social commerce initiatives.
Can you share a specific example of a successful campaign run on Drop, highlighting the results and the unique approach taken?
It's always tough to pick just one, because we work with clients across many different verticals, D2C brands, retailers, even sports teams like Paris Basketball! It’s been validating to see each find success in their own way. But one use case I'm particularly excited about is with a few of our retail partners. In Europe, we work with Courir, and in the US, with Hot Topic. Two very different companies, yet their journeys have been similar.
We started with their social media teams about two years ago when they were struggling with declining Instagram engagement—a real challenge after working hard to build a million followers! So, we helped them create interactive campaigns. For Courir during the holidays, we built an interactive advent calendar that began with a post and continued in DMs. For Hot Topic, we ran a Black Mirror-inspired, choose-your-own-adventure Halloween campaign, even using AI to create the characters!
These campaigns were hits, but social media teams often have limited budgets. So we started working with their e-commerce teams to show that Drop could drive revenue too. We negotiated exclusive offers for Drop members, and they began seeing significant conversions—up to 20x ROI in some cases! Hot Topic even shared that some campaigns outperformed their traditional paid channels.
Now, even their trade marketing teams are getting involved, using Drop to create more immersive partner experiences. We've found that successful social commerce strategies often require a holistic approach, with collaboration across different departments within a company.
The story behind Drop
What inspired you to found Drop?
My co-founders and I go way back—we met in design school in 2007, just as social media was taking off. Right after graduating, we jumped into our first creative agency, focusing entirely on organic social. This was the Myspace and early Facebook days, so everything was about building up audiences through content strategy—no paid ads yet! We had to be scrappy, but it was clear to us even then that social was the future.
As the platforms evolved, so did we. We eventually added paid social, hitting some crazy returns during Facebook’s golden age. But from the start, we ran 360-degree campaigns that went beyond just media buying. It was always about creating meaningful customer experiences across all touchpoints.
Fast forward to 2016, and we were experimenting with chatbots on Messenger when Meta first opened its API. It was like the Wild West for social marketing—you could connect with audiences in real time, but a lot of brands jumped in without considering the user experience. For us, it was always about getting consent and building connections the right way.
Then COVID hit, and our agency work, especially experiential campaigns, came to a sudden stop.
We realized brands were going to need a new way to recreate that in-store excitement online, and that’s when Drop started taking shape. We focused on how to bring the thrill of a product drop right into DMs, creating that sense of urgency and excitement within a social media environment.
In the last three years, it feels like we’ve packed in 15 years of progress, but honestly, everything we’d been doing led to this. We needed our own tech to create the engaging experiences we envisioned, and Drop was the answer.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in building and scaling Drop?
Benjamin Benichou: Timing is everything. You want to be early, but not too early. In the beginning, we had those early adopters who believed in our vision, but it wasn't the reality for most businesses.
One of the biggest hurdles was realizing how different it is to sell software compared to selling a marketing campaign. With a campaign, you just need to get people excited about the outcome. But with software, it's a whole different ball game. You need to involve IT, compliance, and get buy-in from the entire organization.
We also learned that just because people work in the same company doesn't mean they want to work together. So, we had to figure out how to remove friction and make it easy for different departments to adopt our platform.
Our go-to-market motion has improved a lot. Now, we focus on finding one strong use case within a company and getting that initial traction. Once we do that, other departments usually come around and want to learn more."
How do you see social commerce evolving in the future, and what excites you about it?
There’s no turning back now. What’s exciting is seeing even traditional brands, like luxury retailers, embrace digital strategies. We’re working with brands from groups like Kering, who value a well-defined customer experience, yet they’re still open to new digital approaches. The line between online and offline is blurring, with many brands initiating customer journeys on social media, engaging users, and then drawing them into physical stores. Since COVID, this trend has only accelerated, especially as the cost of purely online traffic has soared. In fact, places like New York are seeing a resurgence in store openings for precisely this reason.
People still love visiting stores and experiencing things firsthand, but they also spend a huge amount of time on their phones. The challenge now is to keep the relationship going after that initial engagement. Traditional methods like email work, but social media often proves more effective for sustained interaction. I envision a 360° approach to social commerce that blends online and offline experiences, influencer marketing, and engagement all within one ecosystem.
At Drop, our mission is to create the social CRM and engagement platform that powers this transformation. Brands need a tool to sustain interactions, automate conversations, gather insights, and re-engage users with new launches or events. Social commerce will soon be integral to a brand’s strategy, not just an add-on. It’s about creating a seamless experience across touchpoints.
Brands already use social media to drive foot traffic, but what happens after a customer leaves? How do you continue that conversation and build the relationship? That’s where social CRM and engagement platforms come in, providing tools to nurture relationships, gather data, and personalize experiences to boost retention.
Conclusion
Social commerce is changing the way brands and consumers interact. As Benjamin Benichou highlighted, it's about meeting customers where they are and building genuine relationships. By understanding the potential of social commerce and utilizing innovative strategies, businesses can create more engaging and authentic shopping experiences.
Ultimately, in today's digital world, the brands that prioritize genuine connection will be the ones that truly succeed.
Interested in social commerce? Learn more about Drop on their website.
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