Written by Lucy Hall and reviewed, fact-checked and signed off by a SocialDay editor before publication. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy. Spotted something wrong? Tell the newsroom.

Start with the buyer's journey and the operational systems behind it. A successful checkout depends on stock, fulfilment, service and measurement as well as social content.

Social commerce can describe several different journeys: discovering a product on social and buying on a website, shopping through a platform-supported experience or beginning a purchase conversation in messaging.

These journeys have different technology requirements. Avoid comparing products as though every social commerce feature is available in every country and on every account. Define where the customer discovers, evaluates, pays and receives support.

Choose a real product and follow the journey on a phone. Start from the post or creator content, open the destination, review the offer, check delivery information and proceed through an authorised test purchase where appropriate.

Record friction: slow pages, broken variants, unclear shipping, login requirements, missing payment methods or a mismatch between the social promise and the product page. Software can help with some of these problems. Others require better product information or operating decisions.

Include the post-purchase experience. Confirmation, delivery updates, returns and service are part of the journey and affect whether customers will buy again.

Confirm current availability for the target country, account type, product category and sales route. Verify this with the platform's official documentation during procurement. Support can differ between discovery, product tagging, checkout and messaging.

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