Selling on Social Media: What Retail Businesses Should Do in 2026

Which platforms a store needs, how they are managed this year and what to do with customers who come from social media

Many retail business owners know this feeling. You run an Instagram or TikTok page, from time to time you film a successful video, get likes and new followers. A month passes, you look at the revenue and do not see the impact of this work there. There are followers, but there is no stable flow of orders.

The problem here is rarely that social media does not work. It does work, and the statistics confirm it. The problem is that the attention brought by social media is usually not collected and not brought to a repeat purchase. A person saw a video, wrote in direct messages, maybe even bought something, and the connection ended there. The next month everything starts from the beginning.

This article is a practical analysis of how sales through social media work in Ukraine in 2026. We will look at where to start, which platforms a retail business really needs, how the most active Ukrainian brands manage them and what to do next with customers so that they return.

Social media has become the place where a purchase begins

Let us start with the scale. According to DataReportal data (Digital 2026 report, indicators as of October 2025), Ukraine has about 23 million social media users. This is 58.5 percent of the population. It is not only about entertainment. People search for products on social media, read reviews, compare stores and decide where to buy. For retail business, this means a simple thing: a significant part of your future buyers already spends time there every day.

Each platform has its own role, and it is useful to understand this difference so as not to try to be everywhere at once.

TikTok in Ukraine reaches about 19 million adult users. It is the largest reach and a short-video platform where products are noticed thanks to lively content and algorithm recommendations. Here, one successful video can bring more people in a day than a month of regular advertising.

YouTube is close to TikTok in reach, about 23 million. Its strength lies in long-form content and search. Reviews, unboxings and instructions remain relevant for years and bring people who are already ready to choose something.

Instagram, with an audience of about 12.6 million, remains the place where the visual appearance of a product matters. People come here to look at it more closely, save it and write to the seller in direct messages.

Facebook reaches about 14.2 million and gives access to an older paying audience, local communities and thematic groups. It works well for service messages and business news.

Threads is still smaller, about 1.75 million users, but this year it is where brands build live communication and respond quickly to the audience.

Telegram is also worth mentioning separately. It is a convenient channel for news, chatbots and collecting orders, often used for retaining existing customers and sending quick messages about promotions.

What works differently in Ukraine than general guides recommend

There is an important nuance here that is rarely mentioned in Western materials. Many of them advise connecting TikTok Shop or payment inside Instagram so that a person can buy directly in the app. In Ukraine, as of mid-2026, these tools do not officially work. TikTok Shop has been launched in about 16 countries, and Ukraine is not among them. Payment inside Instagram, the Checkout function, is also unavailable for Ukrainian accounts. Instagram Shop works only as a way to show the product and lead the person further.

In practice, this means the following. Social media in Ukraine acts as a channel of attention and product display, while the actual order is placed elsewhere: on a website, on a marketplace, in direct messages or in Telegram. This does not prevent selling. It only determines where to lead the person after they become interested. Therefore, one of the main principles of work is to make the path from the post to placing an order as short and clear as possible.

Where to start

A common mistake at the start is to create accounts on all social networks at once and fail to manage any of them well. Six abandoned pages give less than one active page. Therefore, it is worth starting small and bringing the work into a system.

The first step is to choose one or two platforms where your audience already is. TikTok is often suitable for broad reach, Instagram for showing products with an emphasis on appearance. If you sell complex equipment or services that need explanation, add YouTube. The logic is simple: go where your buyer actually spends time. The trendiness of the platform is secondary here.

The second step is to design the profile so that a person understands within a few seconds who you are, what you sell and how to order. The description, contacts and link to the website or catalog should be visible. If a person has to search for how to contact you, they will simply move on.

The third step is to create a simple content plan. Content that shows the product in use works best. Demonstrating use creates more trust than a studio photo. The format «showed the problem, showed the way to solve it, showed the product as a tool» gives more trust than direct advertising. We will discuss this approach in more detail below when talking about trends.

The fourth step is to make the path to the order short. Decide immediately where you are leading the person: to the website, catalog, marketplace or direct messages. The main thing is that they should not have to guess where to click.

The fifth step, which is often skipped, is to collect buyers’ contacts from the very first order. Everyone who buys from you should get into your database with a phone number and purchase history. This is what later makes it possible to bring the person back again, and this is what the second half of the article is about.

Which social networks a retail business needs

There is no mandatory set for everyone. There is a logic of choice based on product and audience. Below is a brief explanation of each platform’s role so that it is easier for you to decide.

Instagram is suitable for products that are bought because of their appearance: clothing, accessories, cosmetics, decor, food. Photos, stories and reels work here, and most questions about price and availability come in direct messages.

TikTok gives the largest reach and a younger audience. Short videos, trends and live footage without excessive gloss are valued here. A product in action is noticed better than a studio shoot.

YouTube is useful for products and services that need to be shown and explained: equipment, tools, repair, training. Reviews live here for a long time and bring people who are ready to buy.

Facebook gives an older paying audience and local communities. It is well suited for service, answering questions and company news.

Threads — is a platform for image and live communication. Here, communities are built around a brand and the audience is responded to quickly. Direct advertising works weakly here, so the presentation should be conversational.

Telegram is convenient for customer retention: a news channel, chatbot, order collection and quick messages about promotions.

A small local store usually needs one or two platforms that it manages well. For example, an active Instagram for showing products and a Telegram channel for promotions and communication with regular buyers. It makes sense to expand only when there are enough hands and enough content for it.

How social media is managed in 2026

To avoid relying only on general advice, let us turn to the practice of Ukrainian brands. At the panel discussion of the Ukrainian Retailers Association «Social media as a sales channel», marketers from KFC Ukraine, Epicentr, Ukrnafta and MasterZoo shared their experience. Several clear trends emerge from their talks.

Content from people themselves and micro-influencers. A video filmed by a real buyer or a small blogger inspires more trust than polished advertising. Ukrnafta, for example, is developing a team of about 40 internal influencers, that is, its own employees who create content. For a small business, the practical conclusion is this: ask buyers to film the product and tag you, negotiate with local bloggers for a product or a percentage of sales.

The «problem, solution, product» format. Instead of showing the product immediately, they first show a real-life problem and a way to solve it, and the product appears as a tool. Epicentr uses this approach. For a store, this means simple useful videos such as «how to remove a stain» or «how to quickly assemble a shelf», where your product is naturally built into the solution.

Focus on regularity. Virality is hard to predict, so brands film a lot of simple content and watch what works. A telling example from Epicentr: a video with glasses collected about 600 thousand views in one day, and the batch of goods was sold out in a week. The key here is regularity, because the more often you try, the higher the chance of a successful video.

Threads as a place for conversation. MasterZoo gathered an active community of pet owners on Threads and even closes individual orders through dialogue. This shows that the new platform works well when you communicate in simple language, pick up current topics and respond quickly.

Fast response in comments. Questions and complaints are now written publicly, and reputation is formed right there. KFC keeps a separate moderation team for this. For a small business, it is enough to follow the rule of responding within an hour, humanly and without template phrases. One successful comment gives additional reach, one failed comment can cause harm.

Lively and human presentation. Brands allow themselves humor and even self-irony, and this brings them closer to the audience. The main thing here is to stay within your tone and topic so that humor does not contradict what you sell.

Why attention does not turn into sales

Now to the main point for which this article was written. All the work described above brings people, but by itself it does not guarantee sales. The most typical situation looks like this. You create content, sometimes get reach, people write to you in direct messages and comments. Then orders get lost in correspondence, the buyer purchases once and disappears, and their contact is not saved anywhere. The next month you have to catch reach from zero again.

At the same discussion of the Ukrainian Retailers Association, the Ukrnafta marketer put it directly: social media forms brand awareness and reach, while the actual sales are closed by CRM communications. In other words, social media brings the person in, and systematic work with the customer database brings them back and leads them to purchase.

That is why owners who are tired of unstable sales usually achieve results when they begin to save customers and communicate with them after the first purchase. Searching for new content ideas without this work gives only a temporary spike. Maintaining a database is less visible than filming videos, and at the same time it is exactly what makes revenue predictable.

What to do with customers who come from social media

When you decide to save customers, you need a tool in which you maintain the database and work with it. For retail business, this role is performed by accounting software. We use Torgsoft, so below I will show the logic using its example, but the approach itself is universal.

First, it is worth removing a possible misunderstanding. Torgsoft does not connect to Instagram, TikTok, Threads or Telegram and does not load contacts, orders or messages from them. You enter customer data yourself: when you process an order, take a call or receive a message in direct. The role of the software begins after the person has contacted you. From there, it is about saving the customer, keeping their purchase history, communicating with them and bringing them back with discounts. Here are the specific tasks and tools that cover them.

Collect customers into a database. You enter every buyer through a customer card: phone, city, email, date of birth. The software keeps their purchase history, and this becomes the basis for personal offers. The option «Customer profile and Binotel calls» is responsible for this task.

Communicate with customers. Having a database is not enough; you need to work with it. The option «Bulk mailings to customers» sends SMS, Viber and email directly from the software. It is used for promotions, reminders, customer return messages and birthday greetings. These are the very communications that close the sale started on social media.

Bring customers back to purchases. The option «Discount club» works through an accumulative discount: the customer makes purchases, accumulates an amount and receives a status with a discount for which they return. The option «Bonuses with a limited validity period» helps bring them back faster: bonuses are accrued with a deadline and expire, so the person does not postpone the next purchase for long.

Attract new customers through existing ones. This is a systematic version of the same content from people discussed in the trends. The option «Promotion „Bring a friend“» provides promo codes: the new buyer receives a benefit, and the person who recommended them receives a bonus or discount. For partner recommendations, there is a separate option «Referral program».

Sell on the website and marketplaces. Since in Ukraine the order is placed outside social media, it is important that products, stock balances and orders from the website and marketplaces are maintained in one system. This is covered by the option «Synchronization with online store» and integrations with Prom.ua and Rozetka.ua. If you do not yet have your own website, you can quickly launch a ready-made store through the option «Torgsoft Online Market», and then you immediately have somewhere to direct traffic from social media.

Ship orders quickly. The option «Integration with Nova Poshta» makes it possible to create, print and track consignment notes without switching to a separate account, which speeds up processing orders from social media.

All these tools work in one database. You can start small: save customers and send the first mailing, and then gradually add a discount club, bonuses and gift certificates.

Practical example

To make it clearer, I will give an illustrative example without names. A small clothing store runs Instagram and TikTok. The saleswoman films a short video showing how a new dress looks in motion. The video gains reach, and dozens of questions about price and availability come in direct messages.

Previously, she answered everyone manually and forgot about these people the next day. Now the store enters every order through a customer card: phone, city, what was purchased. The website is connected to the software through synchronization, so stock balances and prices are the same everywhere, and there is no confusion with availability.

When the product is restocked, the store sends the database a short Viber message about replenishment. The discount club works for regular buyers, so they return for the discount. The next successful video already reaches a collected database of regular buyers. Sales become predictable, and each reach works longer than one day.

The main point

Sales through social media in 2026 consist of two consecutive parts. The first part happens on social media: you choose one or two platforms, show the product vividly and usefully, respond quickly to people and lead them to an order. The second part happens after that: you save every customer in the database, communicate with them and bring them back with discounts and reminders.

If you do only the first part, you start from zero every month. If you add the second, every successful reach gradually grows a database of regular buyers. You can start this week: choose a platform, make several simple videos and start saving buyers’ contacts from the first order. Then the system will show what to add next.