Tightening the Loop: Social and Retail belong together

It has been a busy season at Tambo for our consultancy team, as we prepare client's e-commerce strategies for the New Year. A topic which has come up frequently is the relationship between social and retail. Social commerce and retail media have converged into a single, powerful “discovery commerce” engine, where inspiration and purchase happen in one connected loop. This shift means that treating social and retail as separate channels risks leaving both growth and efficiency on the table.

The developing TikTok–Amazon relationship is a strong illustration of how this loop can work when it is properly connected. TikTok’s strength lies in discovery: creators, trends and entertainment make products feel culturally relevant and personally recommended. Amazon then provides the final step with fast fulfilment, reviews and a sense of reliability that makes impulse discovery feel like a safe purchase decision. When brands plan these two environments together, each channel amplifies the other rather than competing for budget.

A recent Pacvue study for a CPG brand showed how powerful this combined approach can be. Adding TikTok into the mix improved Amazon return on ad spend from 4.05 to 4.47, roughly a 10% lift in efficiency. Conversion rate on Amazon also rose from 25.4% to 27.8%, close to a 9% increase, demonstrating that TikTok does not just drive clicks but improves the quality and intent of the traffic arriving at the retailer. When TikTok’s spend and impact were included, total blended ROAS across channels nudged up from 4.05 to 4.12, showing incremental value beyond Amazon in isolation.

For many brands we work with , the challenge is organisational rather than technical. Budgets, teams and KPIs are often split between “brand/social” and “retail/performance,” even though consumers move fluidly across both. This can lead to over-investing in the channels that appear to deliver the strongest last-click ROAS, while under-investing in the discovery environments that quietly make those conversions possible. When social activation pauses, retail performance often softens—but that connection is not always recognised in reporting.So if you are planning budgets for next year, make sure you bring retail and social together in one plan and develop a strategy for discovery commerce. Brands that do this will be better positioned as this integrated view of social and retail has become the default way for many consumers to choose what to buy next.