Unifying commerce: Why brands are blending Search, Social & Retail

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, brands and marketers are on a mission to create a unified consumer experience by seamlessly integrating search, social, and retail platforms. This convergence is driven by the need to meet consumers at every touchpoint in their journey, ensuring interactions that transcend individual channels.

In India, the advertising market is expected to grow by 7% in 2025, reaching Rs 1,64,137 crore, with digital marketing expected to account for comfortably more than half of total ad spend. And you better believe digital is diversifying.

Brands today are increasingly integrating search, social, and retail platforms to create seamless, end-to-end consumer journeys, ensuring that users encounter relevant, engaging, and personalised experiences at every touchpoint.

Shekhar Khosla, Vice President - Marketing for Google India, says the days of rigid marketing funnels are over. “Consumers don’t move in a straight line from awareness to purchase anymore. They are streaming, scrolling, searching, and shopping simultaneously. This means brands need to be present at each of these moments, ensuring frictionless engagement across platforms,” he explains.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Director and Co-founder at Wakefit.co. also notes that his brand's commitment to delivering value for money through a vertically integrated approach forms the foundation of the brand's identity. "This permeates our SEO, social media, and retail media strategies. By managing the entire production process, we intend to ensure consistent quality and affordability, which is communicated across all platforms. Our SEO efforts aim to highlight our value proposition, guiding consumers to our offerings," he says.

“On social media, we engage authentically, reinforcing our dedication to quality. In retail media, we showcase product availability and consistent messaging. Thus, despite different objectives, our SEO, Social & Retail work together and aim to deliver a unified and consistent experience to consumers,” he adds.

Start with Search

The global search advertising market is projected to reach $417.4 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 7.67% from 2025 to 2028. This growth underscores the importance of search in the consumer journey.

As Gopa Menon, Chief Growth Officer at Successive Digital, notes, “This convergence enables brands to meet consumers at every touchpoint in their journey.” Menon emphasizes that data unification across platforms allows for consistent personalization, whether consumers discover products on social media, through search engines, or directly on retail sites.

Google Ads, a dominant player in search advertising, generated $192.2 billion in revenue for the first three quarters of 2024, following a remarkable $237.8 billion in revenue for 2023. These figures highlight the significant role search plays in guiding consumers through their purchasing decisions.

Menon further explains that the focus has shifted from individual channel optimization to creating a holistic ecosystem where commerce experiences feel natural regardless of where they occur. This approach recognizes that consumers don't think in terms of channels; they expect consistent, personalized experiences wherever they engage with brands. 

“For instance, using Instagram for discovery, Google for consideration, and seamlessly transitioning to purchasing environments with minimal friction is becoming a standard strategy,” he says.

But first…

Go to Social

Rahul Vengalil, co-founder and CEO of tgthr, underscores the role of reducing friction in the consumer journey. Vengalil notes that search is helping consumers find offline stores, get reviews, directions, and even book slots or tickets. This integration is crucial as consumers increasingly rely on digital platforms to inform their purchasing decisions.

Social media platforms are also playing a pivotal role in this journey. Social media advertising spend is projected to reach $276.7 billion in 2025. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported an ad revenue of $46.8 billion in Q4 2024, marking a 21% increase from the previous year.

Vengalil highlights how social platforms have introduced social commerce, where influencers can create content and become affiliates in the sales process, moving from trust to purchase for brands.

Karan Ahuja, Co-founder and CEO of AiVANTA, emphasises the role of AI-driven content adaptation in ensuring consistent messaging across search engines, social platforms, and online retail media. “AI enables dynamic optimisation, ensuring that the same core message is personalised, formatted, and distributed intelligently to maximise visibility and engagement,” Ahuja explains. This approach allows brands to streamline marketing efforts while maximizing impact at every touchpoint.

But the emergence of alternative sources of places to search, not least of which are the burgeoning retail and ecommerce platforms, are grabbing eyeballs, and advertising dollars.

That’s why….

Buy at Retail

Vengalil cites Amazon as an example of a retailer that has minimized the gap between consumer intent to purchase and actual purchase.

Retail media alone accounted for 22.93% of total digital media spends in 2024, growing at a rapid 23.43% over the previous year. The dominance of digital is only set to expand further, with projections indicating that by 2026, digital will command 61% of India’s total advertising expenditure. This isn’t just a local trend. Globally, retail media is experiencing explosive growth, with companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart aggressively expanding their advertising offerings to capture larger slices of the digital ad pie.

Taranjeet Singh, Managing Director - Enterprise, APAC at Criteo, stresses the importance of integrating commerce media for unified strategies across multiple touchpoints. “Our commerce media Platform directly addresses the fragmented systems that have plagued the industry for years. The integration of search, social, and retail platforms is revolutionizing how brands interact with consumers. By leveraging AI-driven content adaptation, commerce media integration, and omnichannel experiences, brands can create seamless and personalized experiences across all touchpoints.”

That being said, Nikita Bhavsar Shah, Founder at Digitally Bugged, emphasizes the need for maintaining a human touch in content creation. While AI can assist with automation, Shah believes it shouldn't replace authentic storytelling. “People connect with people, not bots, so maintaining a human element is crucial,” she notes.

As the number of platforms consumers use grows, each comes with its unique format and audience behavior. Instead of just optimizing content for different platforms, Shah suggests that brands should focus on repurposing it to maintain a consistent brand narrative.

With the global advertising landscape continuing to evolve, the focus on unified consumer experiences will remain crucial for brands seeking to engage effectively with their audiences. Whether through social commerce, AI-optimized content, or retail media platforms, the key to success lies in creating holistic ecosystems that recognize consumers' expectations for consistent, personalized interactions with brands.