Overview
Short form video has quietly become the dominant discovery channel for many online retailers, reshaping how products are found, considered, and bought. Platforms built around short clips now steer significant traffic away from traditional search, and retailers are racing to stitch live shopping, creator partnerships, and vertical video into their commerce stacks. This shift is already changing marketing budgets and product listings across categories from fashion to home goods.
The numbers behind the switch
Audience studies and channel analyses show the scale of the change: more than 60 percent of internet users now consume short-form video daily, and platforms that host vertical clips account for a rapidly growing share of discovery queries that used to start with a search box. Retailers report double and triple digit growth in video-driven sessions for some categories, and major markets are seeing video-led commerce volumes climb fast. Brands that do not show up in short-form feeds are losing visibility at the top of the funnel.
Live shopping scramble
The surge in short-form engagement has reignited live commerce experiments. Marketplaces and major retailers have expanded livestream schedules and invested in hosts and production to capture impulse demand. One large platform reported that video interactions with shoppers rose from 75 million to more than 200 million over a recent 12 month span, highlighting how quickly live formats can scale when paired with recommendation algorithms. Retailers are reallocating media spend toward creator-driven and live formats to close the gap.
What publishers and merchants are doing
Publishers are pivoting to video-first formats and rethinking SEO to include short-form discovery signals. Agencies advise a hybrid approach that blends micro content for discovery with optimized landing pages for conversion. The practical priority for merchants is clear: create short, shoppable video content and build seamless paths from clip to checkout. Otherwise, catalogs risk becoming invisible to the platforms where customers now start their journeys.
Outlook
The change favors agility. Merchants that treat short-form video as search, not just social, are gaining an advantage. Expect more live shopping calendars, creator partnerships, and product feeds designed specifically for vertical viewing as the commerce ecosystem adapts to a feed-first discovery world.