High-Earning Households in the US Are Embracing the Social Commerce Trend

This is the fourth article in our series spotlighting the media habits of higher-earning households, drawing from NuVoodoo’s latest national consumer study.  Our previous updates are available at nuvoodoo.com/articles.  In Part Four, we turn our attention to the social commerce habits of affluent consumers.

When we talk about “social purchases,” we mean transactions that happen inside a social media app—think tapping “Buy Now” on Instagram or checking out directly in TikTok—rather than clicking an ad that opens an external website. This seamless experience is often called social commerce, and it’s reshaping how brands think about reach, engagement, and conversion.

About the NuVoodoo Study

1. National sample: 2,908 U.S. adults (14+), balanced by age, gender, region and other demographics 
2. High-income stratification: Nearly 1 in 5 households reports income above $100K, split into two tiers: 
   • $100K–$199K
   • $200K+ 
3. In-app purchasers: 1,628 respondents (56% of the total sample) have made at least one direct social-media purchase in the past six months
   
   
   

Social commerce is an emerging trend, with only slightly better than half of respondents having ever made this type of purchase, so we allowed survey participants to indicate more than one platform in their responses.  By comparing in-app purchase activity across the total sample versus our two high-income tiers, we can pinpoint which platforms deserve extra focus for brands and advertisers. Here are the apps which drive the biggest in-app sales and which skew most toward affluent shoppers.

Top Social Commerce Platforms

• Instagram, YouTube and TikTok not only have broad reach but see dramatic lifts among the $200K+ tier—potentially making them premium channels for high-end product launches. 
• Facebook remains a workhorse for scale, though its affluent uplift is more modest. 
• X/Twitter and LinkedIn (not shown) skew wealthy, but their overall usage is smaller. 

Payment Preferences: What Tops the Cart

Among those who do buy in-app, payment forms vary markedly by income:

• PayPal leads overall (30%) and climbs to 34% among $200K+ shoppers 
• Credit cards jump from 21% (total sample) to 31% in the highest tier 
• Apple Pay usage nearly doubles from 8% to 14% for $200K+ 
• Venmo, BNPL and Shop Pay register almost zero adoption among affluent shoppers 

Implication: Streamlined wallet options (PayPal, Apple Pay) and credit cards dominate high-income checkouts. Brands should prioritize these methods in their in-app UX to avoid cart abandonment.

What This Means for Brands and Advertisers

1. Invest in visual-first social channels
   – Instagram and YouTube deliver the strongest affluent lift. Tailor high-res, shoppable content here first. 
2. Experiment with TikTok’s native checkout
   – Its +22-point affluent lift signals prime opportunity for limited-edition drops and impulse buys. 
3. Optimize payment UX for high spenders
   – Prioritize PayPal, Credit Card and Apple Pay integrations. Omit cluttering your flow with buy-now-pay-later or niche wallets that affluent audiences avoid. 
4. Balance scale and selectivity
   – Use Facebook for reach, but consider layering in Instagram/YouTube/TikTok buys when ROI on affluent segments matters most.  It’s also important to keep age demographics in mind.  Boomers and Zoomers are very different customer archetypes.  We’ve published over a dozen articles at nuvoodoo.com/articles that break out study results along generational lines.

By combining platform lift and frictionless payments, brands can turn social scrolls into seamless checkouts—unlocking more revenue from the audience that has the power (and the wallet) to act.  NuVoodoo helps clients pinpoint sales potential and target segmentation by conducting quantitative and qualitative custom research.  Our marketing team then puts strategy into action.  We’d love to help your brand, service or product reach its true potential.  Contact us at tellmemore@nuvoodoo.com anytime.