Why Gary Vee and Kim Kardashian are betting on the future of commerce

TL;DR

Live shopping is suddenly everywhere.

TikTok is starting to feel less like an entertainment app and more like a modern shopping mall.
Instagram isn’t just a place for photos anymore,  it wants to become the checkout lane itself.

Creators who once posted content purely for engagement are now selling hoodies, supplements, skincare, and even entire brands… live, in real time, with audiences buying in a single tap.

Gary Vaynerchuk has been calling this one of the biggest consumer shifts of the decade.
Kim Kardashian is literally hosting TikTok live shopping events for SKIMS, blending celebrity, commerce, and entertainment into one seamless experience.

And the reason they’re both so excited is actually pretty simple:

Live shopping isn’t just a shiny new product feature.
It’s not a temporary TikTok trend.
It’s not “social commerce hype.”

It’s a new consumer behavior  and behaviors are the things that reshape industries.

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America Thinks This Is New, China Knows It’s the Future

In the United States, live shopping feels like it appeared overnight, as if someone flipped a switch and suddenly shopping became content.

But in China, this has been the default reality for more than a decade.

Influencers routinely sell millions of dollars worth of products in a single livestream. Entire categories of retail have moved from physical storefronts into entertainment-first shopping channels, where consumers don’t scroll through product grids, they watch, interact, and buy in the same moment.

Gary Vee has been banging this drum for years:

“Live social shopping is a profound consumer behavior.”
(brand-innovators.com)

He’s not describing a marketing feature.

He’s describing the next shift in how humans buy:

Less browsing, more belonging. Less search, more story.

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The Best-Selling Products Aren’t Glamorous, They’re Everyday

Here’s the part most people get wrong when they first think about live shopping:

It isn’t dominated by luxury handbags or high-end collectibles.

Some of the highest-performing categories are the simplest, most repeatable consumer goods:

• T-shirts
• Vitamins
• Beauty basics
• Wellness products
• Affordable everyday essentials

The reason is that live shopping thrives on trust and immediacy, not complexity.

Gary puts it perfectly when he explains that the magic isn’t just in selling, but in the human energy around the selling:

“You’re not just selling… you’re building community, giving entertainment, and mixing commerce.”
(brand-innovators.com)

The product is almost secondary.

What matters is the moment - the personality, the explanation, the connection, the sense that you’re buying from a person instead of a faceless brand.

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The Creator Economy Just Became the Retail Economy

For the last ten years, creators have been treated like modern billboards.

They built audiences.
They drove attention.
They made money through sponsorships, affiliate links, or brand partnerships.

But live shopping changes the equation entirely, because now creators aren’t just promoting products.

They’re selling them.

They’re becoming merchants, storefronts, and distribution channels all at once.

Gary believes we’re entering an era where commerce becomes personal again:

“We’re entering an age where connection, community, and credibility matter more than scale.”
(noobpreneur.com)

Take Corrine Braund for example,  a creator traveling through Asia with a passion for India, documenting her journey village by village

In the old world, Corrine could post beautiful content, hope for engagement, and maybe land a brand deal down the line.

But today,  Corrine can go live from Jaipur and say:

“Hey, I found these incredible handwoven scarves from a local artisan. I’m opening my popup shop for the next 24 hours, and anyone watching can grab one before I leave this city.”

Her followers buy instantly.

No retail lease.
No warehouses.
No middleman.

Just a creator, a story, and a storefront that appears in real time.

Live shopping doesn’t just monetize influence, it turns creators into businesses.

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Kim Kardashian and SKIMS: Celebrity Influence Meets Live Commerce

This is exactly why Kim Kardashian is leaning into live shopping right now with such intention.

SKIMS isn’t simply a shapewear company.

It’s one of the most sophisticated examples of social-first commerce ever built, and it has mastered the art of turning culture, attention, and community into direct consumer spending.

SKIMS has always understood:

• cultural drops
• scarcity and urgency
• influencer amplification
• selling directly where attention already lives

Kim doesn’t just advertise SKIMS on social.

SKIMS is built inside social.

In late 2025, the brand hosted a major shoppable TikTok livestream, blending entertainment, celebrity appearances, exclusive deals, and real-time purchasing into one experience,  almost like a modern holiday variety show, except every moment is a checkout opportunity.
(marketingdive.com)

People Magazine even covered Kardashian’s first-ever “Kimsmas” livestream, complete with giveaways and limited-time drops, showing just how mainstream this format has become when one of the world’s biggest celebrities treats it as a serious retail channel.
(people.com)

This is the playbook:

When you own attention, you own the store.

Gary Vee and Kim Kardashian are operating from the same thesis, even if they come from totally different worlds:

The future of retail is personality-driven, creator-led, and live.

The Catch: Selling on Social Means You Don’t Own Anything

Now for the hard truth.

Selling through TikTok Shop or Instagram Live is undeniably powerful, but it comes with a structural disadvantage that creators and brands ignore at their own risk.

Because you don’t own:

• the customer relationship
• the buyer data
• the platform itself
• the algorithm that controls distribution
• the rules that can change overnight

Creators are building million-dollar businesses…

on rented land.

One platform shift, one policy change, one algorithm update  and the storefront disappears instantly.

That’s why the next layer of live commerce isn’t just about selling inside social platforms.

It’s about owning the commerce beyond them.

And that’s exactly why Popup exists.

Social gives creators discovery.

Popup gives creators ownership.

A real shop.
A real customer list.
A lasting brand asset that doesn’t vanish with the next feed refresh.

Live shopping is the spark.

Popup is the foundation.

This Isn’t Niche;  Live Commerce Is Becoming a Giant Market

This isn’t a fad or an experiment.

Live commerce is projected to become one of the largest retail channels of the next decade.

The US market alone is expected to reach $68 billion by 2026, representing a meaningful percentage of all e-commerce as shopping increasingly becomes something people watch, not just something they search for.
(savings.com)

Globally, live commerce is projected to grow into a multi-trillion-dollar industry over the next ten years, as the China model continues spreading westward and creators become the new storefronts of the internet.
(grandviewresearch.com)

Gary’s excitement isn’t hype.

It’s pattern recognition.

China proved the model.
TikTok is scaling it.
Creators are monetizing it.
Brands like SKIMS are validating it at the highest level.

The Takeaway

Gary Vee is excited because live shopping represents the next great consumer shift, a future where commerce looks more like entertainment, community, and conversation.

Kim Kardashian is excited because she understands that attention is the most powerful storefront in the world, and SKIMS is built to convert cultural moments directly into purchases.

And creators should be excited because, for the first time ever:

Anyone can sell like a brand - instantly, directly, and globally.

But the next phase won’t simply be creators selling inside platforms.

It will be creators owning their commerce outside them.

That’s the future.

That’s Popup.

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