I spent time watching vendors sell on Instagram.
Shoes. Skincare. Clothes.
Every product post had the same pattern: dozens of comments asking "How much?" and vendors replying "DM us."
I thought: okay, that's just how it works.
Then I watched what happens after the DM.
"Just tell me the price"
Picture this:
You see a product you like, but you're not ready to buy — you just want to know the price. Maybe check if they deliver to your area, or compare with two other vendors.
But there's no way to do that quietly, so the platform forces you to DM. And the moment you send that message, there's a person on the other side and an expectation forming.
So you hesitate. Or you DM and disappear. Or you feel awkward when you don't buy.
Now multiply that by three vendors — you're doing this dance three times just to compare prices, and each vendor is waiting for a response that might never come.
Nobody's wrong here. The system just forces curiosity to look like commitment.
"Where can I get this?"
Here's another version of the same problem:
An influencer posts a photo styling a dress, wearing a wristwatch, or holding a bag. The comments flood in: "Where did you get this?" "Link?" "Please where can I buy?"
Hundreds of people with clear intent, ready to buy.
But there's no link, no price, no way to actually purchase. The influencer either ignores the comments, drops a vague "check my bio," or tags a vendor who... also says "DM us."
So the demand just sits there, unmet and unrealized. Content created desire, but the platform has no infrastructure to complete the transaction.
100 DMs, maybe two sales
Now flip it.
You're the vendor, and you wake up to 100 DMs asking "How much?" "Do you deliver?" "Is it available?"
Same questions, different people. You answer every single one, and by the end of the day, maybe one or two people actually buy.
Then tomorrow, you do it all over again.
Nothing compounds. Yesterday's 100 DMs don't make today easier, past customers don't automatically help new buyers trust you, and the work doesn't stack.
You're busy answering messages all day, but you're not actually building anything.
And you can't even tell what's working — which posts drive sales, what products people almost bought. You're just guessing.
$2.7 billion lost to social media scams since 2021
Here's the part nobody likes talking about.
Since 2021, consumers have lost $2.7 billion to scams on social media, according to the FTC. And that’s just in the US.
A friend of a friend lost ₦400k buying a phone on Instagram. The seller had clean photos, active engagement, professional captions — everything looked right. He paid, and nothing showed up.
Stories like this happen every day because social platforms weren't built for commerce, so there's no protection, no recourse. Just loss.
That's why buyers adapt the way they do. They ask friends "Do you know this vendor?" They look for proof someone else bought first. They stick to names their friends recommend.
And even when they find a vendor they want to try, they'll buy small first — just to test — even if they actually need more. Not because they're cautious by nature, but because one bad experience is expensive.
Good products stay buried
On Instagram, you're limited to followers and their circles. On TikTok, the algorithm shows what entertains you, not what you need.
So unless you're actively searching, you'll never discover that perfect product sitting three accounts away. Good products stay buried while the same few names keep circulating, and honest sellers who just started can't break through.
Platforms built for attention, not commerce
Here's what I realized:
People want the reach and discovery of social media, but they're trying to buy and sell there. And social platforms were never built for that — they were built for attention, engagement, and virality. Not transactions, not trust, not commerce.
So everyone patches the gap with DMs, but DMs weren't designed to be storefronts or payment systems or trust mechanisms. They're just... messages.
What should exist instead
That's why we built Shopsical.
A platform where you can browse without commitment, see prices without asking, save things for later, and know who bought before you. Where content that creates demand can actually close sales, where vendors don't have to answer the same 100 questions every day, where trust compounds instead of resets, and where good products actually get discovered.
Not a marketplace trying to feel social. Not a social app pretending to sell. Just commerce built for how people already behave.
I genuinely think this is the next big thing.
The next time you want to shop, try Shopsical.
— Abraham from Shopsical