June 03, 2026

Nearly 1B Strong: Snapchat Has Retail’s Most Overlooked Audience

42 minutes

Snap Inc.'s Sid Malhotra makes the case that the platform most brands wrote off as "babies and teens" has quietly grown up. Now, commerce is migrating into these private, conversational spaces where nearly one billion users actually spend their time. We dig into why the traditional funnel no longer holds consumers’ nuanced behaviors, how creators and chat shape decisions long before the last click, and what AI Sponsored Snaps mean for brands willing to be the answer rather than just another link.

Where Are Your Next New Customers?

Key takeaways:

Snapchat's earliest users grew up; nearly one in four Snapchatters is now aged 35+.

Purchase decisions increasingly occur in private chat, not on public feeds or in search.

"Last-click jail" hides where customers actually decide. It’s imperative that brands measure the full journey.

AI Sponsored Snaps let brands run their own agents inside the chat feed. This is conversational commerce, in context.

Authentic, creator-led, low-fi content beats polished commercials on the platform.

Key quotes:

[03:57] "We've come into the age where people are loving a few services and are hanging onto them and are creating their own personal community within those… And that brings me to the final question that Snapchat is trying to answer for businesses and brands worldwide: Where are your next first customers? Where are your next new customers?" — Sid Malhotra

[16:27] "Last-click measurement systems are great at telling [you] where the purchase took place. But it doesn't tell you much more than that. It's kind of like trying to watch a movie by just watching the last scene…Sure, you know how the movie ended, but you have no idea what the main characters were doing, what the plot line was, and what got them here." — Sid Malhotra

[19:55] "Working with influencers and community is closer to B2B commerce than B2C commerce…B2B has done a really good job of building real relationships, engaging with people where they're at, and finding the things that they care about in the process of selling to them." — Brian Lange

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By Phillip Jackson, Brian Lange

4.9

8383 ratings