Audit sheet
Catalogue layer readiness
A field-by-field check on the layer everything else depends on: variant coverage, price after platform fees, sync cadence, stock accuracy, and the shipping and returns wording that displays verbatim.
Coming soon
Glossary & audit sheets
The vocabulary of the stack, and sheets for auditing each layer.
Every term this site uses, defined in plain language, followed by the practical sheets for checking your own catalogue, surface, identifier, data, and operations layers. No email gate — read, copy, and use whatever is useful.
Glossary
Nine terms that describe the stack precisely.
- Social commerce infrastructure
- The systems between a piece of content and a paid, accounted-for order: catalogue, selling surfaces, checkout paths, identifiers, data capture, and operations. Content is the front end; this is everything behind it.
- Catalogue layer
- The single source of truth for product titles, variants, prices, stock, and images that every platform reads from. Inaccuracy here suspends listings and cancels orders, which is why it's built first.
- Selling surface
- Any mechanic that attaches a product to content: tagged clips, social storefronts, in-video links, live product cards, or message threads. Each carries its own checkout path, fees, and buyer behaviour.
- Checkout path
- How payment is actually completed. Native in-app checkout keeps the buyer on the platform; off-platform paths hand them to your own store, adding steps and losing a share of them at each one.
- Identifier
- The link parameter, discount code, creator handle, or platform order reference that marks where an order came from. It is the only part of the stack that cannot be applied retroactively.
- Server-side capture
- Recording orders system-to-system rather than through code in a shopper's browser. Browser events are widely blocked, so browser-only setups under-count working surfaces.
- Post-level attribution
- Assigning credit for a sale to an individual piece of content rather than to a whole platform. It's the difference between knowing a channel earned and knowing what to make next.
- Creator capacity
- Selling content produced by creators and customers under their own identifiers. It extends the surface layer without extending your production budget, and it is measured like any other surface.
- Operations layer
- The human half of the stack: who keeps stock accurate, who answers buyer messages, who handles disputes, and who reads the numbers each month. Sales stall here more often than at any technical layer.
Audit sheets
One sheet per layer, for auditing what you already have.
Comparison
Which surfaces to run
The five selling surfaces side by side on typical fees, checkout path, product fit, price range, and maintenance cost — so you commit to two you can run properly instead of five you can't.
Coming soon
Convention
Identifier naming scheme
A fill-in template for the layer you can't retrofit: how to name platform, surface, content, and campaign, and how to issue per-creator codes that stay unique and readable a year later.
Coming soon
Guide
Wiring the data layer
A walkthrough of capturing in-app orders server-side, joining them to a specific post and product, reconciling against each platform's dashboard, and netting refunds automatically.
Coming soon
Template
Maintenance calendar
The upkeep rhythm laid out week by week: what to connect to the catalogue, which archive post to move onto a live surface, and the monthly review that retires what doesn't convert.
Coming soon
Benchmarks
Per-layer health metrics
Reference figures for catalogue sync errors, in-app conversion, share of orders carrying an identifier, attributable revenue, and return rate by surface — with what to change to move each one.
Coming soon
New here? Start with the anatomy of the stack.
If the terms above are unfamiliar, read the full explanation of the six layers and how each one depends on the last, then come back to the audit sheets.
From definition to practice
Learn the concept here, then see social commerce working on your own accounts.
Everything on this site is free to read and apply on your own. When you'd rather be walked through it, Socialscale will set up the selling surfaces, attach your products to the content you already publish, and show you what each post earns.