It's the latest addition to the social commerce landscape. A subsidiary of Chinese group ByteDance, short video app TikTok finally joined the experiment in August 2021 by launching TikTok Shopping. Since then, Chinese social sales have been soaring and the platform is constantly developing new features to appeal to its billions of users. But what does TikTok Shopping promise? What does the platform look like? Follow the guide!
Like Instagram Shopping or Facebook Stores, TikTok Shopping is the social commerce solution that allows brands to sell their products in the app. Gone are the days when you had to open a web browser to access the online shops. We have entered the era of social commerce, which is particularly important at the end of 2021. With TikTok Shopping, designers can add a shopping area to their TikTok profiles.
Initially deployed in the United States and the United Kingdom, TikTok Shopping was then extended to Canada and then on a larger scale. The aim is to enable all businesses, whatever their size, to reach new customers.
A source of inspiration for teenagers, TikTok is originally a social media application for creating videos. Easy to use, the application has seen an increase in videos of young people mimicking or parodying their favourite music. This phenomenon then grew with the arrival of more original videos. Today, there are nearly 3 million downloads worldwide! An incredible source of visibility, brands naturally saw it as a marketing opportunity.
TikTok Shopping is THE answer to the unavoidable trend of social shopping. Buying online via a social network that we like has become the rule among young people. Live shopping has even become the favourite playground of Millennials.
Witness the use of the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, which has nearly 5 billion views! In fact, every time an Internet user discovers a product via a TikTok video, they share this hashtag. The power of recommendation is powerful. TikTok claims that the act of buying is 1.7 times higher via its application than via other social platforms.
TikTok has understood this and the challenge of this new functionality is part of a logic of permanent innovation:
At the end of September 2021, TikTok thanked its community for its commitment with the title “one billion times thank you“. Worldwide, more than a billion people visit the Chinese social network every month. A community that entertains, learns, has fun, discovers new things and buys!
It is clearly the social network with the strongest growth in 2021 and the arrival of the TikTok shopping feature has reinforced this trend.
14.9 million French people will use the app every month in 2020, compared to 4.4 million in 2019! The containment effect explains the growing use of the platform. If we analyse the figures more precisely, here are the key points to remember:
We can also note a large number of influencers which places France in 9th place. It is the influencer Lea Elui Ginet who dominates for example with more than 15 million subscribers!
The TikTok community is present throughout the world: one billion users in September 2021 and a prediction of 1.5 billion by the end of 2022. TikTok is available in 155 countries and 75 languages. In Europe, the UK has the most users, followed by France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Norway.
A third of users are in the 16-24 age group and in the US, TikTok is more popular than Facebook among 13-16 year olds.
Importantly for brands, 49% of users say they have bought a product or service after watching a video or reading a review. In addition, TikTok has the highest engagement rates on profiles with up to 100,000 followers.
Dancer and influencer Charli D’Améli has the largest following in the world with 129.8 million followers.
Although it is now possible to buy products directly on the TikTok platform, merchants must have Shopify and TikTok For Business accounts.
To simplify this process, TikTok has decided to continue its meteoric rise in social commerce by offering to integrate product catalogues directly. How can this be done? Thanks to an API “Application Programming Interface” allowing the direct integration of product catalogues. This new shopping functionality will be in place in the near future.
To sell on TikTok, you must first have a business account. Biography, photo, logo and description of your business are the first steps to a successful setup. To carry out your marketing campaigns, you will then need to use the TikTok For Business platform. Indeed, since 2020, the TikTok and Shopify partnership allows merchants to have access to TikTok For Business.
Getting to grips with a new tool is not always easy, so we invite you to consult TikTok’s business help centre directly.
Once you’ve mastered the platform, you’ll be able to discover many creative solutions such as TikTok Creator Marketplace, a portal allowing you to access collaborations with creators.
Your TikTok Shopping account is configured and you have decided to launch your first campaigns on this new sales channel… What are the criteria for a successful campaign?
Across all sectors and generations, TikTok is making its mark. The Chinese platform is becoming a must for companies: more notoriety and engaged communities. Examples of successful social media strategies are numerous and only reinforce the use of the application.
The IFAC, an International Federation of Accountants, chose TikTok to raise awareness of the importance of the accounting profession among Generation Z. As this sector of activity suffers from many prejudices, it was a question of experimenting with the Chinese social network and sweeping away the traditional advertising messages. Gone was the austere, elitist, masculine image of the accounting profession! Accompanied by an influencer marketing agency, IFAC used TikTok influencers to visit accounting firms. A sort of “live my life” as an accountant with engaging and entertaining content. The result of this experiment: 1 million visits and thousands of likes. A successful transformation of a sector that is too often stereotyped.
Education process provider, Navneet Education Limited has a range of products to help students get through their exams at the last minute. By choosing TikTok influencers, they ensured they were delivering a message that was relevant to their target audience. The campaign consisted of creating original and engaging content over a month. Eight TikTok influencers participated in the campaign, generating 3.4 million views and 1,600 comments.
As a partner of the Tour de France, the French company took advantage of the notoriety of this event to run a slightly offbeat marketing campaign. The company hired 6 sports influencers on TikTok to participate in the ascent of Mont Ventoux. A sporting challenge with 3 weeks of activities around the physical and mental preparation of the tiktokers. A way for the brand to raise awareness on the themes of nutrition and sport. The objective of this successful campaign? To develop its community by attracting a younger, connected audience.
The TikTok Shopping feature has almost no secrets for you. What if you decided to finally launch yourself on the Chinese social network?
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