Social media is one of, if not, the fastest evolving method of digital marketing, especially since more and more people are buying online, through their phones. Apps like TikTok are constantly developing new features to keep up with market trends, and the wants and needs of their users.
After almost a year of trials, TikTok has introduced the TikTok Shop, its latest venture into the world of social commerce. Social commerce is growing rapidly and TikTok wants to be part of that. In this article, we’ll be exploring everything you need to know about TikTok Shop UK and whether you should be utilising it.
What is TikTok Shop?
The name gives the game away here, but TikTok Shop is essentially a way for TikTok users to buy products within the app, without opening a web browser that takes them to a separate eCommerce store. TikTok describes the new feature as “the suite of solutions, features, and tools that give businesses the opportunity to tap into the power of commerce on TikTok”.
With more than one billion monthly users across the world, there is a great opportunity for marketers and businesses to access the active and engaged TikTok audience, via the new shopping feature. The app originally made its presence known in social commerce with its well-known partnership with Shopify, and it continues to provide support for more vendors all the time, including the e-commerce platforms below:
- Shopline
- Square
- BigCommerce
- OpenCart
- Ecwid
- Base
- Wix
- Prestashop
Any brand can host live shopping or link the video ads it creates to its product pages.
How does TikTok Shop work?
When a business sets itself up on TikTok Shopping, it will be able to integrate its e-commerce solutions with the TikTok account. This is represented by a new tab on the business’ profile in the form of a shopping bag.
Now, a new avenue is created for users to shop for the products they see in videos using a few quick button taps, opening up a whole new world of opportunities in social media advertising. TikTok originally trialled Shopping with certain Shopify sellers in the US and UK, later branching out to Canada, but have gradually rolled it out on a wider scale.
A key part of TikTok Shopping is being able to link to tag products in your TikTok videos. By doing so, you can refer to products in the videos and viewers can click through the tagged products to learn more about them. At this stage, TikTok will either navigate people through to your storefront to complete the process or end it within TikTok if you prefer to do it that way.
Trialling TikTok Shop
When TikTok Shopping was first being trialled, Shopify noted that “social commerce represents one of the fastest-growing channels for Shopify merchants, particularly as more creators lean on these platforms to build their businesses”.
Merchants with a TikTok for Business account were able to sync their product catalogues to create a mini storefront linking directly to their online store for checkout. Shopify merchants could also create, run, and optimise TikTok marketing campaigns from the Shopify dashboard, which is an extremely useful feature of TikTok Shop.
How are brands using TikTok Shop?
One of the first businesses to start selling products via TikTok Shop was Kylie Jenner’s store, Kylie Cosmetics. With almost 35 million TikTok followers, it made sense for Jenner to make the most of her market and presence on the platform.
If you look at the Kylie Cosmetics profile page, by tapping on the shopping bag icon you will be able to see a range of products for sale. Tapping on one of the product’s images initiates the checkout process. Many other big-name brands and social media influencers quickly followed suit, with TikTok Shopping becoming an integral part of their business and marketing plans.
Should more brands be using TikTok Shop?
Like with other social media marketing platforms, TikTok Shop isn’t necessarily right for everyone. Businesses with older target audiences or those who are a bit older themselves and selling quite niche products, might find that TikTok Shop isn’t going to be successful for their marketing strategy, and that’s ok. There will be many other paths to explore that will work for those businesses if they use an experienced and professional social media marketing agency UK.
On the flipside of this, there will be many businesses out there that can benefit greatly from TikTok Shop. Social commerce now generates billions of pounds in revenue, meaning if your business is an e-commerce store with products aimed at a younger demographic in particular, setting up TikTok Shopping should definitely be on your radar. Whether you’re looking to maximise pre-existing buzz around what you’re selling or generate more attention for your brand and get more sales, this feature could be worth exploring.
Also, if you have an interest in pursuing influencer marketing, TikTok Shop could help. The platform lets you partner with the right affiliates for your brand and who will create content for you, meaning it will be even easier to find and use content creators.
It’s important to keep in mind though, TikTok does have certain conditions sellers need to meet to be able to sell on the platform. For example, if someone is a creator selling their own products, they need to have more than 1,000 followers, have posted and had more than 50 video views in the last 28 days, and be over the age of 18.
Our Thoughts
TikTok Shop is a great feature for the right businesses to promote their products and their brand to a very captive and engaged audience. However, it won’t be right for every business, and it would be wise to think and research carefully with the help of a digital marketing agency like Deliver, to ensure you have the best chance of success in any marketing channel you use.
If you need expert digital marketing services to help your sales and marketing grow, contact us today. You can also request a free audit to see how your website is currently performing before starting your journey with us.