Is TikTok the Next Big Social Commerce Destination?

Since its U.S debut in 2017, TikTok has grown tremendously. With over 500 million global monthly active users on the platform (27 million in the U.S.), TikTok has grown 70% from 2018 to 2019. While it has been a hub for Gen Zers to express themselves and spend long periods of time watching videos (the average user spends 52+ minutes on the app per day), brands have been slow to jump into the platform. But that may soon change.

The platform offered its first shoppable ads for brands in April 2019, and in November 2019, TikTok started beta testing shoppable videos with select influencers on the platform. This marks the first time potential shoppers can access eCommerce pages from videos without having to leave the app.

In TikTok’s current form, video viewers can swipe to access an eCommerce link, which then drives them directly to the shop page within TikTok (this can even be something like an Amazon affiliate link page, for example). Once products are added to carts or purchased, another easy swipe takes shoppers back into video feeds. This functionality gets the app closer to sales-driving goals, similar to Instagram and Pinterest.

As social commerce continues to grow, shopper behavior becomes more accustomed to direct purchase touch points along the customer journey. This shift presents great opportunities for brands looking for more sales-driven influencer approaches as shoppable video begins to roll out to more broadly. Brands can likely expect to see similar opportunities come to light as well, creating new ways to engage Gen Zers (and others as the platform grows) with direct sales approaches in social media.

Contributed By: Sam Nicholson, Social Media Manager, Integer Denver

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