An Introduction TikTok's Ecommerce Tools

Founded in 2021, TikTok started life as an app where users filmed themselves miming along to a soundtrack and shared it online. Now, it’s a hub for all kinds of video content from comedy to mini documentary-style videos. 

With over 1 billion active users worldwide, it makes sense that the big bosses at TikTok are planning to utilise their platform for eCommerce, and there’s a good chance it could become one of the most effective eCommerce marketing tools for Gen-Z. 

Thinking about TikTok advertising, or expanding your brand on this channel? Read our short introduction to the eCommerce tools you can expect to see, now and in the future, on this fast-growing social platform.

It’s A Platform With Enormous Potential

With users spending an average of 50 minutes a day on the platform and 34% actively posting every single day, TikTok has the most actively engaged users of all the social media platforms. 

It’s hugely popular amongst Gen-Z, with 70% of its users aged between 16-24. Younger consumers are becoming increasingly reliant on social proof before making a purchase, and video is the perfect way to encourage people to press buy. 

While Instagram posts are often staged, TikTok videos give a more authentic feel, with users able to hear the voice of the person in the video and see in live time what they are doing. 

As a result, the posts feel more genuine and the ads more convincing, meaning one thing – more conversions. 

Future Features…

There’s a lot of talk about how TikTok will be utilised by advertisers in the future, and what that will look like. 

Businesses will be able to show off their products and services by featuring a short video, but how exactly will they direct users to their website?

Popular users will be given a feature similar to Instagram’s ‘swipe up’ option whereby a link is included in the video that earns the user a commission with every sale. 

Next is ‘showcasing’ which is an option available to brands that give users a look at the products they have on offer, encouraging them to click through to the website and make a purchase. 

Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, is live stream shopping. Similar to TV shopping channels, a product will be displayed in the live stream and a host will run a short demo and give users the option to purchase the product by following the link in the video. 

If you thought Instagram shopping made things easy, just wait.

TikTok X Shopify

In late 2020, Tik Tok partnered with Shopify to allow retailers to create shoppable TikTok ad campaigns within the app. 

Brands simply choose which product they want to feature in the ad and TikTok generates a video automatically. Alternatively, the brand can choose a template for the app to follow, and the ad will feature on the user’s ‘for you’ page as the algorithm sees fit. 

Just like Facebook, the brand can choose who to target with their ads according to demographic and behaviours, and users will be able to like and comment on the video so that it appears to be organic in the feed. 

TikTok is still in its infancy, but it has already overtaken social media staples in terms of active users and engagement rates. 

Perhaps there is still work to be done to shape the app as an eCommerce platform, but all we see is potential. With this in mind, and from the perspective of brands, the earlier you start using it, the better – it’s only going up from here.