- TikTok recently began inviting new sellers to test its in-app shopping product in the US.
- The company is fronting the cost of shipping and offering coupons to users to boost adoption.
- Sellers told Insider that TikTok Shop is driving real sales, but still has some bugs to work out.
When Rebecca Davison created a TikTok account in 2021 for her consumer startup UnbuckleMe, she was skeptical the app would reach her target demographic of parents with young children.
But after several of her company’s videos crossed 1 million views, Davison began to appreciate the app’s marketing potential. Thus, when TikTok emailed her in March to join the US rollout of its e-commerce initiative TikTok Shop, she decided to give it a shot.
A couple of weeks after joining the program and posting several videos touting a 30% TikTok Shop-exclusive discount on the company’s car-seat unbuckling product, sales have begun to pour in.
“We’re seeing a ton of sales through TikTok Shop,” Davison told Insider. “I woke up and [had] like 50 orders to print this morning before I even got into my office, which is awesome.”
TikTok Shop is the centerpiece of the company’s global push into social shopping, a move that includes everything from in-app storefronts to a nascent logistics business. TikTok first rolled out shopping features in other countries like Indonesia and the UK, but only recently began testing them in the US. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance are racing to replicate the social-shopping success of its Chinese sister app Douyin in other markets.
Social shopping hasn’t taken off as broadly in the US, with major tech players like Instagram and Pinterest coming up short in their efforts to replicate success in Asia. But most companies are continuing to invest in the category, seeing massive upside if they can get users on board.
A TikTok spokesperson said the company has been testing its shopping product since November. “It’s still early in the testing phase and we’re continuing to invite brands and merchants to test and learn from our community,” they said.
How TikTok is courting sellers and influencers to join its program
In recent weeks, TikTok has invited new US sellers to create shops on its app and promote their goods via clickable links in videos and livestreams. It’s also incentivized influencers to push items in videos by offering sales commissions in a new affiliate-marketing program. As it looks to bring on new stores and encourage TikTok users to purchase through its app, the company is fronting the cost of free shipping and discount coupons, four sellers in the program told Insider.
It’s also recruiting new sellers in the US by describing its cut of sales as “competitive” compared to other marketplaces, dishing out limited-time shipping subsidies, and offering incentive programs to help companies grow their businesses “from scratch,” per an email sent to a prospective seller viewed by Insider.
TikTok said it is still determining its take of sales, according to its website. It previously said it would take 5%, which is in line with Instagram’s selling fee and lower than Amazon’s typical 8% to 15% commission rate.
Still, TikTok’s vision of becoming an end-to-end e-commerce solution is still a ways off in the US.
Unlike with some other e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, TikTok sellers in the US need to handle their own order shipping and fulfillment. TikTok assists in generating shipping labels for new orders, the sellers told Insider.
Because the program is still in its testing phase, sellers told Insider they’ve encountered a few hiccups. Davison said she heard from several TikTok users who said they weren’t able to see the promotional links she posted in videos, for example.
Raffi Arslanian, owner of the high-end candle brand Thompson Ferrier, which is also a TikTok Shop seller, told Insider that he ran into trouble early on when trying to process labels from TikTok Shop orders, a glitch that has since been resolved.
Arslanian is particularly bullish on using TikTok livestreams to sell his luxury candle products, comparing the TikTok Live feature to the shopping network QVC.
Felicia Liang, an entrepreneur who sells makeup products under the brand FancyCube, participated in TikTok Shop’s rollout in the UK before joining the US launch. Liang said she experienced some of the growing pains of TikTok’s global rollout as she briefly lost access to her designated representative for the program. She has since been assigned a new one.
FancyCube is leaning heavily into working with influencers on TikTok Shop, sending them free products and offering them between 10% and 15% commission when their TikTok videos convert into makeup sales.
Liang said she’s found TikTok to be more cost effective than other social-shopping platforms because the app’s recommendation engine has allowed her company to reach new buyers without needing to purchase ads.
“It’s way better than Instagram’s and Facebook’s shopping platform for us,” she said.
This post has been updated.
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