Tiktok Shopping Guide: What Retailers Need to Know

Did you know that TikTok now has more than 1,000,000 active users? This means that there are great opportunities for shopping experiences to be enhanced.

This is even more so the case when you consider that TikTok has considerably higher engagement than Instagram and Youtube. Micro-influencers have engagement rates of 17,96% on TikTok, compared to 3.86% on Instagram and 1.63% on Youtube.

Considering the growth of TikTok, we are going to explore the influence that this has had in terms of ecommerce thanks to the TikTok shopping feature. Understanding this can help you to unlock opportunities for growth and engagement.

What is TikTok shopping?

TikTok resulted from a merge between Douyin and Musical.ly in 2017. Since then, it has gained huge levels of popularity, which has boomed especially during the coronavirus pandemic where everyone was locked at home with very little to do.

As is the case with other social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok has its own stars who have millions of followers and views on their content.

In fact, Forbes estimated that Addison Rae earned $5 million thanks to her TikTok fame in just one year. This has been achieved by sponsoring brands and in some cases also releasing their own product.

TikTok encourages engagement, and that is what makes it such a popular and well-loved platform. One of the ways it does this effectively is with TikTok shopping.

TikTok shopping is one of the newer features, which gives creators, brands, and merchants to showcase and sell items directly through TikTok. You can do this by going live and via in-feed videos as well.

TikTok Shopping is popular with Gen Z

Today, virtually every popular social network has an efficient social commerce element that drives users directly to the purchasing point for a product. The first social media to add social commerce features was Facebook, and naturally, others followed suit after this.

On TikTok, the shopping feature means that creators can add a shop tab to their profile, which will sync and display all of the products for sale on their store website. This means that customers can purchase these products with extreme ease. They do not need to go searching; they can simply complete the process from TikTok.

Aside from this, creators can tag products in organic posts. When adding a video to the platform, for instance, products can be tagged, which viewers can then click on and be taken to the relevant landing page.

How to set up TikTok shopping

Now that you know what TikTok shopping is and why it is so important, we are going to take a look at some of the TikTok shopping best practices to implement.

1. Use Live Shopping on TikTok

Data has shown that 84% of consumers have made a purchase after watching a live stream video of the brand advertising it, and 96% of people have watched Livestream videos to learn more in-depth about a product or a brand.

This is where Tiktok live shopping feature is very useful! It allows merchants to integrate with the products from their TikTok shopping experience into a LIVE session.

Research shows that returns are 50% lower when a product is bought from a Livestream compared to basic social commerce.

2. Leverage influencer marketing

Social media is one of the most effective ways that brands can reach out and connect with Gen Z consumers.

Almost half (44%) of Gen Z customers have made a purchase decision purely because of a recommendation from an influencer in comparison to the remainder of the population, making Gen Z audience the most influenced by influencer marketing.

3. Post authentic content

Another piece of advice that we have for you when making the most of TikTok shopping is to post authentic content that displays your sense of humour.

If you post snippets of real people using your products, people will be able to relate to this, which will give you a much greater chance of encouraging sales via your social media presence.

In a day and age whereby so many people are sceptical about what they see online, having that air of authenticity is vital.

Whenever you post a piece of content, think about how it is going to be perceived from the audience’s perspective.

4. Create content for short attention spans

A very important trait for creators is to make the content on Tiktok fun and engaging to Gen Z audiences who have a shorter attention span compared to other generations and, therefore, need more entertaining content from brands.

It has been found that the first 2-3 seconds are the most crucial when it comes to capturing the audience’s attention!

If your video does not make a big impression from the very first second, you can be sure that a lot of people will have already moved on to the next video, so you really do not have any time to waste here.

Increase awareness and sales with TikTok shopping

As you can see, TikTok shopping is a powerful tool that you can use to boost brand awareness and make more sales. However, this is only going to be the case if you know how to use it effectively. Follow the tips that we have provided above to give yourself the best shot!

So, to summarise, you need to make sure that you…

Use the Live Shopping feature so that you can engage with your audience in real-time and encourage sales

Make the most of influencer marketing - carefully choose someone who resonates with your audience

Post content that is authentic and feels real - consider adding consumer content if your customers are happy for you to do so

Create content for people with short attention spans, and be sure to make a big impression within the very first minute

Author Bio: Sabrina Sedicot is an experienced marketer, focussing on all digital things. She works for Appnova, a creative web design agency London. She works on projects across UX/ UI design, eCommerce, Branding & Content Production. She’s inspired by all forms of digital storytelling and interested in creating tailored solutions that can deliver experiences to build brands.