The next time you take a look at the global ecommerce sales of $5.7 trillion in 2022, remember that TikTok got one big share of this volume.
TikTok continues to surf every trend wave with its new features, offerings, and never-ending privileges. The latest one was rolling out TikTok Shopping, a social ecommerce option within the app that particularly interests, besides its 1 billion users, brands, emarketers, and creators.
So, if you’re a TikTok fan, ecommerce business owner, marketing manager, or an influencer, grab a seat and get ready to unfold every secret you need to take full advantage of this opportunity. Our blog will recap TikTok Shopping’s beginning phases, how it developed, how you can start with it, and how to impact consumers’ lives.
What Is TikTok Shopping?
According to TikTok,
“TikTok Shopping is the suite of solutions, features, and tools that give businesses the opportunity to tap into the power of commerce on TikTok.”
TikTok Shopping provides a way for its users to purchase products inside the same app without leaving it to open a web browser or a separate online store. When a business account sets up the Shopping option, it will feature a Shopping tab on its profile. It’s this mini, clickable shopping bag icon leading to an in-app store.
Once inside the store, visitors can browse through a brand’s products, select, add to cart, and checkout. Actually, tapping on one product’s image launches the checkout process. Then, the process can either be easily completed within TikTok or transferred to the company’s own online store for making the payment.
The experience isn’t basic as it may sound, we just simply recapped the process. It’s on the contrary, so pleasant and diverse with rich media, videos, sales, and ads. After nearly a whole year of trial with selected Shopify merchants in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, TikTok Shopping was ready to roll out on a broader scale.
While a TikTok content featuring a product and using the right hashtags can organically reach millions and go viral, brands are not leaving their discovery to chance. Instead, they’re investing in their presence on TikTok, planning strategies like creators, and making great use of TikTok Shopping features. So, you might as well follow the same steps.
1. Maintain An Online Presence On TikTok
Launching a TikTok Shop is becoming a must-have in the arsenal of ecommerce brands just like Instagram. The platform’s power to drive product sales is henceforth undeniable with videos gaining over 500,000 views overnight, completely selling out batches of products, and the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt getting over 16 billion views.
But if you just launched your TikTok store, start with the subtle expectation that it may take some time before most people begin to purchase your items directly from the app. You also can’t expect your followers to discover your new TikTok Shopping tab by themselves when its icon is relatively inconspicuous and low profile.
So, first things first, ensure that you have done all basic setups for your business TikTok account like clearly stating in your TikTok bio that your shop exists, using keywords to improve your SEO, establishing you brand identity, speaking with your audience’s tone of voice, and why not adding some fun emojis.
Then it’s all part of an online presence game. You can promote your products in your videos content, add links, explain the shopping process, market your shop’s advantages, and, of course, follow the latest trends and post entertaining video clips. You would want to convert every entertained viewer into a happy customer.
To do that…
2. Think Like A Content Creator
If a brand strives to be noticed on TikTok, it needs to blend in with its trends. Your business might see some disappointing results when you repost the same content on all your platforms just like every month’s social media strategy. TikTok screams “I’m unique”, so should be your TikTok content.
Creating content has to drive your viewers towards your digital storefront, spark their interest in your brand, establish a connection with your business’ story, and make them feel welcomed into your store or to just dm you. Keep these goals in mind to guide your next TikTok content strategy and inspire every video you publish.
Planning like a content creator could also imply deputizing a face for your company, the ideal, authentic persona who can naturally present video scripts, and easily connect with your target audience. Keep a flexible space in your plan to replicate an emerging trend, replace an old audio with a popular one, and maybe embed your products within a meme format.
For businesses that can’t become creators, partnering with one is the next best thing. TikTok itself revealed that 72% of its users feel ordinary content creators to be more interesting than celebrities. And with the countless niches on social media, finding the right creator should be an easy hunt.
3. Take Advantage Of TikTok Shop Features
Marketing had already found its way through TikTok with a community of creators driving product discovery, recommending purchase consideration, and promoting sales off the platform. However, the integration of ecommerce tools upgraded the platform from a brand consideration platform to a fully operational sales one.
The real added value of TikTok Shopping compared to all available shops out there is its partnership with Shopify that brought each site’s features in one place. It was about time for users to scroll through one ideal storefront and buy products directly from one mobile application at their disposal and within a few seconds.
We’re heading one way down the road for the decentralization of ecommerce with the option to get your hands on every product you could possibly think of from anywhere on the web, not just an online store. It seems like the most balanced win-win situation when a single creative content helps consumers discover items they need and businesses find the customer base they serve.
As for your business, whenever you feel overwhelmed with juggling all these steps and staying consistent with your other platforms, contact TeckYou experts for a free consultation. Our team is totally equipped to manage your inventory listings in the back while driving your TikTok Shopping content foreword.
