Throughout its meteoric rise to the top of the online pantheon, TikTok has become much more than a simple social media platform. According to our latest TikTok trend predictions, features that can turn the platform into a search engine of sorts, such as the Search Ads feature, are gaining more and more traction. Similarly, TikTok is expanding its native shopping functionality as it moves towards becoming the leading destination for online shopping.
TikTok Shop is the latest and the most significant addition to the platform’s feature roster, with a simple mission – to turn discovery into purchase.
What is TikTok Shop?
TikTok shop is a new feature that brings full e-commerce functionality into the TikTok app itself. This means that brands, creators and merchants can not only advertise, but also sell their products directly from the app.
Social commerce has been on a steady rise even before the pandemic, but 2021 definitely tipped the scale and now more and more millennials and Gen Z-ers are turning to their social platforms for online purchases.
Instagram Shop used to be the premier destination but the platform is slowly shutting down its shop features, starting with live shopping.
TikTok, on the other hand, understands that its sheer virality, massive visibility and excellent advertising features represent an enormous pool of possibilities for social shopping, which is why it’s rolling out TikTok Shop.
This new feature has been available in select markets, such as Indonesia, UK, Singapore and Vietnam. TikTok Shop USA has been in the testing phase since November 2022 and the general rollout has arrived.
How Does TikTok Shop Work?
The whole idea behind TikTok shop is to allow users to discover, explore and purchase the products right there in the TikTok app, without navigating away to another platform, shop or website. This sort of seamless and streamlined shopping experience is something that will benefit both the shoppers and the merchants, as in-app purchases reduce friction and cart abandonment.
TikTok Shop provides three native, in-app ways of shopping:
1. Product Showcase
This is something of a window display or an e-commerce product page for a brand, except it’s on their TikTok account. All products can be accessed within the app from the Product Showcase page.
Basically, TikTok Shop brings your online store – wherever it’s hosted – to the TikTok audience. They can explore it and purchase it through the app itself, as your shop is connected to your account.
The in-app sales are conducive to better conversion rates, more sales and higher revenue, and the process is really quite simple for all parties involved.
Furthermore, TikTok Shop allows merchants to manage their shop, inventory, orders, promotions, partnerships and customer service right there in their Seller Center dashboard.
2. Live Shopping
Creators and brands will now be able to pin the products they are using or showcasing in the live video, into the video itself. Viewers can tap on the pinned product that will lead them to the product page where they can explore it further and add it to cart right then and there.
There is also a basket icon in the lower left corner of the live video, with all the items featured in the live, also leading to the designated product pages.
3. In-feed Shoppable Videos
Similarly to the Live Shopping feature, in-feed Shoppable Videos feature pinned products and a product basket leading viewers to the shop page.
TikTok Shop Examples
Here are some examples of TikTok Shop:
How to Set Up TikTok Shop?
First of all, you will need a TikTok Business account. If you don’t already have one, and if you’re not yet using the advertising potential of the platform, check out our Ultimate Guide to TikTok advertising where we also explain how to start a business account.
Next, you will need to download and install a special app that will create a connection between your online shop and your TikTok account. If you’re running a shop on Shopify, there’s an app just for that, and if you’re using BigCommerce, you will use the TikTok for Business app, which automatically adds the TikTok Pixel to your shop.
After you’ve set up your account with information related to your business name, tax ID, entity type, US TIN, business address and other, you can proceed to operation preparation, which entails getting familiar with the Seller Center and account management.
The next step is product management. You need to add products from your store to your TikTok Shop, sort them into Live, Deactivated, Suspended etc, add rating and so on. All this is done through the Seller Center, which features an intuitive dashboard with familiar sections and easy to understand sorting.
Now it’s time to get your products out there. For this, you will need to use the Streamer platform. This is a desktop platform that allows merchants and creators to run content marketing through the available formats – live video, in-feed videos and product showcases. In addition to adding, removing and otherwise managing products in videos and showcases, the Streamer platform also performs data performance analysis.
Promotion and Creator Partnerships
In addition to providing merchants with shopping functionalities straight on the platform, TikTok Shop also comes with a range of promotional tools for getting your brand out there. As TikTok Shop users, brands gain access to the platform’s monthly campaigns that can help them gain more visibility and reach even wider audiences.
As it’s generally the case with TikTok, creators and influencers play a big role in brand success with TikTok Shop. The new feature helps merchants connect with the users that can be great ambassadors of their brand through their live and in-feed videos.
On the creators’ side, since each brand using TikTok Shop can start an affiliate program, creators get an opportunity to earn commissions and create profitable partnerships with brands they’re featuring in their content.
Need help with TikTok Shop?
TikTok Shop is a major addition to the app’s capabilities. Understanding and leveraging its potential for maximum gain can be difficult in these early stages, especially for brands who are relatively new to using TikTok for business purposes. This is particularly true for TikTok Shop USA, since that’s the newest market for the feature and things are still very fresh. That’s why teaming up with a TikTok advertising agency is the smartest course to take. At GrowMojo, we have a team of dedicated TikTok experts ready to help brands make the best of the platform and show them how to set up TikTok Shop. Contact us today so we can start growing your e-commerce revenue right now!
