TikTok has officially launched its e-commerce service TikTok Shop within the US.
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Consumers are increasingly turning to social media for his or her shopping this holiday season, and TikTok’s latest enterprise into e-commerce has emerged on the forefront. For some, it means weighing the convenience of mobile shopping and sometimes low prices against ethical questions.
The platform introduced TikTok Shop within the U.S. in September as an in-app shopping experience, capitalizing on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend. The shop gives opportunities to each content creators who could sell their very own products and avid TikTok users who could buy directly on the app, following within the footsteps of other social media apps equivalent to Instagram.
Though TikTok Shop previously faced backlash and was forced to shut down in Indonesia, consumers are increasingly trending toward buying off social media.
A recent Shopify-Gallup survey says nearly half of respondents ages 18 to 29 said they plan on buying some holiday gifts on social media apps. And in line with an ICSC report, 86% of Gen Z shoppers — which it defines as ages 16 to 26 — say social media influences their shopping habits.
One TikTok Shop enthusiast is 29-year-old Chuck Vaughn, who called the TikTok Shop phenomenon “a gold rush.”
“There’s some crazy coupons on there combined with sale prices, and you then find yourself getting things 50% off or 60% off,” the Tennessee resident told CNBC. “There is not any good reason to not be using it so far as I can tell.”
Though some argue that using the platform strips shoppers of their privacy, Vaughn said it’s clear that customers today are already giving up data in most of their apps. As an alternative, he’s leaned into the trend, together with his most up-to-date purchase being Pokemon cards. Whereas the market price for cards would normally be around $70, Vaughn said, he bought his on TikTok Shop for just $33 with free shipping — and so they arrived in under every week.
Vaughn said he plans on doing no less than a few of his holiday shopping on the app and is recommending his family and friends use TikTok Shop as well.
Social media and commerce
With in-app purchases, the flexibility to purchase quickly is much more prevalent. It is a trend that was especially bolstered by the sooner days of the pandemic, when people were largely staying home either resulting from mandates or worries about catching Covid. In line with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Americans spent $791.7 billion on e-commerce during 2020.
In line with TikTok, the Shop platform has greater than 200,000 sellers, and the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag has greater than 77 billion views as of this month. For this holiday season, TikTok said, the Shop feature will include multiple promotions, coupons and deals on trending products.
Though in-person commerce has made a comeback post-pandemic, in line with Gartner digital commerce analyst Ant Duffin, consumers’ propensity to purchase online has undoubtedly surged up to now few years.
The social media commerce landscape has constructed a very interesting ecosystem made up of brands, creators, technology and consumers, each playing a job in bolstering the e-commerce space, Duffin told CNBC.
“What you are now beginning to see is TikTok bucking the trend where they’re providing an entire social commerce ecosystem of tactics, from paid promoting to short-form video through to immersive shops and having the ability to transact all inside the app,” Duffin said.
This latest realm might be a “fresh battleground” for small and medium-sized businesses, in line with Duffin. Especially over the vacation season, smaller businesses can raise awareness and construct their brands successfully on the social media app and fill within the gaps for brands seeking to capitalize on latest market opportunities.
Nevertheless, Duffin said he doesn’t consider TikTok Shop will find a way to rival the likes of Amazon or have an effect beyond a stocking stuffer purchase just yet.
Questioning the ethics
But not everyone seems to be a fan of having the ability to scroll and buy concurrently.
Grace Romine, a sophomore at Indiana University, said she first found the Shop feature to be annoying, especially with the increased advertisements. She also said she found it was drowning out a number of the creative content produced by creators on the app.
Romine said she doesn’t agree with a number of the ethics of the products being sold on the app, especially with lower prices prompting broader conversations about where those products are coming from.
“TikTok Shop does offer the chance for small businesses to succeed, and small businesses really want e-commerce platforms,” she said. “But a whole lot of the products I’ve seen that 1000’s of individuals are promoting should not small businesses.”
“They’re, you realize, the $4 purse,” she said, “and in the event that they’re selling it for $4, what are the ethics behind that? Is it sustainably made? What form of labor was used to make this product?”
Romine said the mix of fast fashion and overconsumption work together to sour her taste for the Shop feature, at the same time as she sees classmates walking around campus in sweatshirts she’s seen ads for on the app. She’s also desperate to see how the app adapts to its “first Christmas” in the vacation market.
For Fordham University senior and history major Ana Kevorkian, the ads have change into increasingly tempting despite the fact that she’s “principally opposed” to purchasing anything on TikTok Shop. She said she’s specifically had her eye on a leather purse being sold for $3, but she’s still questioning the ethics behind it.
“I attempt to be intentional about my shopping, and I believe TikTok Shop is the precise opposite of intentional shopping,” Kevorkian said, adding that it encourages people to overspend and overconsume.
“It takes 10 seconds to go onto [web browser] Safari and buy something, and that is not an enormous inconvenience,” she said. “If we want to buy a lot that that is simply too much, then there’s something unsuitable with the culture.”
Still, each time that leather purse pops up on her For You Page, Kevorkian said she hesitates. Since she’s never bought anything on the app, she has an automatic 70% discount for her first purchase.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the recent Shopify-Gallup survey says nearly half of respondents ages 18 to 29 said they plan on buying some holiday gifts on social media apps, and that the ICSC report defines Gen Z shoppers as ages 16 to 26. A previous version mischaracterized the age groups represented in those surveys.
