Short-form video hosting platform TikTok looks to compete with Amazon after it unveiled plans to expand into e-commerce.
The social media company revealed it is testing a new in-app called “Trendy Beat”, a shopping section where it will offer products for sale that are shipped and sold by a subsidiary of its parent company, ByteDance.
TikTok disclosed that it is focused on providing valuable shopping experiences in countries where TikTok shop is currently offered across Southeast Asia and the UK, which includes providing merchants with a range of product features and delivery options.
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The feature will contain a shopping section that offers popular items that have appeared in trending videos. Reports reveal that the feature is currently being tested in the U.K, meanwhile, TikTok had already trademarked “Trendy Beat” on May 30, 2023, in the U.S where it says it is currently focused on adding new merchants to its TikTok shop offering that lets brands sell items on the platform.
In the Trademark filing, Trendy Beat will offer advertising and advertisement services, sales promotion for others, provision of an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of goods and services, administrative processing of purchase orders, and apparel such as pyjamas, sweaters, suits, shirts, and many others.
Notably, TikTok parent company ByteDance plans to start selling its products on the app which is referred to as “Project S”. Project S will leverage TikTok’s knowledge of products that are gaining popularity on the app, which then allows ByteDance to either acquire or manufacture those products.
The new in-app TikTok shopping feature would drastically drive more of these sales by offering users easy and direct access to discovery and purchasing experience.
Although TikTok is still in the early phase of its e-commerce initiatives in the U.S., the app already has a notable influence over users’ shopping habits.
Notably, this is not the first time TikTok is making a move into e-commerce. In 2021, the social media platform partnered with Shopify to bring organic product discovery and shopping tabs to TikTok, helping creators and merchants deepen their relationships with consumers.
The recent move to launch a shopping section “Trendy Beat”, indicates that TikTok remains committed to making in-stream shopping a thing on its platform. This could be a stepping stone for the social media company to deepen its e-commerce push, by getting users more accustomed to buying in-stream, then expand that behavior to other products and businesses.
TikTok remains focused on building its shopping business, as a means to both drive more revenue, and more opportunity for partners, as it also seeks to provide rental advertising space for brands to advertise their goods on the platform.
In today’s world, brands are recognizing how important it is to jump on the exploding global trend. Many experts claim that TikTok could be the future of e-commerce, due to the high level of engagement the platform has from its users.
TikTok has no doubt made a unique and significant contribution to the e-commerce space. This is especially because of the natural tendency of its users to engage in social shopping.
In a 2020 survey by TikTok, two-thirds of respondents said they were inspired to shop on the platform even though they weren’t planning on it.
With over 1 billion active users spread across 154 countries, TikTok’s expansion into the e-commerce space will see it compete for a larger share of the market from other top e-commerce giants like Amazon and Shein.
Could TikTok one day challenge Amazon for online shopping supremacy? The Chinese ByteDance-owned company’s fastest-growing feature is its live-streamed marketplace called TikTok Shop, and Indonesia, where it debuted and remains its biggest market, is serving as a $20 billion test bed. However, the path to the U.S. e-commerce market is less certain, with TikTok facing a potential ban on national security concerns. For now, the company is dipping a toe into the country’s online shopping waters with in-app mini-stores attached to creator profiles. TikTok also plans to roll out a traditional shopping site in the coming months. (LinkedIn News)