As seen on TikTok… TikTok’s said to be swiping into online shopping with a new marketplace aimed at bringing (more) Chinese goods to the US. The store (“TikTok Shop Shopping Center”) would collab with China-based vendors to sell everything from tank tops to laptops, on a new page in the app. TikTok would handle product storage, marketing, and delivery to the US. The shop could hit the States next month.
Small cart: TikTok dipped its toes into ecomm by launching TikTok Shop in the US last year, but it’s primarily designed for merchants to showcase their products on digi-storefronts.
Big trunk: TikTok hopes its new marketplace can quadruple the app's transaction volume from $5B last year to $20B this year. But competition is stiff.
Made in China mania… Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu have become global ecomm go-tos thanks to super-low prices and endless product catalogs. Last year, the e-retailers earned a combined $800M+ in sales. Still, TikTok has 1B+ active users, and more than half say they’ve made a purchase after seeing a product on the app. But social users don't always = social shoppers. This year Meta killed its Instagram Shop tab and its live shopping feature.
Big dreams can have loose seams… Despite TikTok’s popularity, its US shopping ambitions could come with more snags than sales. It’s still at risk of getting banned over data privacy concerns, and entering the ecomm market might not help its case. Shein has been accused of selling clothes made with forced labor in China, and American lawmakers have urged an investigation. Last month, cybersecurity experts warned that Temu could be scraping sensitive personal data.