TikTok has been mulling to foray into e-commerce for a long. Its retail ambition has now taken a major leap as the social video platform has expanded its partnership with Shopify to offer an in-app shopping feature. Under this, they are partnering with merchants who will be able to sell products directly in the short-form video app. Selected merchants would be able to sell their products directly on the TikTok platform. The feature will be tested with selected merchants across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The pilot test has already been launched in the US and UK. It would begin in London in the weeks to come.
The social video platform had joined forces with the e-commerce company in October 2020. The deal allowed Shopify merchants to create, run and optimize TikTok marketing campaigns directly from the dashboard of the shopping app’s dashboard. It was just a stepping stone for more options of direct shopping functionality. One of them has been just announced by them. The feature announced will allow Shopify merchants, who have a TikTok for Business account, to create a shopping tab on their social video platform profile. This would be tied to their product catalogs which will in a way create a store destination.
Merchants would also be able to tag these products in organic posts and videos on TikTok. The tag would be linked to merchants’ storefronts and therefore will allow customers to buy products. All the transactions related to it would be handled by Shopify.
Shopify is no stranger to such partnerships. It is already working with several social media platforms to offer similar options. It is working with Pinterest product pins, Instagram and Facebook Shops. But TikTok has emerged as a new social heavyweight. The platform is extremely popular amongst Gen Z consumers. Therefore it would be a different level of excitement for Shopify. Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, said that the company is excited to create more ways of connecting the next generation of entrepreneurs with their audience.
“We are powering new generation entrepreneurs and merchants to connect with users of one of the fastest-growing social video platforms. We have enabled an in-app shopping experience that gives seamless opportunity to both merchants as well as users of TikTok. This is for the first time when product discovery is has been enabled on TikTok,” Finkelstein said. Shopify merchants who are interested in joining the pilot can easily place a request on the TikTok channel of the e-commerce company.
The development has created a lot of interest among several high-profile TikTokers. There are many who are eager to join the new service with Kylie Jenner. The American model and businesswoman said that she would among the first to use the feature to sell her Kylie Cosmetics brand through the video-sharing network. “The proposition has immediately generated interest, at least among high-profile TikTokers like Kylie Jenner, who revealed that Kylie Cosmetics will be among the first to directly sell through the video-sharing network. “I have built my business on social media platforms.
This is the place where my fans visit first to find out what’s new from Kylie Cosmetics,” Jenner was quoted as saying. The founder of cosmetic company Kylie Cosmetics said that she enjoys making TikTok videos and loves sharing posts of fans using her products. “I am very excited to use the new service offered by TikTok and Shopify. It would be interesting to be one of the first to let customers shop my products directly from the social video app,” she said. It must be noted that TikTok has more than 1 billion monthly active users and around 2 billion downloads.
Carolyn is a technology graduate and loves to write about anything related to technology as well as writes in others sectors. Carolyn is a professional writer with over 7 years of experience. Initially starting off as a programmer, Carolyn decided to combine her knowledge about technology and writing and that’s how she joined Reporter Expert.