TikTok, which saw a three-fold increase in Black Friday app sales last year is focusing on in-stream purchases this year in an effort to spark interest and encourage more users to search for products or use the app.
This is TikTok’s largest potential revenue source, as evidenced by the huge sales figures that the Chinese app generates. TikTok has also been trying to get Western users interested in the shopping options it offers, but so far, there’s not been much of a response.
TikTok is taking advantage of the sales season to show off its commerce features.
TikTok has announced that its Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping Event will be its largest holiday promotion to date. The event is scheduled for November 12th through December 1st.
As per TikTok:
” TikTok Shop is a place where holiday shopping can be easy, fun, and inspiring. People get inspired by shoppable videos and live streams, as well as authentic suggestions from creators and brands. TikTok Shop is a great platform for brands of any size, as it connects users in an authentic and natural way.
TikTok is offering exclusive deals from big brands like GAP, JBL Philips Samsung and others to increase interest in TikTok Shopping this year.
Also, Meta will also be using the app to promote its Meta Quest virtual reality units as well as their AI smart glasses.
It makes sense. Meta is trying to sell more products, and TikTok has become one of the top apps on the planet. It’s strange that Meta is included in TikTok’s sale event, given the competition.
TikTok is also running a promotion exclusively with Grammy Award winning artist John Legend , Legend takes part in an online shopping stream with his Loveddeg1 personal care line.
” John, along with a few guests, will share LIVE their favorite holiday picks, tips for self-care, and special deals. TikTok’s users can shop Loveddeg1 in time for Christmas.”
TikTok also sells TikTok Shop Gift Cards as an alternative Christmas present. It also offers returns on all eligible purchases until the 10th of February, and has over 55k convenient drop-off locations.
TikTok is doing everything it can to show off its potential for shopping and attract more customers. With the interest steadily increasing, I imagine that more and more people will shop in this app.
TikTok’s challenge is to increase its scale and boost the number of people who use it for shopping. TikTok appears to believe that all it has to do is get past the threshold of acceptance, then once it gets enough users to enjoy a positive shopping experience, it will gain the momentum needed to encourage mass adoption.
However, I am not sure.
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has seen a massive increase in revenue from its Chinese sister app, Douyin.
Western users are less likely to combine all their online activities into one app. They prefer to separate their social media, entertainment and eCommerce activity on trusted platforms like Amazon.
In Asia, “mega-apps” are the dominant players in this space. They combine multiple functions on a single app.
It’s true that this is more efficient. However, it seems like Western consumers have a general distrust for social media services and are concerned about data sharing.
Is it possible to overcome this? It’s not possible, as every social application has attempted to incorporate commerce at one point or another, but all failed. Pinterest comes closest to this, but has had to give up its social media features to become a serious product discovery tool.
Western consumers seem to favor this separation for various reasons. TikTok will not be able, in my opinion, to make a significant impact on this.
It’s still an impressive amount even though it doesn’t reach the hundreds of millions that Douyin does.
Even at a smaller scale there is still a lot of opportunity. The question, however, will be whether it’s enough to satisfy TikTok’s Chinese owners who are frustrated at their inability to expand the eCommerce part of the company.
TikTok also revealed some of the rising trends for products in its app.
- Cozy wear saw an increase of 407% in searches in September. Searches for #Christmaspajamas and “matching pajamas”, also spiked.
- Last holiday season “games”, one of TikTok’s most popular seasonal themes, was searched for over 2,000,000 times.
- From November 2024 to December 2024, the baking content increased by 29% per month.
- K-Beauty’s growth has increased by 132% in the last year.
- Western style and #WesternStyle are both up by 17% in searches month over month. #WesternFashion is up by 15% and #CowboyBoots, 28%.
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