It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform.
Major retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Samsung, QVC, Clarks, and Sainsbury’s are now selling their wares on the site’s e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, alongside more than 200,000 UK small and medium businesses.
Launched in Britain in 2021, TikTok Shop recorded its biggest sales day in the UK on Black Friday, with 27 items sold every second. Across the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, sales were up by 50% on last year.
The service works by letting brands sell directly inside TikTok through videos and livestreams with embedded links to items for sale, as well as through a separate shop tab on their profiles.
A brand can post its own content and link to products itself, or allow influencers to promote them using affiliate links. Checkout happens without having to leave the app, and money is split after a sale between TikTok, the seller and any creator who helped drive it.
Sainsbury’s, one of the first major supermarkets to launch on the platform, has found success with its Tu Christmas pyjamas. A sponsored collaboration with the influencer Rachel Spicer generated 6.6m views, with the pyjamas selling out in under a week.
M&S has also enjoyed strong results from TikTok Shop livestreams with links to featured items, with one recent feed attracting 260,000 viewers and generating sales of about one item every 30 seconds.
Small businesses are using it to try to increase their reach, especially now that AI is making it more tricky to show up in search results. The Fat Butcher, an online meat delivery service based in Newcastle, is selling fresh turkeys on the platform for the first time this year.
According to Danielle Dullaghan, the social strategy director at the global marketing agency Iris, “beauty brands in particular are seeing strong commercial returns”.
She says part of TikTok Shop’s success is the fact “it plays directly into impulse buying behaviour”.
The London-based jewellery brand L’ERA, run by Lara Mar and her daughters Talia Mar and Angele Sofia, will generate about £145,000 in revenue through TikTok this year.
“It has almost doubled year on year, and many of our online customers originally discovered us via TikTok,” Mar says.
The brand relies heavily on live shopping, typically running three three-hour live streams a week, increasing to six during the Black Friday and Christmas periods.
TikTok shoppers have shown a willingness to spend, with L’ERA’s largest single order via the platform exceeding £1,400.
The business and social media consultant Jules Brim says: “TikTok Shop has exploded and for some small brands it’s been a gamechanger in terms of reach and sales. But what we don’t talk about enough is the cost. It can create a race to the bottom on pricing, put pressure on small businesses to produce constant content, and shift the focus from brand building to chasing trends.”
