Read a 9-page document TikTok is using to court creators and sellers for its Shop program, as it eye

July 2024 · 10 minute read
2023-08-01T12:56:12Z

TikTok wants everyone to hop onto the "shoppertainment" train.

"Shoppertainment" — a portmanteau of "shopping" and "entertainment" — is the future of commerce, the platform argued during an online summit it hosted in mid-June. Entertaining content is what drives customers to purchase. TikTok referenced the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, which had almost 64 billion views as of July 28.

Through TikTok Shop, the platform has introduced a way for brands to sell products and for users to buy them directly on the app, without going to third-party websites.

During the summit, called "Discover, Sell, Grow," key TikTok execs, execs from brands, creators, and business owners discussed how to get started on Shop, how to use ads on TikTok, and best practices on what type of content sells best.

"Our community bring their creativity every day to produce content on our platform that is playful and fun, and all underpinned by entertainment," said Kris Boger, the UK general manager for global business solutions. "We like to sometimes think of it as the last sunny corner of the internet. People become excited, they become curious, and they become open to transact."

TikTok leadership has big plans for shopping. The company aims to gross $20 billion in merchandise sales this year, more than four times the 2022 sales figures, Bloomberg reported. That would largely rely on the rapid growth of Shop in Southeast Asia, where it was introduced in 2021.

In Western markets, the rollout has been bumpy. In the UK, where Shop was also launched in 2021, the company faced backlash and an exodus of employees for its "aggressive corporate ethos," and scratched plans for further expansion of Shop in Europe after a tepid reaction from consumers, the FT reported. 

This year, the platform appears determined to make Shop work in the West. It launched in the US in November, and has attempted to woo sellers with discounts and subsidized shipping. Creators, meanwhile, are being offered cash bonuses, freebies, and other perks for promoting TikTok Shop products.

In the UK, TikTok continues to aggressively pursue sellers, and offering "solutions designed with complex businesses in mind," Patrick Nommensen, UK e-commerce general manager, told Insider in June. The "Discover, Sell, Grow" summit was part of this effort.

TikTok is also planning to move deeper into the e-commerce stack by storing and selling made-in-China goods in the US, in a program similar to Amazon's "Sold by Amazon" initiative, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. TikTok has already experimented in this direction with "Trendy Beat," an Amazon-like feed selling mostly whitelabeled Chinese products currently available in the UK.

Here's the 9-page document TikTok shared after the summit in mid-June:

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The first page presents the summit and what it was about: "Discover, sell, grow."

TikTok

The second page introduces TikTok Shop and includes some stats about e-commerce and user shopping habits on the platform.

TikTok

The slide reads: 

Chapter 1
Introducing TikTok Shop

In 2020, e-commerce accounted for $4 trillion in worldwide sales, a figure set to double by 2026. (1)

Social commerce is a fast-growing subset of e-commerce where shoppers can buy within social platforms, going from discovery, to purchase, to shipping and payment, all inside the app. This is a huge opportunity for UK Sellers.

TikTok Shop offers a more personal way to shop by enabling Sellers and creators to showcase and sell products for the TikTok community to discover and purchase directly through a complete in-app experience. (2).

We call it 'Shoppertainment'. But you'll know it better as #Tiktokmademebuyit, the hashtag phenomenon that's already clocked up over 60 billion views (3).

4/5 people are likely to buy on social media if they have watched participated in conversational commerce or a LIVE (4).

#skyhighmascara has had over 767 million video views (5).

LIVEs alone account for up to 20% of global e-comm sales (6).

sources: (1) eMarketer, E-Commerce Strategy (2) Enterprise Nation 2023 (3) Euromonitor, 2022 (4) Essence, Social Commerce Report, Nov 2021

On TikTok Shop, Creators power #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. With their entertaining, authentic and relatable content, Creators are the foundation for forging trust and credibility within TikTok communities.

68% TikTok users agree Creators are approachable

3 in 4 TikTok users find Creator content to be believable

71% TikTok users said Creator authenticity motivated them to buy a product

Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Creators Like Me Study, 2021, conducted by Hotspex.

The deck then explains how merchants can get started selling on TikTok Shop.

TikTok

The slide reads:

Chapter 2
Get started with TikTok Shop

You can sell in three different ways:

LIVE format allows customers, Sellers and Creators to connect in real time. Products are linked to your LIVEs for users to seamlessly shop within the app.

Shoppable Videos come up in-feed on the user's For You Page (FYP) and look like
the short, digestible videos we're all used to seeing, but with an orange shopping cart that links to your shop's products.

Product Showcases allow users to browse and shop a brand or Creator's portfolio, including hero products and sale items.

You can set up on TikTok Shop as a Seller, Creator or Partner.

Set up as a Seller

  • Sign up as a merchant in our TikTok Seller Center
  • Upload mandatory documents
  • Wait to receive your approval notification
  • Get ready to sell on TikTok Shop!

    • You'll be able to manage your shop, inventory, orders, promotions, creator collaborations, and customer service, all in the Seller Center App.

    The following page shows other options to show up on TikTok Shop: as a creator or a partner.

    TikTok

    The slide reads:

    Set up as a Creator

    Creators monetize their content, creativity and influence by collaborating with merchants. Creators support merchants through campaigns, events and collabs. Find out more here.

    Set up as a Partner

    Creator Agency Partners work as inter- mediaries, putting the right brands and Creators together. You can set up either as a Creator Agency Partner (CAP) or a TikTok Shop Partner (TSP).

    Creator Agency Partners (CAPs)

    Creator Agency Partners work as intermediaries, putting the right brands and Creators together. You can set up either as a Creator Agency Partner (CAP) or a TikTok Shop Partner (TSP).

    Creator Agency Partners are creator & merchant collaboration experts who service all your creator needs on TikTok Shop. They cover:

    For more information, email uk-creatoragencypartners@tiktok.com to discuss working with us.

    TikTok Shop Partners (TSPs)

    TikTok Shop Partners are social commerce experts that support TikTok Shop Merchants. They cover:

    Visit the TikTok Shop Partner registration page to find out more.

    60bn video views on #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt (1) 

    2 out of 3 users are likely to buy something while using TikTok (2)

    47% of TikTok users say they bought something they saw on TikTok (3)

    Sources: (1) TikTok internal data, Global, November 2022 (2)TikTok Marketing Science Global Entertainment Study 2021 conducted by Material (3) McKinsey, How Live Commerce is Transforming the Shopping Experience, July 2021

    The deck also delves into how to leverage affiliate marketing to sell on TikTok Shop, and provides a case study from a fashion brand.

    TikTok

    The slide reads:

    Chapter 3
    Affiliate Marketing: Working with Creators

    With affiliate marketing, Creators can promote your products and earn a commission. Leveraging the creativity and passion of Creators is a great way to expand your reach and tap into new audiences. You can also track the individual performance of each creator to identify which content resonates best with your brand.

    Getting started with Affiliate Marketing

    Set up through the "Affiliate Center" and click the "Affiliate Marketing" tab.

    Choose your plan type, add your products, invite Creators, set your commission rate... and publish. Simple. You can then invite your favourite Creators to work together on a custom deal. TikTok Shop Affiliate, offers full control over which products you want creators to promote, and who can promote your products.

    Rebellious
    Fashion affiliate marketing case study
    3 month results showed a
    400% Product sales increase
    x45 Revenue increase
    80% Share of Affiliate Sales

    The next page describes how ads work on TikTok.

    TikTok

    The slide reads:

    Chapter 4
    TikTok Shop & Shop Ads: Better together

    TikTok Shop Ads can amplify awareness, discovery and conversion.

    Running Shop Ads alongside your organic TikTok Shop activity lowers drop-off rates and increases sales. You can customise Tik- Tok Shop Ads to re-engage users, based on their previous interactions with your shop. Additional promotional tools include free shipping, flash sales and percentage-off discounts, as well as platform-wide promotions funded by TikTok.

    TikTok Shop offers two advertising formats: Video Shopping Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads

    Video Shopping Ads

    These enable you to sell better using short form video with dynamically overlaid product cards aligned to products that they've previously browsed, or even those they've browsed elsewhere.

    Live Shopping Ads

    Live Shopping Ads drive incremental users to your LIVE Shopping experience, amplifying your audience and sales.

    With Shop Ads you can...

  • reach brand new audiences or re-engage with interested browsers.
  • encourage existing customers to buy into other product lines or increase their basket size.
  • reach new audiences with lookalike targeting, finding new users similar to your existing customer profile.

    • Your ideal strategy is to combine branding, performance and sales to magnify your business success.

    In just one month, P.Louise Makeup drove 10,000 completed payments with 20.8x return on Ad Spend.
    >50% Decrease in Cost per acquisition 
    +10k Completed payments
    >20.8 Return on Ads spend

    Then, the deck provides some best practices to create content to sell products on TikTok.

    TikTok

    The slide reads:

    Chapter 5
    Making content that sells

    Here are our top tips to inspire and motivate you to create engaging and authentic content

    5 Keys to a Successful Livestream

  • Be yourself and know your products
  • Post teaser videos ahead of your LIVE. Bonus tip: Countdown stickers build momentum and FOMO
  • Use natural lighting or a ring light and an uncluttered background.
  • Encourage your audience to comment, like and share your LIVE
  • Emphasise your CTA and offers. Bonus tip: Get to know your audience by testing out peak times over the week

    • 5 Tips for a Successful Shoppable Short Video

  • Paint a picture that tells your story about the product.
  • Keep nudging viewers to buy.
  • Create a sense of urgency with sale/promo start and end times.
  • Use lighting, hashtags and snappy captions
  • Audience interaction builds relationships and shows you care. Bonus tip: The first three seconds of your video are crucial to grab viewers' attention and keep it.

    • How to attract more viewers

    For your LIVEs to be recommended on more viewer FYPs, here are five key tips to success:

  • Avoid guideline violations
  • Encourage product clicks and purchases
  • Be clear about the purpose of each LIVE
  • Stay on top of your interactions
  • Keep your account metrics in shape

    • The next page summarizes what to do for merchants who are new to TikTok Shop.

    TikTok

    The slide reads:

    Chapter 6
    Summary

    Next steps if you're new to TikTok Shop

    Whether you're a Seller, a Creator or you'd like to explore becoming a Creator Agency Partner or TikTok Shop Partner, now is the time to join TikTok Shop and reap the rewards of joining the Shoppertainment phenomenon while you're ahead of the curve.

    So get involved today! Dive deeper now with these quick links:

    01 Sign up as a Seller: Register here

    Getting started
    Seller FAQs
    Seller academy
    Seller centre

    02 Sign up as a TikTok Shop Partner (TSP)

    FAQs
    Academy Course Introduction

    03 Sign up as a Creator Agency Partner (CAP)

    FAQs
    Academy Course Introduction

    04 Register to watch on-demand content and stay up to date on all the latest news @SellwithTikTokShop_UK

    05 Discover selling, Discover shoppertainment, Discover TikTok Shop UK.

    The last page is a "thank you" page with the TikTok Shop logo.

    TikTok

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