You must be aware, as we have been reporting from quite a while, that TikTok was planning to rival the likes of Amazon and Walmart in the US similar to other parts of the world by launching an e-commerce store of its own. For this reason, we saw a report earlier this month regarding the ban on links to other e-commerce stores like Amazon and others on TikTok inside description as well as comments. This was a clear indication that the launch of TikTok’s e-commerce marketplace was very close and now we have an official confirmation regarding the same.
TikTok has announced via a blog post that the launch of TikTok Shop has been done in the US which means that users from the TikTok app can now directly buy products from its Shop instead of going to other e-commerce stores and we are sure that TikTok creators have also been told to link directly to TikTok Shop in order to promote it and there must be a commission structure that might be discussed as well.
The company says that “TikTok’s more than 150 million users in the U.S. will now be able to see videos and live streams with links to purchase items on their feed, as it offers tools to content creators, brands, and merchants to create shoppable content. New features include a shop tab, where businesses can display their products with logistics and payments solutions powered by TikTok.”
Talking about TikTok Shop, it is not as if the e-commerce venture from the company is a new one because such stores are already live in other parts of the world such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom. This means that US becomes next on the list of countries where TikTok has launched its e-commerce store. It is worth noting that TikTok is still banned in India which could have been one of its biggest e-commerce markets in the world because of the average order value which is seen to be on the lower side in Southeast Asian countries. TikTok says it is hoping to bring the app to India once again.
