TikTok explores selling groceries in the US

TikTok Shop U.S. is exploring ways to help more brands sell their products and services directly through the app, including possible partnerships with retailers to deliver perishable items such as groceries. Mike Westgate, head of home, living and retail for TikTok Shop U.S., said that the popular social-sharing app was looking at ways to “forge partnerships with retailers to do deliveries to support perishable products” during the Q&A portion of his presentation at Horizon Media’s Night Market eCommFronts yesterday. The talk was focused specifically on how brands can take advantage of the in-app shopping platform TikTok Shop, which was rolled out to all U.S. users in September. Read more: What to know about TikTok Shop U.S. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Westgate said the platform is also looking at how to expand TikTok Shop to allow users to find and buy digital products such as professional services based on related videos they’re watching directly within the app. “We are aggressively exploring how to bring that to life,” Westgate said in response to a question posed by an audience member about how TikTok is thinking about making professional services more shoppable. “We need to figure out digital products.” Westgate’s comments come as brands increasingly look to test social shopping, but, so far, TikTok Shop is mostly for companies that have a direct-to-consumer business and can ship physical products. TikTok piloted its in-app shopping features—which allows brands to tag products within in-feed videos and livestreams that users can click on and purchase within the app—with marketers including PacSun and Revolve before rolling it out broadly in September. When TikTok Shop launched in the U.S., it came out with a list of restricted products. Certain food and beverages including perishables are listed under “invite only." "Sellers must ensure that all food sold on TikTok Shop has proper packaging and a reasonable remaining shelf life. Perishable products should also have details of the expiration dates indicated visibly in the product description,” TikTok’s website reads. It seems that TikTok may be looking to expand access to brands that are currently in the restricted or “invite only” categories for its in-app shopping feature. Exactly what such programs would look like is not clear. A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment but someone close to the business said nothing “concrete” related to these programs is in immediate development. “We do have fulfillment capabilities for those that don’t have DTC [businesses],” Westgate said at the event. Last year, TikTok started hiring to fill positions in global fulfillment centers it is building out in a seeming attempt to further rival e-commerce giant Amazon. TikTok takes care of logistics including picking, packing, shipping, warehousing, inventory management, customer service and processes returns—“taking care of the entire fulfillment process end-to-end,” its website reads—but those capabilities are currently not fast enough to deliver perishables. A service that would deliver groceries seems similar to Amazon Fresh. TikTok first experimented with selling groceries on its platform as part of an initiative it launched in the U.K. in August 2022. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Meanwhile, live shopping continues to be a big push for TikTok as holiday campaigns ramp up. Westgate said TikTok has been expanding Pulse Premier—which allows advertisers to place their ads directly after content from premium publishers’ content on TikTok’s For You feed—to also allow live shopping collaborations between brands and publishers that can work particularly well for the holidays. He said publishers can host “DIY” shows for brands in which they might partner with a creator to livestream a product demo or gift guide. “Align that with your promotional launch calendar,” he advised. “It’s a good opportunity to leverage creators … I wouldn’t wait. We are throwing a lot of weight behind Black Friday, Cyber Monday." TikTok recently launched its 2023 holiday marketing playbook that included best practices, research insights and inspiration for brands as the app looks to attract more of those ad dollars. Among the highlights, the playbook noted that 15% of all product discoveries begin on TikTok, nodding to the viral #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon; one in two TikTok users use the app’s For You Pages to discover holiday and shopping events content; and 65% of users “agree that when shopping online, they always rely on online reviews and creator recommendations to decide what to buy.”

TikTok explores selling groceries in the US

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