How Coca-Cola, e.l.f and Benefit are using TikTok Shop to drive sales

Even as a potential TikTok ban in the U.S. looms, brands are doubling down on its e-commerce platform TikTok Shop. Since its launch about seven months ago, brands including Coca-Cola, e.l.f. Beauty and Benefit Cosmetics have increasingly honed in on TikTok Shop's growing power to drive sales directly within the platform with the help of TikTok-exclusive product launches, affiliate creators and new sales events hosted by the platform. While Benefit, Coca-Cola, PacSun and e.l.f., declined to comment on whether they’re planning to make any changes to their social shopping strategies in the face of the TikTok ban, they all acknowledged the power of the platform in driving sales and using it to launch new products. And these brands aren’t alone—TikTok reported last week that more than 500,000 merchants were selling to U.S. consumers on its app at the end of 2023, double the number of merchants from just three months earlier. “When you’re launching a product on TikTok Shop, it’s not only a sales channel, but it’s the fantastic marketing that goes along with it, as well,” said Toto Haba, senior VP of global omni marketing at Benefit Cosmetics. “TikTok is already where women are discovering beauty [products], and even if those videos don't convert, they’re generating so much awareness for us. So, [TikTok Shop] is kind of doing double duty for us.” More news: Unilever stands by TikTok, which boosts its brands Benefit has been leveraging TikTok Shop for over a year (first in the U.K., then in the U.S. after its beta launch), largely to generate buzz around new product launches or brand collaborations, Haba said. Last summer, Benefit released its Fan Fest mascara exclusively on TikTok Shop for the first 48 hours after its launch, and hosted a 24-hour, shoppable TikTok Live to show off the new product, he said. @sandijarquin New from @Benefit Cosmetics Fan Fest mascara 🖤🩷 what are your thoughts? ✨ •••• #fanfestmascara #benefitcosmetics #fanfest #mascarareview ♬ original sound - sandijarquin “Throughout the year, we’ve experimented with different product launch strategies, and I think what we’ve kind of landed on is you definitely need a little bit of urgency—a reason to shop on TikTok as opposed to other retailers,” he added. “So, this kind of early access exclusive [release] is working really well for us.” And last month, Benefit turned to creators to help promote its product collaboration with Scrub Daddy—which, like the Fan Fest mascara, was initially exclusive to TikTok Shop, Haba said. Benefit seeded some of the Scrub Daddy skincare sets among creators to unbox on camera, paid a handful of creators to make sponsored videos promoting the limited-edition collection and turned the set over to TikTok Shop affiliate creators—those who can include links to TikTok Shop products within their videos and earn commissions on any sales those links drive, he said. @vanesamaro91 Yall im betond excited 😆 @Scrub Daddy and @BenefitCosmeticsCL ♬ original sound - Vanesa Amaro ♥️ That combination of creator partnerships led the Scrub Daddy collaboration to sell out in less than a week, with many of those sales coming in the first 48 hours after launch, according to a Benefit spokesperson. Coca-Cola’s Happy Tears In February, Coca-Cola saw its TikTok-Shop exclusive “Happy Tears” soda sell out even faster—within just a few hours in the U.S. and roughly 24 hours in the U.K., said Oana Vlad, Coca-Cola’s senior director for global strategy. Like Benefit, Coca-Cola tapped a slew of TikTok creators to promote the limited-edition flavor from its “Coca-Cola Creations” product line, she said. Some leaned into the broader theme of positivity surrounding the Happy Tears products and filmed themselves completing random acts of kindness, while others directly discussed the soda in unboxing videos that showed off the flavor and associated merch such as a tiny pack of tissues. Vlad said. Coca-Cola was already using the Chinese version of TikTok Shop to create exclusive Creations experiences, Vlad said, and “seeing the positive results there was how we decided to launch Happy Tears that way, too.” @1zzies @Coca-Cola #ad Spreading some kindness in honor of #RandomActsOfKindnessDay !🥰 #CokePartner #CocaColaCreations #HappyTears #Kindness #wholesome #randomactofkindness ♬ original sound - * ₊˚✧ Isabella! ✧˚₊ * Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs U.S. adoption—and backlash The U.S. version of TikTok Shop might be much newer than its Chinese counterpart, but American consumers are increasingly turning to TikTok’s e-commerce platform for social shopping. As of last month, more than 11% of U.S. households had purchased a product through TikTok Shop since its launch in September, according to a report from Earnest Analytics. And the majority of those shoppers are repeat customers, with 81% of TikTok Shop sales coming from existing customers in February compared with just 64% in November, per the report. TikTok Shop is also steamrolling its rival social commerce platforms, according to Earnest Analytics. As of February, TikTok Shop had a 68% market share in the social shopping industry, while competitors such as Instagram Checkout, Facebook Shop and Flip collectively accounted for less than 1% of the market. A number of TikTok users have a less rosy view of the platform’s transformation into a shopping destination, though. A plethora of TikTokers have bashed the pervasiveness of videos from TikTok Shop affiliate creators hawking cheaply-made or unnecessary products or proclaimed those creators’ videos pushing viewers to TikTok Shop are “ruining” the social platform. @kendalcupcake_ Pls give me a break tik tok i cant take it 😭 ♬ original sound - Kendal ❤️ The backlash against TikTok Shop hasn’t hampered the platform’s power to drive sales—as e.l.f. Beauty saw firsthand last month when it partnered with TikTok on the platform’s first “Super Brand Day” sales event in the U.S. Through “Super Brand Day” campaigns, brands can “feature prominently across TikTok Shop” and offer special promotions on certain products, according to a TikTok spokesperson. Test and learn For e.l.f., that product was its new Power Grip setting spray—a product the brand was planning to launch anyway, but “decided to launch during Super Brand Day to quite honestly test and learn and see what it would look like if we brought together our TikTok Shop, an exclusive product, a limited timeframe and an original music track,” said Kory Marchisotto, chief marketing officer at e.l.f. “And so far, we’re quite thrilled with the results.” @mirandaalol @e.l.f. Cosmetics ATEEEE with their new power grip dewy setting spray WAITTTT #elfpartner #elfcosmetics #shakespraystay #powergripdewysettingspray #superbrandday ♬ Shake, Spray, Stay (feat. X. ARI) - e.l.f. Cosmetics Like Benefit and Coca-Cola, e.l.f. initially confined its setting spray to TikTok Shop, she said. The brand teamed up with creative agency Movers+Shakers to advertise the new product through a “four-day, 360-degree campaign” on TikTok, she said. That TikTok Shop push ranged from videos on e.l.f.’s channel featuring a new original song, “Shake, Spray, Stay,” to creators peddling the setting spray in their own videos or shoppable livestreams on TikTok, Marchisotto said. “We’re seeing TikTok Shop just explode right now—it’s so popular,” said Evan Horowitz, co-founder and CEO of Movers+Shakers. “Our clients are driving real dollars from it now, and it combines the best of TikTok virality and the ability to just tell your story in really engaging ways with that immediacy of just a couple clicks and all of a sudden it’s on its way to you.” E.l.f. also unveiled a new livestreaming studio as part of its setting spray campaign and held daily TikTok Live streams throughout the Super Brand Day campaign to highlight various beauty products and educate viewers about how to use them, Marchisotto said. @elfyeah see our bio for the official live schedule through 4/3 🎬 #elfcosmetics #elfpowercouple #powergripsettingspray #settingspray #eyeslipsface ♬ Relax LoFi Hip Hop style beat(1155463) - Leano “It’s really important that you don’t build [livestreams] to only be about buying,” Marchisotto said. “That’s not what everybody is there for. Some people are there to learn, or they want to spend more time reading reviews or go to a store. But you can just start adding things to your cart during the livestream, so for those who do want to make a purchase, they can easily go from interest to purchase.” E.l.f.’s TikTok Shop around its new setting spray generated nearly 50 million impressions for the brand and drove the Power Grip setting spray to become e.l.f.’s top product “in both units and revenue” during the four-day campaign, Marchisotto said. Live shoppable moments PacSun made livestreams a core part of the recent launch of a swimwear collection created in collaboration with TikTok influencer Anna Sitar, said Tyler MacDonald, associate director of brand at PacSun. On the day the collection launched, Sitar went live on TikTok to highlight several pieces from the swimwear line, which “gave all of our audience an opportunity to purchase the products there in real time,” MacDonald said. Sitar also used the livestream to let viewers know she and her friends and family would be blowing up PacSun’s TikTok and Instagram channels that day with videos from a rooftop pool party—posts that viewers could also shop directly from on TikTok Shop, he said. @pacsun we had the best time celebrating our new @anna x pacsun collection 🫶🌸 head to the link in our bio to check it out 🌞 #pacsun ♬ OK - Flight School & Zai1k “Knowing that Anna has such a strong presence on TikTok, we knew that there would be a lot of opportunity to maximize sales on TikTok Shop,” MacDonald said. “And I feel like, as we move forward, we’ll always be tying our key product initiatives onto TikTok Shop just knowing that that’s how our customer is really discovering products and also shopping right there and then.” Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

How Coca-Cola, e.l.f and Benefit are using TikTok Shop to drive sales

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