Amazon showed us how a digital platform could outsell most of the bricks-and-mortar world. We will determine if TikTok, a short-form video hosting service, can do the same. Here is how a New York Times article, “TikTok Popularizes Products. Can It Sell Them, Too?“ describes the launch of the new selling platform:
“TikTok this week is rolling out TikTok Shop for all users in the United States. The company will expand the rollout of a Shop button on the app’s home screen, which sends people to a marketplace, and drive traffic to videos that contain Shop buttons for specific products. Both enable users to buy products in a few clicks without leaving the app.”
“TikTok Popularizes Products. Can It Sell Them, Too, Sapna Maheshwari
The article points out that TikTok already has signed up 200,000 sellers and 100,000 creators. Have you signed up? If not, here is a link to the signup page.
I have to confess that I watch TikTok. In fact, I watch TikTok a lot. I find the sheer variety of videos, one coming after another, some good, some execrable, to be endlessly fascinating. Other people do as well.
TikTok is reported to have 150 million U.S. users. For comparison, Amazon has 230 million. Globally, it’s a different story. Amazon has 310 million users, and TikTok has 1.68 billion.
TikTok has invested a lot of money into TikTok Shop, so they have to make it a winner. In short, They need you to win so they can win. That tells me it is an excellent time to sign up.
Richard, there’s a singular issue at hand. While you can successfully complete the sign-up process, listing your products will remain inaccessible until you secure a pre-invitation from TikTok. I’ve been diligently working on this for the past few weeks, and I must admit, it’s been quite a frustrating journey.
Can you tell us more about your experience with the process?