TikTok Shop UK had opened its first-ever pop-up store on London’s Oxford Street to showcase the wide range of brands and creators selling products on the platform. The pop-up, which ran from June 30th to July 6th, focused on a number of items from its most popular categories in tech, home & living, and book categories and was accessible only to existing and potential merchants and creators.
During the event, TikTok merchants and creators hosted live streams, capitalising on the fact that studies have shown that 50% of TikTok users make purchases after watching a TikTok Live.
TikTok users are apparently 1.7 times more likely to watch branded live streams to buy products compared to non-users.
TikTok has become a hub for “community commerce,” a unique blend of community, entertainment, and shopping. Hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt have garnered over 60 billion views, making TikTok a popular platform for discovering trending products across various categories such as beauty, fashion, food, and technology.
TikTok Shop plays a significant role in the platform’s commerce offerings, allowing brands and merchants of all sizes to showcase and sell their products directly to the TikTok community without leaving the app. The pop-up shop aimed to educate merchants and creators about the power of social selling and how they can tap into online communities and trends like #BookTok and #TechTok.
The event featured a range of brands and creators in the home & living, electronics, and book categories. Notable participants included kitchen appliances brand Sage Studios (@Sage), hair tech brand Cloud Nine (@cloudninehair), drone business DJI (@DJI_uk), and publisher Harper Collins (@harpercollinsuk).
The pop-up also featured live streams from creators such as Luke ‘@Lopwert’ Cameron (@lopwert) and food creator Lagom Chef (@lagomchef).
Why does this matter?
TikTok has been rapidly expanding its eCommerce capabilities within the platform and this new move, to experiment with a physical ‘store’ indicates its serious commitment to shifting into retail.
Given recent declining ad revenues – TikTok is shifting its focus on securing revenue with a target of $20 billion in e-commerce sales
Patrick Nommensen, TikTok’s General Manager of eCommerce, emphasised the growing commercial opportunities created by TikTok’s community. “TikTok’s community has created a brand new era of social commerce opportunities, where a single piece of content can quickly go viral and create both demand and opportunity. We’ve seen merchants and creators transform their businesses and their lives in a way that would be impossible on any other platform.”
Nommensen highlighted how businesses have transformed and flourished on TikTok in ways that would be challenging on other platforms.
Through the pop-up store on Oxford Street, TikTok has aimed to highlight the potential for merchants and creators to thrive by being discovered on the platform. Users can already discover and purchase a wide range of products, including coffee machines, drones, and bestselling books, all within the TikTok app – This clearly marks just the beginning for the highly successful platform.
Author spike.digital