Two reports in recent days show how social media app TikTok is working to capitalize on users’ propensity to shop products featured in its short-form videos. TechCrunch said TikTok confirmed a report in the Financial Times that it is testing a new shopping section in the UK called “Trendy Beat” “where it is offering products for sale that are shipped and sold by a subsidiary of its parent company, ByteDance.”
TechCrunch indicated that in the US, TikTok was focused on adding new merchants to “TikTok Shop,” which lets brands sell items on the platform.
The Information reported the following day that in the US, TikTok was building out a fulfillment service comprised of third-party logistics companies and said it was testing the service with US sellers.
“Its approach contrasts with those of competitors like Amazon, which has spent tens of billions building its own logistics network over more than two decades,” according to the Information’s article, which is behind a paywall.
TikTok hired a former Amazon and Alibaba executive to lead US logistics efforts, according to a tweet from the Information’s Ann Gehan who, with Theo Wayt, broke the news.
“TikTok eventually plans to sell its own Amazon Basics-like products through TikTok Shop to U.S. users,” Gehan noted.
Meanwhile Wayt tweeted, “It’ll be interesting to see if TikTok’s push into fulfillment works out better than it did for Shopify, another successful software firm that tried to move physical goods in the real world. Shopify gave up after spending 4 years and billions of dollars.”
