Last week, beauty brand P.Louise broke the UK record for the most revenue generated on TikTok Shop by a brand, as it made £1.5m in just 12 hours.
The makeup brand is not alone in turning to the social network to sell products.
Retailers including Asos, Zara, THG’s LookFantastic and even WHSmith have signed up to TikTok Shop – a shopping function that allows users to purchase directly through the popular app.
Asos launched on TikTok Shop in March as part of its efforts to reconnect with its twentysomething shoppers and boost sales.
The etailer’s head of sportswear Tim Williams says the platform is “where most of our customers are and [being on TikTok Shop] allows us to access them in a way which is really exciting”.
Asos initially launched 85 products from its Asos Design collection on the platform and had selected influencers to promote the products through shoppable short videos. The move not only boosted sales, but 57% of transactions came from new customers.
Williams explains the retailer has a “burgeoning relationship [with TikTok] so we’re doing some key drops”.
He concludes that Asos wants to be where its customer is and “clearly the customer is there for an increasing amount of time and I see that time is set to continue”.
Rival Zara is also taking note of its customers spending time on TikTok as it prepares to launch live shopping on the platform over the coming months.
Owner Inditex revealed was investing in new ways to engage shoppers and was bringing the initiative to the UK, rest of Europe and the US following a successful trial in China, which had a positive impact on sales in the region.
The retailer softly launched its store on TikTok Shop back in November and is currently ranked as a top brand on the platform with more than 7.3k items sold.
It is a big expansion priority for retailers of all sizes, with almost one third (29%) of small retailers saying they would like to launch their presence on TikTok this year, closing the gap with large retailers who are 3 times more likely to already be on the platform, according to research from American Express.
From book bundles to £5,000 handbags
It’s no surprise that TikTok Shop is filled with an equally eclectic mix of products as it has users and content.
“It goes without saying that, if you are a brand in the Gen Z space, being on TikTok Shop is a must,” says TikTok Shop UK marketing director Nora Zukauskaite.
“However, we have also launched several campaigns to help diversify our audience even further and, currently, the fastest-growing age demographics on the platform are the older segments,” she notes.
But what are they buying?
The platform’s largest community – BookTok – has “upended a lot of how books are published and sold”, WHSmith buyer John Webb previously told Retail Gazette, commenting on the retailer’s decision to start a selling a small collection of books on the platform.
Beauty is also one of the most successful categories, with a beauty product sold every two seconds on TikTok. The platform ranks behind just Amazon, Boots and LookFantastic as the UK’s fourth biggest beauty retailer, according to data by Nielsen IQ.
The firm’s vice-president of global beauty Clare Marty notes that TikTok shoppers also tend to spend more money at the end of the year on the platform than the average online shopper, and “a lot of the money is actually coming from older generation”.
While some retailers have been quick to meet their customers on the app – some are a bit more cautious about what it entails.
Superdrug ecommerce, customer, and marketing director Matt Walburn says the retailer has played around with selling on TikTok.
“We’ve had some really good results on it, particularly in terms of TikTok Live,” he says, referring to the app’s live streaming feature.
He adds that the products it has showcased have generated “a lot of orders”.
“Now we’re at the stage where we think we’ve learned what we need to know,” says Walburn.
“We know [social commerce] is something that will take hold eventually in the UK and in Europe. We know Superdrug will be well placed to play in social commerce. We just want to get the timing right and make sure we do it in the right way.”
However, it’s not just major retailers jumping on TikTok Shop. Smaller brands have also been able to bolster their sales on the platform.
Made By Mitchell, which launched in Boots last month, became the first retailer to surpass $1m (£842,307) in sales in one day.
Founder Mitchell Halliday says: “TikTok Shop has significantly expanded our reach, allowing us to connect with a much wider audience compared to other platforms.
“The seamless transition between content viewing and purchasing has helped boost our sales considerably.”
Similarly, luxury reseller Luxe Collective is also reaping the benefits after it launched on the platform’s shop in April.
Founder and CEO Ben Gallagher says the company is on target to hit £11m in sales this year and estimates that around 20% to 30% would have come through TikTok.
Gallagher admits that he was sceptical of listing Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton bags on an app that also sold dresses for 99p.
“I thought it would be more like a discount and an outlet type of thing that people wouldn’t be buying full price stuff on there,” he says.
“Don’t get me wrong, we have to discount it a little bit,” Gallagher notes, estimating the company is reducing its prices on the platform by an average of 5% compared to those on its ecommerce.
“We have to gamify it a little bit to get people watching and get views, but people are buying full price items on there. We’re selling stuff for thousands and thousands of pounds every single night, which is wild,” he adds.
The TikTok effect
TikTok Shop is certainly turning out to be a lucrative business and Luxe Collective’s Gallagher admits the business has had to “pivot massively due to the opportunity”.
In fact, its plan to open more physical retail spaces has dropped down its priority list as a result of its TikTok success.
NIQ’s Marty explains the app’s “strong algorithms” and shopping feature, which can be seamlessly integrated into video content, can drive people’s impulse purchases.
“My colleague didn’t really want to purchase on TikTok Shop – she just didn’t care, and one day she was like ‘the shop found me’. She was just scrolling and looking at stuff and ended up purchasing and spending way more than she would have usually,” Marty says.
Gallagher believes the platform’s shopping feature is much easier to navigate for both seller and customer than that of Instagram, which launched in 2020 but was removed from user’s homepages a year later.
“To be blunt, it’s just a joke compared to TikTok. What TikTok has created is just unbelievable and Instagram isn’t anything on it,” says Gallagher.
“We probably get zero sales from Instagram Shop, maybe one a month, and we get hundreds a month from TikTok,” he shares.
Even with social commerce becoming an increasingly important avenue for the business, it still only represents a fraction of total sales. However, that could soon change.
“We see social commerce as the future of fashion ecommerce,” says Boohoo senior influencer and PR manager Stephanie Riddell.
“It allows us to connect more deeply with our audience and leverage the authenticity and reach of our influencers to drive sales. This personalised approach is already showing significant promise in terms of increasing the value of social traffic to our site and creating more engaging customer journeys.
Riddell explains that social commerce is a “crucial element” of the retailer’s growth strategy and that “it will continue to have a substantial impact on our future sales by blending social engagement with seamless shopping experiences”.
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