TikTok: Your Best Social Commerce Choice

Social media moves increasingly comprehensive and allows its users to do marketing their own products. Many companies have used social media on various platforms for marketing and information to know their consumers. Marketing through social media is often related to social commerce, which uses a feature from various platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms.

Social commerce is a combination of the internet and social media and aims to enhance people’s participation in marketing and the sale of different products within online communities (Stephen and Toubia, 2010). Therefore, social commerce motivates customers’ value co-creation (Curty and Zhang, 2013). Product introduction with social commerce through interaction between friends, family, and influencers on social media makes it easier for a brand to be recognized. Now, social media applications that can be used as social commerce with great opportunities, one of which is TikTok.

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In September 2016, ByteDance (Chinese company) launched a short video application called Douyin in China. Just only 1 years, Douyin got 100 million users and became popular. Seeing the potential of this app, ByteDance immediately commits to expanded outside of China with a new name, called TikTok. Based on the DataReportal report, the number of TikTok users worldwide reached 689 million in October 2020. Many users use the TikTok app because they like unique and interesting video features with AR lenses, filters, and stickers. Also, TikTok provides social commerce features that help influencers and merchants to promote.  TikTok is now available in 154 countries worldwide with 75 different languages, This makes TikTok easier for its users to interact with each other both from their own country and from other countries. That way, TikTok can connect the creativity to various countries which can be used as a link between those who can see various videos that are unique and different from each user.

Image Credit : TikTok

In TikTok, the social commerce feature allows users to easily add links to e-commerce sites in their profile bio and send users to your website. But we know Instagram use this feature too for a long time, through influencers directing fans to a merchandise store. This makes TikTok continue to improve various features for user interaction. In increasing user interaction, TikTok implements the Challenge hashtag as a special challenge for TikTok users to create or recreate content and add branded hashtags. The challenge hashtag was created to introduce the company’s business through the hashtag used in their video.

Image Credit : TikTok

TikTok various features prove that it can compete with other platforms. A spokesperson for ByteDance, one of the most valuable startups in the world that also owns TikTok, said, “We are always experimenting with new ways to improve the app experience for our users. Ultimately, we focus on ways to inspire creativity, bring joy and add value to our community”. From that, TikTok tries to implement social commerce with the e-commerce platform from Shopify. This collaboration created for Shopify sellers easier to get customers from TikTok. This feature allows merchants to create original and shareable content that turns their product into an In-Feed video ad on TikTok. Satish Kanwar, GM & VP of Product Shopify said, “The TikTok channel means Shopify merchants and even those who don’t yet have strong TikTok followers, can connect with this new audience using content that feels authentic to the TikTok experience”.

Image Credit : datareportal.com

We also know, many influencers are using TikTok with many followers. This is a great opportunity for companies that want to use influencers on TikTok. So it makes it easier for companies to introduce their brands according to their desires and creativity, which will make it easier for companies to connect with one another with videos made by influencers. So, companies can search the marketplace in TikTok to find the influencers that best match the target market for their campaign. Compared to Instagram, it has a video feature to introduce its products starting from feed posts, Stories, Instagram Live, IGTV, and others. Based on DataReportal data, 43% of Instagram users aged 16-64 also use the TikTok app.

In conclusion, TikTok is highly recommended for attracting new customers to increase your business. It’s suitable for your business by using their powerful social commerce features and easy to interact with other users to know your business products or services more with your own idea videos. Keeping up with popular trends and current developments, it’s important to choose the right social commerce to support your business to stay sustainable.

References

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