TikTok Abandons Live Shopping Plans for the US
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
TikTok’s live ecommerce initiative won’t be expanding to the United States or throughout Europe.
TikTok Shop, which the Culver City-based video sharing app launched in the UK last year, utilized QVC-style live streams for companies and influencers to sell products. But internal issues and poor sales led many influencers to drop out of the program. TikTok was reportedly planning to launch TikTok Shop in the US, Germany, France, Italy and Spain throughout the year, but changed course following the program’s lack of success.
“The market just isn’t there yet,” a TikTok employee told The Financial Times. “General consumer awareness and adoption are still low and nascent.”
In June, FT reported that a number of employees on TikTok’s ecommerce team quit over the London office’s workplace culture—an issue that has also hit its Los Angeles headquarters. TikTok’s decision to forgo live shopping in the U.S. may also be influenced by the market downturn that has already hit its Santa Monica-based social media competitor, Snapchat.
TikTok offered subsidies and cash incentives to influencers who sold products through the app, but few users actually bought items through the program. It is still available in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia—where live shopping is more popular. Western markets have struggled to replicate the phenomenon that has transformed China’s ecommerce platforms.
But shopping on TikTok isn’t a lost cause, as the company is still testing a Shop tab—akin to Instagram’s—in Indonesia. Influencers on the app have impacted book, beauty and apparel sales, which leaves the potential for TikTok to capitalize on its users’ impact.
Several users have taken to the app to complain about TikTok Shop, with user @toriesarentfunny likening the program to a pyramid scheme.
“What makes this so insidious is that TikTok is not waiting for you to decide if you need a water bottle and go online and buy it,” the same user said in another video. “They are incentivizing creators that you like and trust and watch regularly and therefore will be exposed to regularly to sell you stuff that you do not want or need.”
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Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
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