e-commerce
European retailers can quickly feel the competition from the trendy Tiktok. Countries such as Indonesia therefore restricted Tiktok Shop.
Tiktok, the social media network that can hold people’s attention much longer than its competitors, wants to enter European online sales this year. The Chinese newspaper Caixin reports this based on two sources at the company. In 2024, Tiktok would activate the ‘Tiktok Shop’ feature in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. This allows users to seamlessly switch between searching for entertainment and making online purchases in the same app.
Tiktok Shop has already been tested in the US, UK, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The total value of goods sold in all those countries together now amounts to 13 billion dollars (comparable to online store Zalando, ed.). It is striking that Tiktok would also like to set up its own distribution centers in Europe. Because of this service from Europe, Tiktok Shop has enormous potential as a shopping channel for Gen Z.
Tiktok’s ambitions for the new sales channel are scorching high. In the US it wants to go from 1.2 billion sales turnover to 20 billion in one year – observers estimate that even higher volumes are achievable.
The company does not want to say much about its European expansion plans. However, Tiktok was already looking for logistics managers for positions in Dublin, Amsterdam and Brussels on Chinese job sites.
Brands, second-hand luxury and more?
It is not yet entirely clear how broad Tiktok Shop’s product offering will be. The company seems to still be looking very hard for a profile. In the US, Tiktok Shop focuses on both local merchants and second-hand luxury brands. For brands, Tiktok is very attractive because it offers one popular channel for both sales and influencer marketing. Tiktok Shop is banning low-cost providers from China from its American market.
However, Tiktok Shop has not been welcomed everywhere with open arms. Indonesia forced the company to enter into a joint venture with a local retailer.(gina)
