This morning, TikTok and Shopify announced that they would be working together to increase users’ ability to shop directly in the TikTok app.
Although TikTok has many influencers who frequently discuss clothes, make-up, and family items, users have not been able to purchase anything directly from the app. Instead, TikTok users could only buy things through the app’s advertisements.
However, as part of the new agreement, Shopify merchants who participate in a pilot program will be able to add a shopping tab to their profiles and connect to products within TikTok posts. Shopify stated that it plans to expand the feature to all of its merchants this fall.
TikTok joins Instagram and Facebook in offering in-app purchases, part of a larger shift toward what’s known as social commerce, as creators look for new ways to monetize their audiences.
In an interview, Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, stated, “Social commerce is important because it’s the new town square.”
According to Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s president of worldwide enterprise options, the move into in-app purchases demonstrates how people currently utilize the platform to find items.
According to a survey conducted by TikTok in the fall with London market researcher Walnut Unlimited, the app convinced two-thirds of customers to buy even if they had no intention of doing so. There have been 4.6 billion views of the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit.
