The social media giant, TikTok is making its biggest push into e-commerce to date thanks to a new partnership with Shopify that will allow its retailers to begin advertising and selling goods through the platform.
Shopify, which already provides the e-commerce platform for over 800,000 brands, will allow its merchants to connect to a TikTok for Business account and post videos featuring ‘shoppable ads’. This will enable users to click through to a retailer’s Shopify page while scrolling on TikTok, where they can complete a purchase.
The partnership – TikTok’s biggest stride into ecommerce so far – will launch in the US this week, before rolling out across Europe and Asia in the new year. It arrives following the exploration of numerous means in which the social media giant could push into retail outside of China, underscoring a definite shift towards ‘social commerce’ among social media users.
Shopify’s Satish Kanwar said: “It was obvious early on how TikTok was starting to influence commerce trends and trajectories. With direct-to-consumer brands, that relationship between storytelling and entertainment and the product they sell is so close.
“We believe video is the default form of communication online today. We are very eager to see how video and commerce can expand.”
Shopify has seen its sales surge during lockdown, rising nearly 100 per cent during its second quarter to overtake Ebay for the first time.
