It's 2024, the era of Gen Z, and what does Gen Z love the most? TikTok! It’s no secret that in the modern era, TikTok has reached a new level of hype, winning hearts and earning greens. Although TikTok has been around since 2016, the app did not have immense fame until Gen Z populated it. All thanks to Gen Z, today we don’t know TikTok as just a sing-and-dance platform, but it has shaped itself to become one of the leading e-commerce domains. TikTok has polished itself from a mere entertainment app to a hub of influencer marketing.
It is an established fact that influencers pour life into social apps. Without influencers, social apps have no meaning. Besides, imagine how boring Instagram and TikTok would be if you didn’t have any influencers to entertain you. Influencers don’t only exist for entertainment but their core purpose lies much deeper in their respective niche. They are the people who build the bridge between the community and the brands. Influencer marketing has rapidly enveloped every social app, including TikTok. Speaking of TikTok, although influencers have been cashing it (How Much TikTok Influencers Are Earning in 2024) by binding deals with brands just recently, TikTok has launched a new feature for business owners and influencers called the “TikTok Shop”. Yes, you heard it right! It’s a shop on TikTok!
But what does it do? What can you purchase at a TikTok Shop? How can you set up a TikTok Shop as a brand? This blog answers it all! In this article, we will dive into the details and the technicalities of a TikTok Shop. We will evaluate all its ABCs to fully establish TikTok Shop as a passive earning stream. So let’s dive right in!
What is a TikTok Shop?
As the name itself suggests, a TikTok Shop is simply a shop on TikTok where you can purchase the products of the brand. It’s an e-shop that allows brands and business owners to promote and sell their products to the target audience. Users can simply see a TikTok video and visit the TikTok Shop to purchase the product without wasting time searching the brand and shuffling between tabs. TikTok Shop offers a variety of features, some of which are listed below:
1. Showcase:
Showcase is simply a feature that takes the user directly towards the purchasing shop. Whenever users visit a brand’s TikTok profile, they see a small shopping bag icon. Clicking on this icon takes the users directly to the TikTok Shop.
2. Shoppable Videos:
Mostly when users are scrolling through TikTok, any video that features a unique product catches their eye. Finding this product can be quite a task. Luckily, TikTok Shop makes it easy for you! It directly lets the user purchase the product from the video by clicking on the link.
3. Live Shopping:
Going live on TikTok is the norm these days to grow your audience. Users can view a live video and purchase the products being featured by directly clicking on the pinned products or browsing the shop.
4. Shop Tab:
The shop tab on TikTok Shop serves the same purpose as any other shop tab. It allows the users to view their cart, and items in the shop, access their shopping cart, and many more. They can also view the promotional campaigns at this icon.
5. Shop Page:
A shop page is the main page for any TikTok shop. It simply presents the product catalog, enabling the users to view the products that are available in the shop and are up for sale.
TikTok Shop and Influencer Marketing
TikTok is the home of influencers and the hub of influencer marketing. In fact, thanks to the advent of TikTok, influencer marketing has attained a new status and significance. Where brands only focused on plain old-fashioned campaigns, thanks to TikTok, brands have now found a new way to connect with their audience - through influencers. We all know how influencers work, some of our readers might even be influencers!
With the help of TikTok Shop, TikTok has found new and optimal ways to reap the benefits of influencer marketing. Following are a few of them through which TikTok integrates influencer marketing strategies:
- Influencers can create engaging content aligned with the content of the TikTok Shop. They can even generate trends, hence promoting the brand by reaching millions
- Influencers can conduct unboxing or shopping hauls by promoting the brands and their TikTok Shop
- Product collaborations are a great way to promote the usage of the brand’s product in everyday life in the form of the GRWM (get ready with me) series
- Building a connection with followers with the help of the brand’s TikTok products gains exposure and generates traffic on the TikTok Shop
- Brands can design promotional campaigns preaching authenticity all via TikTok videos
Benefits of TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop offers a variety of benefits to all parties - brands, influencers, and definitely the consumers. It helps to connect these 3 groups onto one platform. Following are some of the benefits that you can get from a TikTok Shop as a brand:
- Increased brand influence and popularity
- Cost-effective marketing
- TikTok traffic
- Influencer collaboration
- Increased Sales
- Seamless shopping experience for users
Setting Up a TikTok Shop
Now that we know about the significance of a TikTok Shop and how fruitful it is for your brand, let’s see how you can set one up! In the following series of a few easy steps, you can create your very own TikTok Shop:
Step 1: Creating a TikTok Business Account
The TikTok Shop feature is only available on business TikTok accounts. For setting up a TikTok business account from scratch, follow the instructions given below:
- Go to TikTok Sign-Up Page
- Sign in on TikTok or simply create a new account
- Select the option “TikTok for Business”. This will automatically create your TikTok business account
- Agree on the terms and conditions
And there you have it! Your TikTok business account is all setup.
In case you already have an existing account and wish to switch to a business one, follow the steps mentioned below:
- Go to your TikTok profile
- Click on the Menu icon
- Go to Settings and Privacy
- Tap on ‘Account’
- You will get an option “Switch to Business Account’, click on it
- Write your brand’s description - this step is fairly important as it tells about your brand and what you wish to promote on your TikTok Shop
And that’s it! You have successfully switched to a TikTok Business account.
Step 2: Accessing the TikTok Shop
Now that you have your TikTok business account set up, the next step is to proceed towards the TikTok shop. To access the TikTok Shop, simply go to your TikTok main profile. On your profile, you’ll notice a series of plain old options that you must already be familiar with. However, you will notice a small shopping bag icon on TikTok's business accounts on the page’s feed. Click on this icon. This icon represents your TikTok Shop and will directly take you to it.
Step 3: Optimizing Your Profile
After setting up your TikTok Shop, it’s time to bring in some customers. For this purpose, you need to customize your TikTok business account so you can generate traffic. Following are a few helpful tips that can help you in optimization:
- Writing a detailed profile description that best represents your business
- Creating engaging content that promotes your TikTok shop
- Pin videos that exclusively feature your shop items
- Collaborate with influencers who can promote your brand and bring in customers
- Use hashtags to reach your target audience
Product Listing Essentials
Now that your TikTok Shop is open for business, it’s time to fill it up with some products that might become the next big sellers on TikTok. For this purpose, you need to add products to your shop and manage their stock so let’s see how we can do that.
Step 1: Adding Products Effectively
Your products are going to be the face of your TikTok Shop. They are your ticket to success. You can’t just randomly pick the old website images and post them on TikTok, rather you need a different approach, one tailored according to TikTok users. While posting products on TikTok Shop, you need to keep a few things in mind which are mentioned below:
- Create engaging TikTok videos featuring your products. You can also pin the videos of influencers from your promotional campaigns
- Write detailed and catchy product descriptions that make the customer question why they don’t have your product yet
- Provide all documentation related to the product
- Provide all details of the product - its specs and features
- Practice accuracy in your product descriptions
- Always use high-quality pictures and videos as they will connect you with your customers
Step 2: Pricing and Inventory Management
The two most important aspects associated with any product are - its price and its stock. To run a successful TikTok Shop, you need to balance these factors so no complaints arise. Listed below are a few strategies that might help you in maintaining your TikTok Shop in this regard:
- Continuously monitor your product listing with stock available
- Use an automated inventory management system that automatically changes stock whenever a purchase is made
- Maintain a stable pricing plan - avoid price hikes and fluctuations
- Offer discount codes and promotions for your products
- Showcase customer reviews as well as these will provide valuable insight to new shoppers
Driving Traffic To Your TikTok Shop
Your TikTok Shop has no purpose if you’ve got no customers. There are a couple of ways through which you can generate traffic, gain customers, and boost your TikTok Shop sales. Following are a few of them:
Step 1: Utilizing TikTok Ads
TikTok Ads are a great way to promote your TikTok Shop and reach a new audience. There are different types of TikTok Ads available that you can use for the promotion of your shop. The major purpose of TikTok Ads is to increase your brand awareness and engagement, and drive sales. You can make use of various paid TikTok ads such as in-feed video ads, top view ads, branded hashtags, and other sponsored effects.
Step 2: Engaging with Influencers
Influencers are the ideal way to connect with your potential audience. All you have to do is look for influencers who resonate with your brand’s niche and aim. Scrutinize these influencers and choose the most befitting ones for your promotional campaign. You can sign up promotional deals with these influencers and draft up a binding contract. These influencers can then promote your products by creating engaging content that revolves around these products. They can post videos, TikToks, or even go live on TikTok for some interactive unboxing.
Step 8: Creating Shareable Content
The key to success on TikTok is to create engaging videos that get trendy and generate tons of traffic on your TikTok shop. Following are a few tips that are helpful for creating such content:
- Always try to create entertaining rather than informative videos as viewers on TikTok are mostly looking for entertainment
- Go for trending sounds and audio to keep up with the trends
- Speaking of trends, make sure to participate in them as they are a great way of driving new customers
- Do something unique in your videos, something that grabs the attention of the viewers
- Make sure to follow the TikTok time - the optimal time for posting a TikTok (The Ultimate Guide to the Best Times to Post on TikTok for Maximum Views)
Leveraging SocialBook Tools
Hunting for the ideal influencer among thousands of influencers is quite an excruciating task that’s gonna take plenty of your time and effort. Luckily, SocialBook is here to help you! SocialBook provides a variety of helpful tools to its users who can navigate their way through it and streamline their promotional campaigns. It also gives you plenty of strategies that you can opt for to hire the perfect influencer for your campaign (Top Strategies for Hiring TikTok Influencers to Boost Sales in 2024) Let’s see what a few of these features are:
Step 1: Analyzing Performance Metrics
SocialBook is the key platform that you need to search for the right influencer and launch your promotional campaign. It provides with you analytics of the influencer from all social apps. Not only does it help you to launch your promotional campaign, but it also assists in tracking the sales data of influencers. Following are a few ways through which SocialBook Analytics can help you in choosing the right influencer:
- Provides you a thorough and comprehensive data on the influencer from all social apps
- Briefs you about the engagement metrics of the influencer
- Provides access to the past sales data of the influencer - how much sales they made by promoting the product
- Provides data on past promotional campaigns conducted by the influencer
- Gives access to influencer’s audience demographics
- Highlights the strategies utilized by influencers that boosted engagement and sales rates
Step 2: Adjusting Strategies Based on Insights
Data plays a crucial role in devising strategies. It helps to give direction to your proposed strategies by making an informed evidence-based decision. Collecting all the influencer-related data is quite a tedious task and lacks accuracy when conducted manually. SocialBook can help you here! It gives you the complete data of all types of influencers, be they macro or micro-influencers. Wanna know more about hiring micro-influencers? Check out How to Discover Micro-Influencers (Free & Paid Methods!). The comprehensive data gives the brand options to choose the influencer best suitable for their campaign. From their audience demographics to their engagement and influence rate, SocialBook provides a complete guide of the respective influencer so brands can make informed decisions and therefore, devise strategies.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of a TikTok Shop cannot be denied and this blog fully advocates for it! This blog is a reminder for you, as a brand, not to postpone the creation of a TikTok Shop. All it requires is a series of 10 simple steps that you can follow to set up your very own TikTok Shop. SocialBook is your best pal in this regard as it gives you all the necessary details of the influencers, perfectly chalking out your promotional campaign for you.
Now that influencer marketing is reaching new heights, its integration into TikTok Shop has become a necessity. Inculcating TikTok Shop in your influencer marketing strategies is definitely going to have a very strong positive impact.
Pro Tip for Brands: If finding the right influencer feels challenging, consider SocialBook. This easy-to-use platform helps you locate influencers by assessing engagement rates, audience demographics, and other vital metrics. Use its data-driven insights to refine your marketing strategy and enhance your campaign’s impact.