We continue to track clues that TikTok has its own homegrown eCommerce program brewing. Known as “Trendy Beat” it’s a shopping section where TikTok will sell its own manufactured products, as well as others’, similar to Amazon. It’s being tested in the U.K. with rumored plans for U.S. expansion.
Stepping back, how does this differ from the eCommerce activity TikTok already hosts? Taking stock of existing offerings, it has TikTok Shop which lets brands sell products. It infuses eCommerce capabilities into TikTok videos which makes them shoppable, which makes it more of a marketplace model.
It also has the #ticktockmademebuyit hashtag viewed 59.3 billion times as more of an organic phenomenon around users that purchase items they saw in TikTok videos. TikTok has leaned into that trend, which amplifies product interest and purchase intent towards its full range of eCommerce efforts.
Gift Shop
The difference with the new “Trendy Beat” section is that TikTok will natively sell and feature products that have appeared in trending videos. This makes it a sort of theme park gift shop, which amplifies sales of its own manufactured products, propelled by the organic fervor that radiates from its viral videos.
Judging by Trendy Beat’s U.S. trademark application, items for sale will include fashion and apparel. It specifically lists dresses, scarves, hats, footwear, bathing suits, sleep masks, sweaters, suits, and other such fare. This makes sense as fashion is aligned well with viral social content (see Snap & Instagram).
The other difference between Trendy Beat and Shop is that the former is a dedicated shopping section to browse and buy things. The purchase funnel on TikTok Shop is conversely a progression from TikTok videos to product discovery to purchase. With Trendy Beat, users jump right to a store destination.
Back to Basics
That brings us back to the comparison to Amazon. More accurately, given TikTok’s China roots, it’s comparable to Chinese eCommerce players like Shein. But as noted, there are hints that TikTok is looking to expand Trendy Beat to the U.S., a move that it has slow-rolled while it focuses on TikTok Shop.
That hesitance is likely for good reason, as several dueling eCommerce features on TikTok could confuse users. For TikTok, the pressure to monetize probably reached an elevated state to overcome any hesitance, and it’s now moving forward with Western expansion… if the rumors are true of course.
As for the value chain, the Financial Times reports that TikTok will pull this off by using a network of suppliers to manufacture products (think: Amazon Basics). This could improve margins, as opposed to a marketplace model, but only at a certain scale. This tells us that TikTok could be expecting big things.
