TikTok teases social commerce capabilities with shoppable video test

TikTok, the short-form video app owned by ByteDance, is testing shoppable video posts, making it possible for influencers on the platform to place social commerce URLs within their posts. The test was shared by Fabien Bern, owner of a Chinese influencer agency, who posted an example of a shoppable video post via his Twitter account. Bern’s example showed an influencer video that included a URL within the video leading to the influencer’s Amazon product page.

TikTok later confirmed to Adweek that it was testing the feature, but did not disclose details on whether or not it would receive a wider roll-out. Marketing Land has reached out to TikTok for comment.

Why we should care

Social commerce is gaining traction as platforms add new capabilities to support direct-to-consumer and big brands’ ecommerce goals. Platforms are racing to give advertisers tools to make the journey from product discovery to purchase as seamless as possible — Instagram’s in-app check-out feature and Pinterest’s move to expand Shoppable Pins to visual searches are among the recent examples.

TikTok entering the social commerce fray demonstrates the platform is experimenting with ways to appeal to the commercial interests of creators and potential advertisers. With more than 500 million global users, brands are eyeing opportunities to reach its Gen Z audience.

More on the news

• A TikTok engineer was the first to announce the new feature via a popular Chinese forum, according to Adweek.
• There is also a newly added “link in bio” feature being tested, per Bern’s tweet.
• TikTok is owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance and has come under regulatory scrutiny for its China connections. But, the company maintains it runs autonomously from the Chinese side of the business.