TikTok Shop, the social network’s new commitment to allow creators, partners, brands and affiliates to offer their products on the social network, It is now available to some users in the United States. In a direct challenge to other major players in the industry such as Amazoncurrently, TikTok Shop only offers inexpensive products from China.
According to Bloomberg, TikTok Shop will compete with Amazon in achieving this 20,000 million dollars (approx. 18,648 million euros) in the sale By 2023. The company’s specific goal is to use the application’s potential to connect people based on their specific interests. However, the aforementioned media states that the initial experience does not reflect the algorithm.ultra-personalized“, which TikTok distinguishes in its video feed, an important aspect to attract its users. Likewise, TikTok processes payments through its app, so the company will also collect additional information about users, which could intensify the investigation. Concerns about US regulation.
Parallel to, TikTok Shop It also faces other challenges. And according to the report, the platform offers a wide range of options across different product categories and subcategories that “annoying“For the users.
The Ads with misspelled brand names and unrealistic prices Sound the alarm bells fraudulent sales.
Following the example of AliExpressTikTok Shop also generates a sense of urgency by showing how often a product has been purchased and a timer that shows the remaining time for a promotion. As for them Product description, most seem to focus more on search engines and algorithms than buyers. An example is the description of a yoga short film: “Smiley Yoga Shorts Tummy Control Butt Lift High Waist Ruched 3 Piece Set for Women“.
The report from Bloomberg It also points out opinions that “may be misleading when it comes to products sold by third parties«. In fact, this has been observed A seller’s products on TikTok Shop are not priced the same as on the brand’s website and the place of manufacture mentioned is also incorrect. Likewise, the publication states: Several Chinese brands have been identified in the TikTok Shop that have been banned from Amazon Due to the Manipulation of buyer opinions.
Regulatory issues
This new movement of Tick ​​tock in e-commerce comes amid Chinese retailers’ concerns about the future of the social network in the United States following the approval of the Law prohibiting companies and users from downloading their applications in the state of Montana with sanctions of 10,000 dollars (approx. 9,319 euros) and more comes into force in 2024.
For his part in the European Union (EU)The numerous bans they triggered earlier this year also forced the ByteDance-owned company to take measures to calm the mood of European regulators. In fact, TikTok announced last week that the first data centerbased in Dublin, is already operational and stores personal data of European usersas well as users from Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In addition to this center, the social network confirmed in March that there would be others two new data centers in EuropeStill under construction: one is also in Ireland and a third in Norway, which runs on 100% renewable energy. TikTok’s goal is for all of this data, previously stored in its global databases in the US and Singapore, to be managed on European soil by the end of 2024.