If you’ve been on Oxford Street this week, you may have wondered what’s going on in a mysterious shop that’s closed to the public, but enticingly branded as the TikTok Shop UK. There’s a steady stream of people coming and going, but it’s invite only, so what’s going on and what are the favoured people that get to enter doing? And why are the sales assistants behind the counter being filmed doing product demos to customers that aren’t allowed in?
Last night I entered the doors and can reveal that it’s the first pop up TikTok Shop UK to showcase the breadth of brands and creators selling on the platform in a real world context. It’s open to existing and prospective TikTok merchants and creators with a particular focus on tech, home & living and books.
And all those mysterious demos at the counter…. well they’re not really sales assistants, they are TikTok merchants and creators who are hosting LIVE streams from the venue. They are selling, but you’ll have to log on to their TikTok LIVE to make a purchase – Previous studies show that 50% of TikTok users have bought something after watching a TikTok LIVE, and TikTok users are 1.7x more likely to watch branded LIVES to buy products than non-users.
TikTok is the home to a new kind of shopping culture : ‘community commerce’, a unique blend of community, entertainment and shopping. Hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt have reached over 60 billion views, making TikTok a destination for people to discover the biggest trending products across beauty, fashion, food, tech and more.
TikTok Shop is a key element of TikTok’s commerce offering and enables brands and merchants of all sizes, no matter their size, to be discovered and sell their products to the TikTok community without having to leave the platform. Through this pop up shop, merchants and creators will have the opportunity to meet TikTok experts to learn all about the power of social selling and how businesses can tap into the online community and trends like #BookTok and #TechTok.
The TikTok Shop UK on Oxford Street is also being used by brands and creators to meet in person and hopefully go on to work together. Spotted online was a Sunday morning event where TikTok brand eFones invited prospective creators to meet and discover what selling their products had to offer, both from a commission perspective and what content creators could gain for their channels.
During the week, a whole range of home & living, electronics and book brands and creators have been attending the TikTok Shop UK pop up and sharing how they tap into the TikTok community to sell on the platform. This includes kitchen appliances brand Sage Studios (@Sage), hair tech brand Cloud Nine (@cloudninehair), drone business DJI (@DJI_uk), and publisher Harper Collins (@harpercollinsuk). The pop up will also feature LIVEs from creators including Luke ‘Lopwert’ (@lopwert) and food creator Lagom Chef (@lagomchef).
TikTok’s community has created a brand new era of social commerce opportunities, where a single piece of content can quickly go viral and create both demand and opportunity. We’ve seen merchants and creators transform their businesses and their lives in a way that would be impossible on any other platform.
Our community can now discover and buy everything from a new coffee machine to the latest drone, or their favourite #BookTok best seller, all without leaving the platform. Through this exciting pop up shop on the iconic Oxford Street, we hope to shine a light on the opportunities available for merchants and creators to be discovered and thrive on the platform.
– Patrick Nommensen, GM of eCommerce, TikTok
