Having stalled their European launch in order to concentrate on regulatory issues in the US, Bloomberg reports that we should see TikTok Shop launch in Ireland and Spain later this year.
This is in some ways better for UK merchants than a TikTok Shop launch in Germany or France – the big ecommerce countries in Europe – as Ireland is an English speaking country. It gives the potential for faster expansion without the need to recruit foreign language speakers to promote their products. It’s not an insurmountable issue for those who use external creators, but is a challenge for those who produce content in-house.
Reports suggest that in order to prepare for the TikTok Shop launch in two new countries, that merchants and creator agencies have been briefed to get ready to sell.
TikTok have been relatively tight lipped about the TikTok Shop launch, simply expressing excitement to ‘continue experimenting with this new commerce opportunity to support businesses of all sizes’ and ‘community to discover and engage with products they love’.
TikTok continue to work in the US to convince lawmakers to enable businesses to continue using TikTok shop and the business in the US is huge – it’s estimated that TikTok activities support $24 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 224,000 American jobs. TikTok’s US impact generated around $5.3 billion in taxes to the US government in 2023 with almost 40% of SMBs saying TikTok is critical to their businesses’ existence.
