NEW YORK — After months of testing, TikTok is fully launching its e-commerce product in the United States in an effort to translate the app’s cultural relevance among young consumers to sales.
The Shop Tab, where products from TikTok’s marketplace are listed, is now available for 40% of users on the app’s home screen. The feature will be rolled out gradually until it is available for the app’s 150 million U.S. users by early October, Perez said.Shopping on social sites, known as social commerce, is estimated to be a $69 billion market in the U.S., led by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, according to Insider Intelligence.
“No social app has really been able to master e-commerce in the U.S.,” said Jasmine Enberg, a social media analyst at Insider Intelligence. “TikTok clearly has really ambitious goals, a road map in China, and it can afford to take some losses along the way. But TikTok Shop is still an unproven investment, which will make it a tougher sell for particularly established brands in the U.S.”
But Enberg noted the company can't rely on its technology alone to change U.S. consumer behavior, which in addition to an apathetic response to live shopping, hasn't really been embracing in-app purchases on social media.