Get ahead of Black Friday! Sprint to the annual GMV peak! TikTok Shop ushered in the explosive moment of content e-commerce

As "Black Friday" approaches, TikTok Shop is becoming an outbreak point for cross-border e-commerce merchants to achieve their annual GMV peak. This year, the number of videos with Black Friday promotion tags on the TikTok platform has exceeded 200,000, showing the significant influence of content e-commerce on the changing shopping habits of American consumers. Merchants on TikTok Shop are the first in the industry to feel the explosive power of content e-commerce through short videos and live streaming. At the same time, the platform's multiple rights and support also encourage merchants to plan ahead and get a head start on Black Friday.

This year's Black Friday may be the key moment for many cross-border merchants to truly feel the explosive power of content e-commerce, and it is also a turning point for significant changes in the way American consumers shop.

As of late August, the number of videos with the Black Friday sale tag on the TikTok platform has exceeded 200,000, with over 2 billion views. Although there are still three months to Black Friday, users have already started discussing the topic and it has become extremely popular. Under the new global e-commerce consumption trend changes, Black Friday, a promotional festival that originated from offline retail in the United States decades ago, has long shifted its main battlefield online and transformed from a simple supply of goods to a supply of topics. Nowadays, you can get a quick glimpse of the novel ways to play and popular products of e-commerce festivals by simply following the hot topics on TikTok.

Similarly, in this link of keenly observing consumer trends through changes in content popularity and responding in a timely manner, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce has also taken the lead in the industry to sound the clarion call for preparations for Black Friday 2024. In the official Black Friday event policy announced a few days ago, multiple important benefits and unprecedented support were revealed one by one, encouraging merchants to act early.

"More and more businesses have mastered the path of using content to drive blockbuster effects and bring stronger business monetization. Since the beginning of this year, from unpopular large furniture to popular beauty and clothing, new small stores have rushed into the top sales list almost every day because of a popular video." A TikTok merchant in the United States pointed out, "Especially during various major promotions, merchants with high-quality content can basically achieve a comprehensive performance explosion."

As for Black Friday, the golden node that impacts the peak sales of the whole year, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce has also opened up a larger-scale and longer-term marketing stage for many merchants.

01 Preempting Black Friday, content e-commerce is gaining momentum

2024 will undoubtedly be the year when TikTok Shop will run wild in the United States.

Since its full opening in mid-September last year, TikTok Shop in the United States has set new records in the number of merchants, quantity of goods, and sales.

Black Friday in 2023 was already an astonishing explosion - the platform's overall GMV achieved an increase of more than 215%. After entering 2024, new records have been reported at every major promotion node - the overall GMV of the summer promotion increased by 129%, the overall GMV of the mid-year promotion increased by 145%, and the overall GMV of the back-to-school season promotion increased by 117%.

At the same time, during non-promotional periods, TikTok Shop in the US has shown a trend of sustained and steady growth in merchant store sales, influencer sales, and live broadcast room sales.

According to statistics from third-party data agencies FastMoss and EchoTik, in May of this year, TikTok Shop in the United States had small stores with monthly sales exceeding 10 million US dollars, as well as influencers with monthly sales of more than 12 million US dollars; in July of this year, a large number of stores achieved monthly sales of millions of US dollars. As for influencers, not only did they have monthly sales of nearly 15 million US dollars, but at least 20 influencers broke the monthly sales mark of one million US dollars, which was a rapid progress compared to June.

"As an emerging platform (which has been fully open in the U.S. for less than a year), we cannot expect TikTok Shop's current GMV volume to be comparable to that of mature leading platforms, but its growth rate and influence are amazing," said an industry insider.

Content e-commerce, including short video sales and live streaming sales, is a new species in the United States and even around the world. It has huge potential and requires time to grow. It is also different from the development goals and GMV demands of shelf e-commerce and follows its own development logic. But what is obvious to all is that it has shown a structural growth trend.

According to research data from Statista, live streaming e-commerce is becoming increasingly popular around the world. In 2023, live streaming e-commerce sales in the United States are estimated to reach US$50 billion. By 2026, this figure may increase by nearly 40%, accounting for more than 5% of all e-commerce sales in North America.

On the one hand, consumers are increasingly inclined to shop in this way because content e-commerce can provide exclusive discounts, inspire inspiration and creativity. On the other hand, the entertainment value of content e-commerce also plays an important role in attracting consumers, especially for young consumer groups, where its interactivity and personalized experience become significant advantages. This is also a major reason why many shelf e-commerce platforms and social media platforms have entered the short video/live streaming e-commerce field in recent years.

During the cross-border e-commerce peak season with Black Friday as its climax, TikTok, with its unique content advantages, not only influences the direction of the e-commerce festival, but also becomes a source of product purchases. At the same time, merchants who continue to pour into the platform are also expected to usher in the best period to hit the annual sales peak.

"On TikTok, a fertile land of traffic, content is not only a magnet to attract users, but also a catalyst to facilitate transactions. For annual events such as Black Friday, it is particularly important to accumulate content materials in advance and continue to create a content field full of festive atmosphere. This is directly related to whether merchants can take advantage of the rising popularity of the festival to successfully "break out of the circle" for their own products. It also affects whether they can fully "store water" for the entire Q4 peak season and lay a solid foundation for subsequent continued outbreaks." A merchant pointed out. This is also why TikTok Shop, a cross-border e-commerce company, took the lead in the Black Friday battle and seized the lowest price discount mentality of the year.

For merchants, from producing high-quality e-commerce content, to generating explosive product effects, to completing transactions and fulfilling contracts, business growth has never been a single breakthrough, but a long-term systematic project. The incubation, growth, explosion and sedimentation of explosive products require management throughout their entire life cycle so that user interest and enthusiasm at each stage can be converted into real sales and long-term value.

To stand out in the Black Friday campaign, you not only need to plan ahead, but also need precise strategies and execution; "early" is obviously the wise move.

02 Content, hot products, key merchants, lock in Black Friday performance

The essence of TikTok Shop content e-commerce lies in the fact that the platform has a broad and active user base, and merchants interact directly with consumers through content forms such as short videos or live broadcasts. This intuitive and effective marketing method allows products to quickly reach a large number of potential consumers, and the closed-loop transaction system provided by the platform makes the entire conversion process from traffic to sales simpler and more convenient.

Especially during big promotional events, a positive cycle of merchant releases, influencers recommend, users share, and the platform heats up has opened up unlimited possibilities for merchants to create explosive products and lead consumer trends under the TikTok content ecosystem. Merchants can reach consumers more accurately through a variety of sales scenarios such as influencer short videos, influencer live broadcasts, and cross-border self-broadcasts, thereby achieving a significant increase in sales performance.

For example, according to official statistics from TikTok Shop, merchants have cooperated with a large number of influencers to output high-quality short video content, resulting in a 74% increase in the number of e-commerce influencers with active sales in the United States in a short period of time. In the field of live streaming sales, Stormi Steele, founder and anchor of beauty brand Canvas Beauty, achieved a GMV of over 1 million US dollars in a single live broadcast during the mid-year promotion; in a live broadcast during the back-to-school season, the merchant Pop Mart achieved sales of over 280,000 US dollars, successfully breaking the record for cross-border brand self-broadcast sales.

In terms of incubating explosive products, during Black Friday in 2023, a handheld vacuum cleaner used #MomsofTiTok# to attract traffic, and its sales increased 18 times; a certain women's plaid jacket was sold by an influencer and achieved a 416% increase in GMV and a 385% increase in product exposure and views; many products that were promoted through the good product tag #tiktokmademebuyit also achieved a several-fold increase in GMV, and the number of product reviews soared by thousands or even tens of thousands.

Key merchants can achieve explosive sales during major promotions and platform activities. For example, during Black Friday in 2023, the daily GMV of Halara, a merchant in the sports and outdoor categories, increased 40 times, and the daily GMV of Anker, a merchant in the mobile phones and digital categories, increased 10 times.

This year's Black Friday, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce also focused its preparations on three key aspects: content, hot products, and key merchants, pointing out the direction for merchants.

According to the latest official policy, in terms of content, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce has recently launched a series of important rights and interests, including large-scale and high-frequency rewards for short videos and live broadcast challenges, providing traffic subsidies and large discount coupons for key live broadcast rooms, etc.

In terms of hot products, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce has launched support projects such as the Zeus Plan, the Super Brand Plan, the Mental Category Plan, and the Hot Product Incubation Plan, including: merchants who prepare sufficient inventory according to GMV targets can enjoy direct reduction subsidies, fixed-pit traffic and other support provided by the platform. At the same time, the platform also promises to give merchants different levels of investment incentives based on the completion of GMV targets; through pre-positioning of product stocking, price reduction promotions and advertising investment, the platform helps merchants identify potential hot products and enhance market awareness. At the same time, for merchants and products selected in the mental categories, the platform will provide direct reduction subsidies, fixed-pit traffic, expert resources and other support.

In terms of supporting the development of key merchants, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce provides a series of support including more promotion and resource allocation, as well as exclusive slots in millions of live broadcast rooms of celebrities and top influencers.

03 How to Play TikTok Shop on Black Friday, Leaping from Big Promotion to Long-term Growth

Prepare early and keep up with the platform rhythm. This is the basis for many cross-border merchants to join this year's Black Friday.

For self-operated merchants in the US region of TikTok Shop, the product preparation phase of stocking, production, transportation, and warehousing is completed from late August to early October. Content preparation needs to start from October to November, and short video submissions gradually increase. Fully managed merchants need to complete the testing of new products in September and complete the final stocking in October.

"Showing product advantages through content and obtaining traffic from the content field is the prerequisite for all products to achieve sales conversion in TikTok Shop. In addition to cooperating with influencers and having them create content materials, cross-border merchants should also focus on self-produced short video content and create their own live broadcast rooms." said a TSP agency leader.

A certain beauty and personal care product merchant also holds a similar view. He pointed out that in the early stages of TikTok Shop in the United States, short videos were the leading platform for selling goods, contributing up to 80% of transaction conversions, but live streaming was also heating up, showing a structural growth trend. The detailed explanations and real-time interactions in the live broadcast room can promote users’ cognition and acceptance of high-value goods, thereby promoting the formation of purchasing decisions. "The layout of short videos and live broadcasts should complement each other, and at the same time, they should be combined with the release of certain short videos by experts to achieve the best results," he said.

The merchant also revealed that this year, in order to accelerate the process of live streaming e-commerce, the platform not only established a professional live streaming team, but also set up live streaming studios in major cities in the United States, striving to create a more professional and convenient live streaming ecosystem.

In addition, the platform is also significantly lowering the threshold for live streaming. "The entry standard for live streaming by experts has been reduced from tens of thousands of fans to thousands, supplemented by a high subsidy mechanism to encourage anchors to extend the duration of live streaming," he said.

According to Yibang Power, in preparation for Black Friday, TikTok Shop cross-border e-commerce has also launched a number of benefits for content preparation for self-operated merchants. For example, merchants who start short video and live broadcast challenges can receive rewards that exceed the scale and frequency of all previous promotions; at the same time, the platform will also lock in traffic subsidies and large discount coupons for key live broadcast rooms, and add exclusive discounts for the live broadcast rooms.

In addition, during the event, TikTok Shop will also cooperate with local mainstream media in the United States and super-star celebrities to jointly promote and distribute, helping Black Friday to obtain more than 5 billion exposures; and through nearly doubled content recommendation traffic, gift guides and other promotional area landing pages and flash sale channels, Black Friday exclusive low-price tags and other three modules of in-site traffic to help merchants achieve effective conversions.

If, on the TikTok stage, high-quality content is the golden key to huge commercial value, then preparing and honing content capabilities in advance for the arrival of the Black Friday promotion is not only related to short-term sales explosions, but also to long-term brand effects. As an industry insider said: Participating in content e-commerce is a long-term project. Although there is a lot of initial preparation, it has strong stamina and the compound growth is more obvious.

Toy brand StarPony once pointed out that TikTok's fast-paced content presentation method not only has a strong ability to bring goods, but more importantly, it can shorten the formation cycle of an IP or brand. It helps businesses complete the traffic loop of creating content, reaching audiences, stimulating interest, guiding searches, and landing purchases, and achieves strong exposure in a short period of time through a recommendation mechanism for high-quality content. This mechanism allows a new brand to grow quickly on TikTok and achieve both brand communication and transaction conversion.

“TikTok’s Black Friday topic has become popular and conversions are seen as soon as you enter the market!” This is the real experience of many merchants. Some leading players are gearing up to embrace stronger growth momentum and extend the short-term burst of promotions into a longer harvest period.

After all, in the fierce competition in cross-border e-commerce, preparing in advance and seizing the initiative are the keys to success.

Text丨Miao Yue Editor丨He Yang Shi Lei This article is written by the author of Operation School [Yibang Power], WeChat public account: [Yibang Power], original/authorized to be published in Operation School, and reproduction is prohibited without permission.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.