Trend No. 1｜TikTok joins hands with Amazon, can Douyin e-commerce work overseas?

This cooperation between TikTok and Amazon will bring new opportunities for its e-commerce business.

For domestic netizens, online shopping is no longer something that can only be completed on shopping apps; but in North America, the "social platform + shopping" model has only just begun to take shape.

On August 8, local time, Amazon announced a partnership with TikTok, the overseas version of Douyin. Users can bind their accounts to Amazon accounts and buy the products they are interested in directly on TikTok without having to open Amazon to search for them themselves. Amazon said that users who bind their accounts can directly see the pricing, product details and estimated delivery time of the products on TikTok. This cooperation can bring users a more "unimpeded" e-commerce shopping experience.

1. Many platforms start the "e-commerce +" model

Amazon and TikTok are not the only ones joining forces in the e-commerce business.

Streaming platform Netflix and Google have reached a multi-field cooperation. Google will become the title sponsor of the TV series "Emily in Paris". In addition to the standard patch ads, viewers can also use Google Lens, a Google image recognition function, to scan the characters' looks in the series and buy similar fashion items while watching the series.

Image credit: Netflix

"With Google Lens, viewers can turn their TV screens into their own shopping malls and effortlessly shop for fashion from around the world," said Stephanie Horton, senior director of global consumer marketing and commerce at Google. "A world of style and inspiration can be unlocked by simply taking a picture with your phone."

YouTube also announced the expansion of its partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify to introduce more brands to the YouTube "Shopping Alliance" program. After the expansion of the cooperation, YouTube creators can tag thousands of new brands in the videos they publish. This program provides creators with a monetization channel to help viewers discover suitable and useful products, and also provides brands with a new way to increase sales and expand their customer base.

Image source: Shopify

In the past few years, YouTube has increased its investment in e-commerce business to increase revenue amid slowing advertising growth. Previously, YouTube announced that in 2023, the total time spent by users watching shopping-related videos on the website exceeded 30 billion hours.

2. TikTok’s overseas e-commerce performance

Overseas, TikTok is famous for its amazing algorithms and "addictive" content. As of March 2023, TikTok has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, almost half of the U.S. population. The huge user base has driven the development of the platform and quickly made it a center for overseas users to discover new products and trends.

Image source: TikTok

TikTok started late in the US e-commerce field, but merchants have quickly joined. In the third quarter of 2023, TikTok Shop's monthly sales in the United States exceeded US$100 million (approximately RMB 712 million), reflecting its strong market influence. By the end of 2023, the number of US local merchants settled in TikTok Shop reached 500,000. According to reports, TikTok's e-commerce goal this year is to increase TikTok Shop's US business tenfold to US$17.5 billion (approximately RMB 124.654 billion).

Image source: TikTok

Any product has the potential to become a hit through TikTok. "Don't Believe Everything You Think" is a book about how to stop overthinking. When it was first published, the book ranked between 400 and 500 on Amazon's bestseller list. Since January 2024, a large number of short videos introducing the book have appeared on TikTok, and many of them have been viewed millions of times. More than 80,000 copies of the book have been sold on TikTok Shop. In just one month, sales of "Don't Believe Everything You Think" on Amazon also soared, and once became the seventh bestseller on the book list.

Image source: Jungle Scout

Brands that gain attention on TikTok often experience a surge in popularity and sales, and sometimes products can even sell out within a few hours. Although the platform has launched a built-in section TikTok Shop, it is still somewhat unfamiliar to overseas users to complete shopping on social platforms. When products gain traffic on TikTok, many consumers will choose to go to Amazon to complete the purchase.

This cooperation with Amazon means that TikTok has gained the endorsement of Amazon, the e-commerce "authority" in the minds of overseas consumers. TikTok is a powerful marketing tool, while Amazon is a market worthy of consumers' trust, which can capture those customers who prefer to shop on traditional e-commerce platforms rather than social platforms.

3. Comments on the wind direction

As TikTok becomes the most popular social platform among young users in North America, it is no longer satisfied with being just a content platform. Instead, it has gradually replicated the e-commerce and local businesses that domestic users are already familiar with overseas, and has also stimulated content platforms such as YouTube and Netflix to start e-commerce businesses.

For brands (especially smaller local brands), content ads launched in collaboration with creators on the platform will be more effective than 15-second TVCs.

Original source: BNN Bloomberg; Forbes; The Hollywood Reporter

Original author: Alex Weprin; Alicia Clanton; Katie Salcius

Original publication date: 2024.06.28; 2024.08.08; 2024.08.15

Translator｜Xu Fengyi Editor｜Lu Feng This article is written by the author of Operation School [Media No. 1], WeChat public account: [Media No. 1], original/authorized to be published on Operation School, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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