- Shoppable advertisements have started to appear frequently on TikTok, the popular Chinese short video app, signaling probably a move towards e-commerce in India.
Shoppable advertisements have started to appear frequently on TikTok, the popular Chinese short video app, signaling probably a move towards e-commerce in India.
Users are redirected to a microsite by tapping on the video advertisement where they can browse and shop while still on the TikTok app. A few months ago, TikTok rolled out this ads feature in the U.S.
Companies like Snapdeal, Bewakoof, Bulbul Shopping, Subway, fbb-Future Retail’s fashion arm, Daniel Wellington luxury watches, and WorkIndia were among TikTok’s several shopping advertising.
“Advertisers can direct users from our in-feed advertising to an external landing page or to a music or product profile page in-app,” TikTok said. Nonetheless, it explained that it does not have e-commerce functionality on its app yet, and off-platform transactions are made.
Each medium of social media seeks to understand the shopping behavior of a person. Experts said in-app purchases help users buy faster while also providing some consumer purchasing data access to the site.
“On TikTok, shoppable ads look old. In a shorter time frame, it helps to close a deal as you are already in the sales environment. With impatient digital consumers, it’s important today. It is well known that the more steps you take to close a deal, the greater the probability that people will fall out. It also lets TikTok gain access to shopping information, “said Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults.
The switch to shoppable advertising by TikTok can be a step closer to e-commerce. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has already integrated robust trading capabilities with Alibaba into TikTok’s Chinese version, called Douyin.
“Users of TikTok are part of the target market of Snapdeal. Users are comfortable making in-app purchases on different platforms and providing the same option on TikTok allows the purchasing experience more effective. We are at TikTok’s early stages of interaction and we are assessing the results, “a spokesperson for Snapdeal said.
All major players have launched formats in the past year in which consumers can make purchases in the ads themselves. There are different forms of shoppable advertising on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
“Above all, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram are sites for binge-watching. People go for entertainment there. Prashanth Challapalli, Chief Operating Officer at Leo Burnett Orchard, a full-service advertising agency, said the quality of shoppable advertisements would rely on how distracting such ads are to the user.
TikTok has already been clocking huge number of traffic since its launch and has one of the largest consumer bases. Converting the huge amount of customers into sales seems a great idea for all the advertisers now and will open up a new segment of e-commerce in India.
