TikTok plans to launch an e-commerce business in the U.S. to sell made-in-China goods to consumers, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
It said that the video-sharing platform is seeking to replicate the success of other popular China-founded shopping platforms Shein and Temu. It will begin by launching the store in the U.S., its biggest market, in early August and will follow a store and ship concept on behalf of Chinese merchants and manufacturers.
The moves expands TikTok’s e-commerce strategy and follows the broader rollout of TikTok Shopping after it had been initially trialled with select Shopify merchants in the US and the UK. Through this, TikTok users have been able to buy products in the app without opening a web browser to go to a separate eCommerce store.
Businesses with TikTok Shopping get a dedicated Shopping tab on its profile that allows customers to browse through and select products within TikTok and then buy the product, either within TikTok or transfer to the company’s online store for checkout.
The new store is reportedly similar to Amazon.com’s “Sold by Amazon” programme which gives Amazon the ability to automatically re-price select third-party products on the Amazon Marketplace, in effect, giving the company the final say on prices.
This works by enrolling specific products from participating merchants into the SBA programme. Once in the programme, Amazon is able to recalculate prices in real-time based on similar products found on Amazon, as well as prices found on external e-commerce marketplaces like Target and Walmart.
Meanwhile, Amazon set further records this month with shoppers purchasing over 375 million items worldwide during its Prime Day promotion over two days. This marked a 25% increase from the 300 million items sold last year, according to CNBC reports, while the first 24 hours of Prime Day marked the “single largest sales day in company history.”
