TikTok gears up for shopping feature

TikTok gears up for shopping feature

Short video platform TikTok is gearing up for a "shoppertainment" drive by leveraging a new feature called "Shop" to facilitate sales opportunities for brands and creators while expanding the range of content to grow the customer base.

TikTok has 18 million users aged 18-35 in Thailand, according to creative agency Media Intelligence.

"The pandemic is changing customer behaviour with more than 40% of customers switching their media consumption behaviour from traditional to online," said Surayot Aimlaor, head of consumer marketing for Thailand at TikTok.

He said 85% of Thais use mobile devices to watch entertainment media and among them 99% watch online videos.

TikTok trends which could be highlighted this year are edutainment, creative entertainment, authentic and positive entertainment, live streaming and cultural entertainment.

"We aim to uplift our platform as the trusted entertainment platform powered by our community to have a positive impact on users and creators with more variety of content and enhancement of user experience," said Mr Surayot.

Sirinit Virayasiri, head of business marketing for Thailand at TikTok, pointed out the growth of the online community has led to more online media spending with the outlay expected to reach 27 billion baht this year.

She said the growth of the online community can support brand engagement with consumers.

Some 69% of Thai users prefer shopping online due to the flexibility to shop at any time while 79% prefer to shop online as they can access a greater variety of brands and products compared to in-store shopping, Ms Sirinit said.

"TikTok users are not only watching content but engage with what brands want to communicate," she said. "This is a great opportunity for brands to connect and communicate with consumers through content, culture and commerce."

According to her, some 86% of users find TikTok ads entertaining. As a result, TikTok users are 1.7 times more engaged compared to users of other leading platforms.

TikTok content can translate to shoppertainment with customer engagement through product discovery, decision-making, purchases and reviews, Ms Sirinit said.

Some 67% of users agree that TikTok helps them discover and get ideas about brands they never thought of before, she said.

TikTok has also offered a soft launch of the TikTok Shop feature, which will allow creators or brands to sell products and services directly to customers, she added.

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