TikTok will likely take a commission from Shop Tab products down the road, but appears to be in growth mode right now: A New York Times article cites one seller who says he is “not sure when TikTok might start taking a commission.”
It's a potential opportunity for the savvy drop shipper. And presumably, anyone selling a digital service or product — like, say, a tutorial on how to use Excel — can simply skip all the shipping and earn an even higher margin than they would otherwise.
If you have an impressive-enough following, you'll be able to get in on selling even without any products of your own, however: Affiliate videos give some users an option to monetize. Plenty of small and large influencers will be able to recommend the best products relevant to a vast range of niche interests.
TikTok Shop Stats
Online shopping via social platforms in the United States is an estimated $69 billion market. And it's one that plenty of websites, ecommerce businesses, and social platforms have been jostling for a big slice of for decades, from Facebook's recently killed “live shopping” feature to eBay's auctions to Shopify's link-in-bio tool.
TikTok is a heavy weight in social media, and it has already announced a few interesting statistics related to it's new ecommerce-oriented pivot. Here's what Yahoo! Finance recently reported:
- Registered for TikTok Shop: More than 200,000 sellers
- Using affiliate program: More than 100,000 content creators
- 92% of TikTok users said they take action after watching a product in TikTok.
- 90% of US shoppers “claim to be satisfied with their experience when TikTok was a part of their purchase journey.”
- Followers you'll need before you qualify for the affiliate program: 5,000 or more
- Amount of users who can already access the Shop Tab on their home screen: 40%
The TikTok Shop features are still being rolled out gradually to US users for another month, so you may not see them yourself until early October.