TikTok & Shopify Join to Introduce TikTok Shopping

Ethan James 27 Aug 2021

On August 24, the e-commerce giant Shopify announced a partnership with TikTok. The companies’ target is to introduce a Shopify-driven direct purchase option in the social network. Soon, all Shopify sellers who use TikTok for promoting their goods will be able to add brand new shopping tabs to their business account profiles. 

A Tidbit

TikTok-Shopify partnership is definitely big news, but these platforms are not the first to make huge investments in the developing social commerce niche YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have been investing in new shopping features recently too. Facebook-owned Instagram has been testing the feature for quite a long time already but says to invest in a global advertising campaign of the Shop feature to boost sales revenues. The social network already allows users to view product details, browse for extras, add items to the shop list, and buy items like beauty products and apparel directly. The feature is available for all users already, but the global advertising campaign is only about to roll out. 

The companies want to drive more sales on their platforms without making users leave the apps to make purchases. This improvement is expected to increase the number of annual sales through social networks in the US from $36 billion to $50 billion by 2023. 

Coming Soon

Both TikTok and Shopify don’t specify the final release date for the feature as it will eventually appear in all the Shopify regions. It will take up to several months. If you live in the UK or the US, you can already test a pilot version of the service. Simply search for the right profile tab in the settings. Will you use the new tab on TikTok for direct sales? On what other social networks do you want to sell directly? Let’s discuss the topic in the comments, and don’t forget to share the announcement with other social network marketers.