TikTok Shop prepares for entry to Europe

 

TikTok Shop, the social commerce venture of the popular video sharing platform is reportedly planning for a market entry to major European countries including Germany, Spain, France and Italy. This is not the first time such an entry is rumoured; the company has already announced and ultimately backtracked from such plans back in 2022.

 

Find out all about TikTok and its sister app Douyin’s e-Commerce ventures!

 

Could 2024 be the year of TikTok Shop’s European entry? Let’s see how things stand right now.

 

 

TikTok Shop in a nutshell

TikTok Shop is currently available in the US, UK, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Over 15 million sellers are active on the platform globally, and the company aims to reach a GMV of $50 billion by the end of this year.  

 

In the US, 33 million shoppers spend around $7 million per day on the platform. The number of consumers buying products on TikTok Shop is estimated to reach 39.5 million by 2026.

 

 

Still image from a video promoting a kitchen organiser on tiktok.com

 

 

However, TikTok’s US journey is not without its challenges. The US government has recently passed a law that forces TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance to sell the company to a government-approved buyer, or face a complete ban in the US. ByteDance has filed a lawsuit against the US government over this piece of legislation, which will most likely land at the US Supreme Court.

 

The whole issue is generated by fears in the US (and Europe) that the Chinese government could access sensitive user data of Western TikTok account holders. This data includes the exact location of users, as well as their personal preferences, etc. Moreover, the Chinese government could also use TikTok’s content recommendation features to spread misinformation amongst users.

 

The US legislation gives ByteDance six months to sell TikTok, plus an additional three months to finalise details of the sale. As the legislation came into effect in April 2024, TikTok should be sold by January 2025. In theory, at least. However, with the lawsuit and subsequent court case, the procedure is likely to take a lot longer than that.

 

 

Related Topics

TikTok’s sister company, Douyin makes it big in China

 

TikTok’s e-Commerce push in Indonesia

 

The end of external e-Commerce links on TikTok?

 

 

The plans for Europe

Newspapers report that the planned launch in European markets could fall into the third quarter of 2024. Although as of our date of publication TikTok has not officially confirmed or denied these reports, some signs do point to potential preparations of the highly anticipated market entry.

 

For example, TikTok seems to be hiring top e-Commerce professionals to a new office in Munich - the city where a large amount of Amazon’s German workforce is located. Some of these new recruits are even rumoured to be ex-employees of Amazon, including the professional tasked with leading TikTok Shop’s beauty sector, which analysts expect could be amongst the most successful on the platform.

 

Learn all about the challenges of the beauty sector in e-Commerce!

 

Regarding content, TikTok reportedly aims to become the chosen selling platform for brands. TikTok’s sister app Douyin does that in China with enormous success: for the first ten months of last year, the company reported a sales volume of $274 billion, representing a whopping 60% year-on-year growth.

 

 

Still image from a video promoting a hair styling tool on tiktok.com

 

 

In the UK, TikTok has already attracted brands like Coca-Cola, Maybelline and Garnier to its selling platform. In addition to regular features of social commerce like interactive, instant connection to your target market, TikTok also offers additional perks like fulfilment and next-day deliveries to help its UK sellers as well as low commission fees. It’s entirely possible that sellers in Germany, Spain, France and Italy could expect similar advantages.

 

Find out all about fulfilment here!

 

As for consumers, the platform is believed to consider the tried-and-tested method of offering big discounts to encourage shopping. Other incentives may include payments to TikTok users for promoting products to their followers.

 

 

TikTok Shop and the existing European e-Commerce industry

Based on its success elsewhere, the arrival of TikTok Shop in Europe certainly has the potential to alter the current e-Commerce landscape, especially in the fashion and beauty sectors. Since many brands, sellers and influencers are already active on the platform with ads and other content, it could be a logical step for them to actually start selling there as well.

 

However, TikTok is ultimately known and loved by its users for engaging, short and entertaining videos and not for its amazing shopping opportunities. In fact, a recent study indicates that young people would prefer to turn off TikTok Shop altogether to better focus on actual content.

 

Find out all about the preferences of Gen Z consumers.

 

 

Entry to Europe or expansion in the US?

Contrary to the above mentioned news reports, other sources claim that TikTok has put a halt on its European market entry and focuses on expanding its existing US market instead. While it seems logical to further develop one of its best performing markets, the aforementioned new US legislation and an unfavourable outcome of the subsequent lawsuit may render these efforts superfluous in the long term.

 

In any case, newspapers report that TikTok Shop is testing new features to introduce to its US users. These include a picture-based search option, which allows shoppers to upload a picture to the app to find similar products on offer.

 

As one of TikTok’s most sought-after product categories, beauty and wellness products can expect a major boost from these new features. A recently published report by Dash Hudson and NielsenIQ shows that TikTok is now the ninth largest online dealer of beauty products in the US, and the second largest in the UK.

 

 

Online brand protection on TikTok Shop

Whether TikTok Shop makes it to Europe right now or at a later time, the social media app can’t be ignored by brands - especially if you want to protect your IP rights. Indeed, social commerce provides extra opportunities for fraudsters who try to make a quick buck by infringing on your IP rights.

 

Find out all about influencers promoting fake products!

 

Luckily, globaleyez’s services and solutions can look after your IP rights while you’re busy executing your marketing strategy for TikTok Shop. Our social media monitoring service detects potentially infringing content like ads, posts and product listings on major social media platforms.

 

To get a more comprehensive picture, we’d also recommend a round of image monitoring to discover your copyrighted images, stolen or copied by fraudsters to convince consumers they’re offering the real thing.

 

A product listing or an ad can tell us only so much about a product or a seller. If we need more information, we suggest a test purchase to learn all the necessary information about the origins of a product and more comprehensive data about the seller.

 

Finally, we’re offering to enforce your rights and request the removal of the infringing content from TikTok Shop, or any other corner of the internet.

 

Our overall aim is to create a clean marketplace free from counterfeits, lookalikes, grey market products and any other infringing listings that may tarnish the seamless online presentation of your products.

 

 

Conclusion

TikTok Shop is about to enter an interesting phase of its operations. Whether it’s expanding its existing offer in the US or entering new markets in Europe, your brand can make the most of the social media giant’s new e-Commerce ventures.

 

However, don’t let fraudsters make the most of it, too! Contact us and let’s devise an online brand protection strategy, tailor-made for your brand.