TikTok abandons online shopping plans.
While TikTok seems like an unstoppable entertainment machine, at least one part of the company’s offering isn’t working as expected.
The popular platform is said to be abandoning its plans for direct purchases in the European and American markets. As foreign media reports, early tests of this service did not bear fruit.
TikTok has been testing a “live shopping” feature in the UK since last year, starting with a multi-brand event called “On Trend” in December.
However, it soon became clear that the live stream purchase did not attract enough attention and audience, sales were poor, and some creators left the project altogether.
The company planned to open the Store in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, as well as the US later in the year, but in the meantime it has been confirmed that the current focus is only on realizing the project in the UK and ultimately making it a success.
Direct online shopping, led by creators and influencers, could in theory be a huge business venture for ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok (which is also owned by ByteDance) has turned these live sales into major cultural events, bringing business to sellers, creators and platforms.
So far, however, there isn’t much evidence to suggest that the live shopping model will be successful across the board. TikTok is a popular app that a large number of people spend a lot of time and money on, so it is expected that the platform will find a way to attract more attention to live online shopping as well.