Mediastreet
Tag

TikTok Shop

Browsing
In News

Podean snaps up Social Commerce Club to focus on social shopping, TikTok Shop

No Comments
By Vidhi Choudhary

TikTok Shop has a new flywheel, because it offers better fulfilment, more creators telling authentic stories, and a stronger product selection.

Creator-led shopping and younger buyers are making shopping via social media platforms like TikTok Shop a big deal.

Podean—a marketplace agency that works with merchants across platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and Target—has acquired Social Commerce Club, an agency that specializes in helping brands sell on TikTok Shop.

Social Commerce Club is a specialized agency and TikTok Shop Platinum Partner that helps brands build and scale their presence on the platform. The agency handles creator-led sales and runs a creator network that connects brands with the right influencers to drive sales.

“By combining this social expertise with our global marketplace pedigree, we are providing our clients with an unmatched ability to not just drive TikTok Shop sales but leverage that impact across other e-commerce channels including Amazon and their own website sales,” Travis Johnson, CEO of Podean, said in a statement.

In April, Podean acquired Amerge, an EU agency that offers advertising services to merchants selling on Amazon in Europe.

Spin the flywheel: Speaking about the rise of TikTok Shop, Ryan Craver, co-founder and chief strategy and AI officer at Podean, told Retail Brew that better fulfilment, more creators telling authentic stories about products, and a stronger product selection are all factors in the success of the platform.

“They now provide fulfilment via what’s called Fulfilment by TikTok, which is two to three days versus historically the fulfilment time periods were typically six-plus days,” Craver said. “The second thing is generally a customer is impacted more by a content creator than they are by general reviews and general searching.”

More than half of social buyers (51%) in the US will shop on TikTok this year, per eMarketer’s forecast for 2026. “Growth is concentrating on platforms and features that convert discovery into purchases,” eMarketer noted in its forecast.

TikTok Shop is reportedly recruiting bigger brands under a new initiative called Project Horizon.

Feature image credit: Illustration: Morning Brew, Photo: TikTok

By Vidhi Choudhary

Vidhi specializes in e-commerce, AI, and retail media. She unpacks the trends shaping where and how people shop on the Internet.

Sourced from Retail Brew

Read More
By
In News

How TikTok Shop is winning over major brands

No Comments

By Melissa Daniels

On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Podcast, co-hosts Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels are joined by Modern Retail’s platforms reporter, Allison Smith, to dig into why TikTok Shop is becoming a more legitimate sales channel in the eyes of bigger brands.

Less than three years old, TikTok Shop now makes up roughly 20% of all social commerce sales, according to data from eMarketer. The rest of the category is dominated by Meta. Last year, the company drove $500 million in sales during the four-day stretch from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

In response, more established legacy brands and mid-sized companies are popping up on TikTok Shop. Smith reported this March that sales from big-name brands — those with at least $30 million in annual revenue — increased 97% year-over-year on TikTok Shop.

Here’s a rundown of their conversation.

Affiliate and incentives powering acquisition

To help boost their presence on TikTok Shop and get eyes on their products, some brands are launching affiliate networks that use creators to drive sales. Companies like Portland Leather Goods have marshalled hundreds of fans into their affiliate channel and are seeing it drive first-time customer growth.

TikTok Shop has also deliberately courted companies to join by offering co-branded partnerships where it picks up the share of a major discount or free shipping offer. At one point, it had a program called Project Horizon to incentivize agencies to onboard large brands, driving at least $10 million in annual sales on competing platforms. But as the platform matures, such incentives might be less common.

Small versus big brands

Early successes on TikTok Shop often came from digitally-native startups. And their playbook that relied on UGC, live shopping or flash sales may not be a fit for major multinational companies like Samsung, Disney, Ulta and others that are newer to the platform. They may also not be able to post as frequently or authentically as a founder-led brand can, due to the approvals and processes that corporate marketing typically involves.

But those larger companies may have an edge when it comes to price competition. And they also may see more of a halo effect on their other sales channels if they’re showing up in front of TikTok Shop buyers who aren’t quite ready to add to cart.

Discovery and awareness over retention

Despite the success any brands are seeing, the trio discusses how TikTok Shop won’t be for everybody. Companies are still losing margin by selling on a different platform, meaning they have to make sure they can handle a potential hit. There’s also the question of whether TikTok Shop sales could cannibalize the growth they’re seeing in other channels, whether direct-to-consumer or Amazon.

Still, there’s evidence that TikTok Shop is growing at a rate that requires brands to pay attention and determine if it plays a role in their customer journey. EMarketer’s research from December also shows that TikTok Shop sales are poised to surpass $20 billion in 2026 and reach over $30 billion in 2028. The podcast concludes with a discussion on whether it’s a “must-have” or “nice-to-have.” As with many retail choices, the answer depends on the brand’s unique positioning

By Melissa Daniels

Sourced from Modern Retail

Read More
By