An online jewelry firm called Manly Bands is betting shopping on TikTok is the future of e-commerce.
With a business account on Shopify, the small Utah firm became the first beta testers of TikTok Shopping, which allows merchants to add a shopping tab to their profiles and build an online storefront that directs customers to the merchant’s website to complete a purchase.
Manly Bands’ chief marketing officer Stephanie Bregman says it’s a way to broaden the brand’s media mix, but also to take advantage of TikTok‘s claimed 1 billion members.
The DTC brand is now using a combination of organic content publishing and paid advertising to reach its approximately 1,700 social media followers.
“We want to reduce any type of friction points that we can via the purchasing process,” Bregman added. To help our consumers locate what they’re searching for, we allow them to view what we have to offer.
Shopping on TikTok opens your store to 1 billion customers
According to her, marketers on TikTok can reach a larger audience faster than on Instagram because of the app’s viral nature.
TikTok shoppable postings haven’t had an obvious impact on sales, since Bregman wouldn’t reveal sales figures. TikTok is a feasible advertising alternative because CPMs are less than half of what they are on Facebook, she said. There is a lot less traffic on TikTok right now, which means “that informs us that we can obtain inexpensive traffic,” she explained.
As previously reported by Digiday in 2019, Manly Bands was investing heavily on Facebook and Instagram advertising, shifting from display advertisements to video-based advertising.
New shoppable options were introduced during the September TikTok World conference, including the aforementioned shopping tab, product links and live shopping. For the first time, businesses may directly integrate items into TikTok and include them into their own organic content, as stated in a blog post from TikTok.
The social commerce arms race appears to be heating up, to say the least. E-commerce has been added to TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. Brandon Biancalani, manager of paid advertising at social marketing agency Modifly, believes that if businesses want to enjoy any of the advantages, they’ll need to dive in while the water is warm.
“That’s a big opportunity right now, especially when a lot of brands are in the space,” Biancalani said, adding that brands should “pioneer that and build a bigger funnel before other brands start competing and CPMs rise.”
Social commerce in the United States is gaining traction, but at a slower pace than in China. The rise in online buying and social media use caused by the epidemic has already pushed social commerce revenues above $30 billion, according to eMarketer.
TikTok’s audience is infamous for being averse to advertising, and Biancalani warned that businesses will have to tread carefully, immerse themselves in the TikTok culture, and avoid pushing items in order to succeed.
“If they do it right, it could be an opportunity and they could push their way into a new wave of marketing on TikTok,” he said. The focus, though, is on doing it well.
Bregman predicted that Manly Bands will boost their social media advertising spending by 30 percent next year, while also expanding their media mix to include shopping on TikTok.
She didn’t give any additional information.
When it comes to finding information and goods, she says, “we know generations are evolving, [and so are] the mediums they use.” Our brand humor and creative energies made TikTok a wonderful fit for us to put a lot of effort into that medium,” says the company.