Best Ways to Use TikTok for Your eCommerce Business

If you have not noticed, TikTok is more than simply a place to pick up on the latest Gen Z dancing moves. It’s also the place where countless users look for new things to buy and get influenced by social buying.  

TikTok offers all that it takes to peak social commerce, so if you have anything to offer, start an online store today and start planning your TikTok eCommerce strategy right now! 

In this article, we will go over how to make money on TikTok and take benefit of the amazing marketing opportunities it offers as a top influencing social media platform. 

Why TikTok is Good for Your Business

When trying to reach a younger demographic, TikTok is a fantastic social media channel. Why? To put it simply, the vast majority of TikTok users are below 50 years of age.

Owning a TikTok business account is similar to owning a storefront in one of the busiest spots of the world, given it has more than a billion active users monthly. 

In fact, studies reveal that 35% of users have made a purchase on TikTok and that 44% of users have learned about new businesses via advertisements and content broadcast on the network.

TikTok’s e-commerce features streamline the product discovery and purchase processes for its consumers. Those with a TikTok for Business account may also make various kinds of ads, such as:

• TopView Advertising
• In-Feed Ads
• Brand Takeover Ads
• Use branded Effects 
• Use Branded Hashtag Challenges 

Overall, TikTok is a wonderful tool for broadening your business’ impact, exciting your customers, and inspiring your imagination.

Pros and Cons of TikTok in Business

Now that we understand why TikTok could be an excellent place to publicize your business, let’s weigh the pros and cons of owning a TikTok business account. 

Advantages of TikTok in Business:

1. An advantageous platform for a low marketing budget as you don’t need high-quality content.
2. With the TikTok Business Creator Hub, you can monitor what’s popular on the platform and adjust your own videos to fit the current trends, making it easy to adjust your branding strategy on the go.
3. Tiktok’s business entry barriers are much lower than those of competing social networking sites.
4. It caters to decreasing audience patience and attention spans.

Disadvantages of TikTok in Business:

1. It’s not a good platform to target the older audience as most of them are quite young, specifically GenZ.
2. It doesn’t provide as many analytics and reports as other social media platforms.

How to Use TikTok for Your eCommerce Business

Whether you have an established online store for custom clothing or you’re thinking of starting one, using TikTok for business can significantly contribute to your marketing strategy. 

TikTok allows certain businesses and content creators (depending on their location) to create a storefront inside the app, allowing users to shop, browse, and purchase products even without leaving the platform. E-commerce platforms like Shopify and Square have built simple integrations with TikTok to assist users the market their online stores.

Let’s jump into how you can use TikTok for your e-commerce business.

Create TikTok Business Account

Download TikTok from the App Store or Google Play and create an account. Since you will use this account for business, use business details, such as email or phone number, and link your other business’ social media profiles.

If you want access to marketing analytics for traffic monitoring, you can purchase TikTok Pro.  The next step is to choose a suitable business classification for your account. The TikTok algorithm’s decision as to which viewers will see your video advertising and posts will be impacted by your choice here. You have options for arts and crafts, beauty, electronics, clothing and accessories, and more.

Set Up Your Profile

All vendors, regardless of location, may and should include shopping links on their profiles, allowing viewers to make purchases without leaving the app. This allows users to purchase items they have viewed in their feeds immediately.

Your TikTok profile is essentially your virtual shop, so make the most of the few words and one link-sharing opportunity you have. In order to get the most out of TikTok for promotional purposes, consider the following suggestions: 

1. Choose a profile picture that is professional and fitting for your business.
2. With just 80 characters, your TikTok bio should go right to the point and contain a call to action (CTA).
3. If it fits in with your brand’s tone of voice, an emoji is a great way to show some flair and cut down on text length.
4. Choose your URL with care, and think about whether it should go to your online store, a targeted landing page, one of your other social media profiles, or your most recent blog post, depending on your strategy.

Create a Marketing Strategy and Plan

TikTok is so unique and distinct from other platforms that it requires an approach tailored to the specific kind of user base it attracts. To elicit a positive response from the Tiktok community, your marketing efforts should reflect your brand’s authenticity and core values rather than try to trick users into buying just anything.

To create a strong marketing strategy, you’ll have to take the following steps: 

• Learn the ropes of TikTok and become a savvy TikTok content consumer first.
• Find out what characteristics of videos that are hot on TikTok share by reading about its algorithm and how the platform ranks and distributes videos.
• Identify your business’s target audience and know who your videos will address so you can plan content accordingly.
• Check out your competitors on business and see what they’re doing to identify what works and what doesn’t work for them.
• Set clear goals and objectives you wish to achieve on the platform. These goals should be measurable and attainable in a specific timeline.
• Use a calendar to plan out content, and make sure you star every important date to plan creative production ahead.

Create Content for Your Audience

TikTok is a platform where you share videos, so your content is going to be in the form of videos. Making a popular TikTok video doesn’t need a unique formula, but there are specific guidelines to stick to. Here are a few tips to make sure people want to watch your videos:

• Put effort into making videos by choosing a well-lit space and recording clear audio. 
• Consider using a video editor for TikTok for trending sounds and trending styles of making videos, such as How-to videos and tutorials.
• Use relevant hashtags to get discovered easily.

Collaborate With Other Profiles

Want to get more views or increase brand awareness beyond your general advertising option? You may collaborate with other creators on videos. When you collaborate with other profiles, you stand a chance to touch the group of individuals that follow them and wouldn’t have known about your brand or its products. You can collaborate with other profiles in the following ways:

• Using the Duets feature
• Hiring an influencer to make content for you
• Hiring brand ambassadors
• Supporting and sharing user-generated-content
• Asking your clients to review for a reward

Consistency is the Key

The TikTok Algo 101 revealed that Two metrics primarily drive the TikTok algorithm. The first is a user’s propensity to return to the service. The second is time spent on the app. It’s not likely that your very first video will go viral and give you a sudden boom in the number of followers unless you are really lucky. For that reason, you should focus on retention of the number of followers you have, which will only happen if you deliver new content consistently.

Additionally, with all social media strategies, you need to plan a schedule for when you’ll deliver new content and stick to it. It will help you:

• build a loyal following
• attract more viewers 
• aid in expanding your network
• improve your chances of achieving viral success.

Conclusion

If you’re in the game of selling and marketing things in any capacity, you can almost certainly count on seeing some success with TikTok eCommerce. As such, you now have a manual to follow in order to maximize the marketing potential of TikTok for your company. You only need something to sell, imagination, and the proper strategy. 

Create an account and dive into the amazing features that this platform has to offer. Go out there and create some stuff that others will like and find useful. You’ll be well on your way to success if you can engage and amuse your target audience.