TikTok is adding shopping features allowing users to shop directly from the app, bringing a popular trend from China to the U.S.
Key Details
- TikTok is launching a feature on the app allowing users to shop directly from brands.
- Brands offering shopping services will have a shopping bag on their profile that users can click and see videos and pictures of the available products that can be purchased directly on the app.
- Instagram launched shopping features on the app in 2018, adding an entire dedicated page in 2020, allowing users to shop on the app, but the social-media company found little success with in-app shopping.
Why it’s news
Instagram and TikTok are two of the most popular social media apps, with both platforms featuring over 1 billion active users monthly.
The apps have become competitors as both target the same audience and favor short-length videos, but TikTok is adding a new feature to its lineup that Instagram has recently stepped away from—shopping.
TikTok is adding a shopping feature to its app allowing users to shop directly from the platform. TikTok statistics show that many users use the app as a search engine to look up videos and reviews of various products and then buy them elsewhere.
TikTok is adding a new feature where users can look up the products, see videos, pictures, and reviews, and then purchase the products directly from the platform.
Brands offering shopping services will have a shopping bag on their profile that users can click and see videos and pictures of the available products that can be purchased directly on the app.
Currently the shopping tab is only being offered to certain brands and is practically still in a testing phase, but the company plans to roll it out across the app soon.
While TikTok is opening up more shopping services, Instagram is stepping back from it.
Prior to TikTok, Instagram was the hotspot for users to look up products and buy them, so Instagram took a similar move and launched shopping services on the app in 2018, allowing users to shop.
In 2020, Instagram launched an entire tab on the platform that allowed users to see every option for sale on the site and scroll through it like a catalog. The company had high hopes but was ultimately disappointed as the shop tab did not perform well.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, recently announced that it will soon remove the shop feature from the app.
