Connect with us

SOCIAL

TikTok Tests New In-Stream Shopping Push in the US

Published

on

TikTok Tests New In-Stream Shopping Push in the U.S.

TikTok’s making its next push on in-stream commerce, with some users in the U.S. now seeing a new “Shop” tab appear in the app.

As you can see in these examples, shared by Bloomberg, the new Shop tab is being displayed to selected U.S. users between the “For You” and “Following” feeds, giving it premium placement in the UI.

According to Bloomberg, the new tab displays a scrollable listing of seemingly random products, largely originating from China, though some do appear to be linked to in-app trends.

“The most prominent section is for “Today’s Deals.” On the feed seen by Bloomberg, the top promoted product was a snail mucin-based face serum which has recently gone viral on the app.”

That aligns with TikTok’s revamped eCommerce strategy, which has seen the app look to focus on viral products, by providing them through its own supply chain, which is backed by a range of China-based suppliers.

TikTok’s been testing this approach in the U.K., and now it seems to be reaching the U.S. as well, though in a slightly different display format.

TikTok Shop feed

The app remains very keen to integrate direct shopping, based on the success that it’s seen with the same in the Chinese version of the app.

Indeed, in-stream commerce is now the main income stream for “Douyin” the mainland Chinese version of TikTok, while TikTok’s also seeing solid take-up of its shopping tools in other Asian markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

But Western users have thus far remained hesitant to combine their social media and shopping experiences, preferring either physical shopping or dedicated eCommerce apps instead.

TikTok’s still trying to latch onto the best way to lure Western consumers, and convince them to buy in-stream.

It initially focussed on live-stream shopping, its main driver in China, but it was eventually forced to scale back its live shopping ambitions due to lukewarm user response. With that initial push not resonating, TikTok then moved onto in-stream shops and product display options, which have generated some response, but clearly not enough to make it a significant factor for the app.

So now, TikTok’s trying another tactic, though this one, based on initial insights at least, could be an even more risky approach for the short-form video giant.

In its further notes, Bloomberg also reports that TikTok’s new U.S. shop tab is currently displaying products from several Chinese outlets that have already been banned from Amazon for faking customer reviews. The risk, then, is that if these products are sub-par, or if the listings are misleading, that could leave users more disillusioned with the TikTok shopping experience, and turn even more of them off of it for good.

Facebook has seen similar. Part of the problem with Facebook’s in-stream shopping push is that there are so many scams operating in the app that many people have been duped, leading them to lean more into the platforms that they know and trust for shopping instead. And each bad experience has a significant amplification factor, because users then tell their friends about it, which pushes even more people away from in-app purchases.

Essentially, social apps have got a long way to go to match up the trust that Amazon, eBay, and other big retailers have built into their systems. And without that, most consumers are happy to see a product in a social app, then go looking for it elsewhere, and purchase where they can do so with more peace of mind.

TikTok’s new approach, at this early stage, could run the risk of falling into the same trap, and it’ll be interesting to see if and how it plans to expand this new push within the U.S.

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

SOCIAL

Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’

Published

on

Elon Musk's comments at the New York Times' Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence

Elon Musk’s comments at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Slaven Vlasic

Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of “blackmail” and said anyone who does so can “go fuck yourself.”

The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.

Earlier, Musk had apologized for what he called “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”

In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on November 15 called a post “the actual truth” that said Jewish communities advocated a “dialectical hatred against whites,” which was criticized as echoing longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.

The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticized Musk for anti-semitism.

“I’m sorry for that tweet or post,” Musk said Wednesday. “It was foolish of me.”

He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.

But Musk also said he wouldn’t be beholden to pressure from advertisers.

“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?” Musk said. “Go fuck yourself.”

But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.

“If the company fails… it will fail because of an advertiser boycott” Musk said. “And that will be what will bankrupt the company.”

Musk, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself “philo-Semitic,” or an admirer of Judaism.

During the interview, Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7. The necklace reads, “Bring Them Home.”

Musk told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an “apology tour” related to the controversial tweet.

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SOCIAL

TikTok Encourages Creators To Make Longer Videos, With Focus On Ad Revenue 11/30/2023

Published

on

TikTok Encourages Creators To Make Longer Videos, With Focus On Ad Revenue 11/30/2023

With a need to expand its advertising business, TikTok is now fully focused on the output of long-form videos.

A new report by The Information shows the company’s recent efforts to convince
creators to put out longer videos in order to provide more room for ad placements.

According to the …



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SOCIAL

X Adds Option To Embed Videos in Isolation From Posts

Published

on

X Adds Option To Embed Videos in Isolation From Posts

Next time you go to embed an X post, you may notice a new step:

Now, X will enable you to choose whether you want to embed the video element in isolation, or the whole post, as normal.

And if you do choose to embed just the video (or GIF), it’ll look like this:

Which could be a helpful way to present X-originated video on third-party websites, and add context to, say, your blog post, without the clutter of the full X framing.

But it could also reduce brand exposure for X, which is likely why Twitter didn’t enable this before, though it did once provide an “embedded video widget” which essentially served the same purpose.

X embeds

Twitter gradually seemed to phase that out as the platform evolved, and there’s no specific reason that I can find as to why it removed it as an option. But either way, now, it’s back, so you have more options for using X-originated content, and putting more focus on video elements specifically.

Though I don’t know why they didn’t also take the opportunity to remove the ‘Tweet’ reference. Since the re-brand to X, the platform seems to have gone to little effort to weed out all the tweet and bird terminology, but then again, with 80% fewer staff, that’s probably understandable as well.



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending