According to a recent report from Financial Times, social media giant TikTok plans to launch Live Shopping in the near future and is actively seeking partners to outsource operations to. With this significant development, eCommerce stores should keep an eye out for opportunities to leverage TikTok’s live shopping to their advantage. As a social media reseller, learn how your digital agency can benefit too!

What Is Live Shopping? 

Live shopping combines the live stream elements of social media platforms with the functionality of eCommerce shopping. Working with influencers known for streaming content on social platforms like Instagram or Twitch, brands can sell their products directly to a ready audience. 

Throughout the live stream, customers can make instant purchases online at the click of a button. Live shopping usually features an influencer or celebrity hosting a live-streamed show or online segment while presenting or showing products that viewers can buy. Payments can be made through the platform itself or a separate eCommerce payment platform. 

Where Has Live Shopping Been Successful In The Past?

Live shopping has been tried and tested over several platforms with varying degrees of success. Notable examples of live shopping include:

• Instagram offers one of the most successful social media live shopping experiences. Multiple hosts can participate in a live stream where interested customers can make purchases immediately. 
• YouTube has the potential to host live shopping events within YouTube Live, provided a link for purchasing products is linked in the messaging area, live description, as a clickable YouTube link, having the host or influencer mention the domain name or anywhere else in the stream. Since it falls under the Google umbrella, YouTube live shopping offers the ability to instantly place products in videos by syncing with your Google Merchant Center.
• Popular streaming platform Twitch also offers fantastic live shopping with several integrations designed to make the experience enjoyable. Clickable links for online stores and high audience engagement in the chat section make Twitch a very interactive live shopping option. 

Live Shopping On TikTok

Financial Times reports that TikTok is currently seeking partners to bring live shopping to their platform, starting in the United States. TalkShopLive, based in Los Angeles, has been running live shopping streams for the past four years and is in talks with TikTok to finalise the use of their infrastructure to bring TikTok live shopping to the public. An official announcement has yet to be made, likely because negotiations are still underway and no contracts have been signed to date. 

What Live Shopping On TikTok Means For Your Digital Agency’s Clients

Until an official release, predicting the future of live shopping for any specific client is difficult. However, due to the success of influencer marketing on TikTok and the continued growth of eCommerce and online shopping in general, it’s safe to assume that there will be great potential here. Depending on how open live shopping on TikTok will be, how it will be monetised and other details, live shopping can be the next big thing in the digital space.  

Looking for a social media reseller to help keep up with the latest platform abilities, online trends, and algorithm shifts for your clients? Globital UK offers a huge range of outsourced digital marketing services for your agency, from white-label Google Ads management to social media marketing to white-label web development. Take your digital agency to the next level with a true, white-label partner. Contact Globital UK today at support@globitalmarketing.com.