The paths of TikTok and Instagram have never been so far apart. Despite the fact that both offer short videos in vertical format, the fate of these two social networks in the world of electronic commerce is very different.
While Instagram recently announced that live shopping would come to an end next March, TikTok has recently launched a feature in the United States that would allow brands to sell their products directly on the app. Said function would have been launched without prior announcement and to a select group of brands, and its existence is only known thanks to AdAge and social media analyst Matt Navarra.
In this way, the brands that make use of this shopping function on TikTok will have a small icon in the shape of a shopping bag on their profiles. By clicking on it, users can explore the company’s product catalogue, including images, videos, description and prices.
Users have the ability to add products from different stores to their shopping cart, so you can buy products as if you were on an e-commerce platform like Amazon. A function that comes at a time when more and more users use TikTok as a search engine, instead of the classic Google search engine.
At the moment, it is unknown when TikTok will launch this function for more brands and in the rest of the markets. There’s no telling how successful the in-app feature will be, though the shopping features in its twin app, Douyin, have proven very popular in the Chinese market.
