TikTok Shopping Features Less Success In The UK, But The Opposite In Indonesia

Tiktok's shopping feature is considered less successful in the UK, but successful in Indonesia. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - TikTok is now reducing its direct trading plans in Europe and the US. According to the Financial Times this is because after their initial launch it was not successful. But in Indonesia, it is the opposite, because there is a significant growth of this shopping feature in the country.

TikTok has been testing the direct shopping feature in the UK since late last year. It started with a multi-brand event called "On Trend" last December.

But FT reports that the shopping livestream hasn't attracted much viewers and hasn't sparked much sales, and some of the content creators involved in the TikTok Shop project at the start have dropped out of the trial altogether.

TikTok has also planned to launch Shop in Germany, France, Italy, and now Spain and hopes to launch in the US later this year. But until now they have only focused on making a successful product in the UK. Trials of this feature are also live in several countries in Asia, where the concept is more mature. even in Indonesia is considered quite successful.

Live online shopping, led by creators and influencers, is big business for TikTok owner ByteDance. Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok also owned by ByteDance, has seen the live sale turn into a huge cultural event that brings big business to retailers, content creators, and platforms.

But so far, there isn't much evidence to suggest that the live e-commerce model will work anywhere. Sure, QVC and the Home Shopping Network were once huge successes in the US, and more and more users are buying products via Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but many platforms have tried to make live shopping work and so far nothing has worked.

In addition, along with the growth of social shopping, the competition for social media to become a shopping house will be increasingly fierce. Even Amazon invests heavily in shopping streams!

However, you should not rule out TikTok. This app continues to be a cultural hub, and where a large number of people spend their time and more and more their money. There's no doubting TikTok's commitment to the idea, either: a company that's been building and testing custom shopping experiences for over a year.

Even now they are continuing to test the TikTok Store tab in the app in Indonesia. Even this trial according to The Verge was quite successful. If there's a company that can make live social shopping work outside of Asia, it's probably TikTok.