TikTok to Launch Its Own E-Commerce Business in August

Social media company TikTok is reportedly planning to launch an e-commerce business. The company wants to sell goods produced in China to US customers. Named “TikTok Shop Shopping Center”, the marketplace is expected to roll out as early as next month.

Similar to “Sold by Amazon”, TikTok Shop Shopping Center will serve as a central hub for users to easily find products they are looking for that are divided according to various categories. The range of goods will include all categories possible: clothes, beauty products, electronics, toys, foods, home supplies, and more. The e-commerce platform will be a part of the TikTok Shop program where consumers can shop directly from Lives, videos, and creator or brand profiles.

TikTok Shop Shopping Center is expected to help TikTok compete with huge shopping platforms like Shein and Temu. In addition, it will compete with the platform run by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Within the initiative, TikTok will purchase its own inventory and handle logistics and customer service. However, Chinese suppliers will get paid only once they find buyers in the US.  Unpopular items will be returned “to avoid being stuck with inventory”.

The shopping center is expected to be different from the existing feature of TikTok – TikTok Shop that allows brands to sell their products on the platform by paying a small commission.

TikTok website reads:

“TikTok Shop Shopping Center serves as a central hub where users can easily discover promotions (campaigns & flash sale), a wider product assortment from across our TikTok Shop merchants recommended through shoppable content (in-feed video, product showcase and LIVEs) as well as manage their orders all natively within one tab.”

Currently, the company is looking for a Global E-Commerce Shopping Center Operations Leader to head the new platform. As per the job description, the right candidate will be in charge of the whole TikTok Shopping Center operation, find ways to achieve growth in shopping center transaction volume, as well as collaborate with various teams to coordinate and organize business requirements, and be responsible for the business results.

US Scrutiny on TikTok E-Commerce Business

In October 2022, TikTok was reportedly teaming up with live shopping platform TalkShopLive to bring TikTok Shop to the United States. Then, in November last year, TikTok announced its TikTok Shop feature in the US, a few months after introducing it in the UK and seven countries in Southeast Asia. Launching TikTok Shop was quite challenging due to political scrutiny around the social media company. Prior to the launch, an FCC commissioner and two Republican lawmakers called for the app to be banned. Besides, Public Citizen, a prominent progressive advocacy group, called for an investigation of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, that allegedly used TikTok to monitor the physical location of specific US citizens.