How to Leverage TikTok to Drive Brand Awareness and Sales on Amazon
Brands are increasingly using TikTok to reach and engage with their customers. Learn how your business can leverage the social platform to drive brand awareness and increase Amazon sales.By Dawn JenksJune 2, 2020
Stay on top of the latest e-commerce and marketplace trends.
TikTok has clocked in as a significant player in the social media game, and brands big and small are taking notice. It is also capturing the attention of celebrities and influencers who have mass followings, making TikTok the latest medium to help drive brand awareness and sales.
What Is TikTok?
In 2016, ByteDance, a Chinese app developer, created an app named Douyin, which was initially launched in China only. The app was then renamed and rebranded to TikTok for international appeal. Within a year, it had generated more than 100 million global users.
TikTok rapidly increased in popularity and became the most downloaded app on the Apple App store in early 2018, outpacing Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube. As of July 2019, TikTok had over 500 million total installs on the Google Play Store. It now has over 30 million monthly active users in the U.S. alone.
What Is TikTok’s appeal?
Teens were quick to jump on the TikTok train, but might be a bit confusing to older generations. It is mostly known for viewing and creating videos, which can be uploaded, created in-app with user-friendly tools, and shared on other social media sites. Users can also play around with visual filters, time effects, split screens, green screens, stickers, GIFs, emojis, and other fun, creative effects.
Users can add music from the app’s extensive library and integration with Apple Music, interact with other users, search for content via hashtags, add friends, and more. There is lip-syncing, dancing, comedy, TikTok Challenges, duets, and never-ending entertainment, especially for its younger audience.
Who Uses TikTok?
Looking at TikTok’s U.S. demographics, we have gathered the following statistics:
There were 46 million global app installs in 2019, and 6% were in the U.S.
TikTok’s largest user base consists of 18- to 24-year-olds, which account for 42% of all users, followed by 13- to 17-year-olds, which comprise 27% of its total users.
About 60% of U.S. users are female and 40% are male.
How TikTok’s Shopping Features Are Attracting Brands
Over the past year, TikTok has been testing and rolling out its social commerce features, including an ad product that turns creator videos into in-feed ads, featuring a Shop Now call-to-action, where the ad revenues split between TikTok and the creator.
Last summer, TikTok launched its Hashtag Challenge Plus feature, which allows brand and creator videos to include e-commerce linked hashtags. In late 2019, it started testing a feature that lets creators link e-commerce sites from their videos and profile pages.
When brands partner with social media influencers, it generates brand awareness and increases sales. A GlobalWebIndex survey conducted in September 2019 found that 20% of millennials and 22% of Gen Z consumers in the U.S. and U.K. have bought items based on an influencer or celebrity recommendation on a social media channel.
As TikTok is entertainment-based, brands need to remember what consumers are using the app for — and currently they are not using it for strictly shopping. Consumers must enjoy the content first. Then, they will be more likely to keep clicking to reach the commerce side of the platform.
About the Author
Dawn Jenks is a copywriter for Feedvisor, where she develops SEO e-commerce product descriptions and is a contributing blog writer. She was previously a travel public relations executive, and enjoys running, hiking, cooking, and reading.
How to Use TikTok to Drive Amazon Sales
Thanks to TikTok, beauty product sales on Amazon almost doubled in April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to Glossy.
Brands such as I Dew Care and I’m Meme used TikTok to send shoppers from their TikTok account to their official Amazon stores, which are linked in the popular #amazonfinds hashtag, found in the TikTok videos posted by the brands. According to Glossy, the #amazonfinds hashtag has received over 720 million views on TikTok.
Considering that salons and spas were temporarily shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic and many consumers were dying their hair (blue and pink hair dyes sold well on Amazon); polishing their nails (Amazon’s nail polish sales more than doubled); consumers were getting their beauty inspiration from TikTok, and brands selling on Amazon were profiting off of this trend.
However, it’s not just beauty brands that can increase awareness and sales through TikTok. Almost any consumer brand can benefit from the app’s marketing features, following the same strategies that have been driving sales for other brands. It takes a combination of creativity, great content, and possible collaborations with creators who have large followings.
The clock is ticking for your brand to experiment with TikTok, so consider striking while the iron is hot. Your Amazon sales will thank you.
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