Driving commerce everywhere: Selling on TikTok is now easier than ever

Over the last few years, we've witnessed the power of TikTok to influence shoppers and guide their purchasing decisions. Beyond sold-out shelves and hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, the most important thing to note about this shopping movement is that it was created by the community—the one billion people worldwide who come to TikTok to be entertained, inspired, educated, and now shop.

Today, we're excited to introduce two new automation solutions that make it easier than ever to optimize your campaigns and increase conversions. And read on for research that proves TikTok's power to drive commerce everywhere—online, in-store, and in the app itself.

New updates to our commerce solutions

Video Shopping Ads

We're constantly leveling up Video Shopping Ads to create the most immersive and frictionless shopping experience for our community while maximizing outcomes for brands. Based on tests, Video Shopping Ads get 31.6% higher click-attributed ROAS versus non-catalog solutions.¹ Today, Video Shopping Ads is officially available globally, with a few key updates:

• Simplified onboarding: TikTok has invested in an ecosystem of third-party partners, and we recently expanded and evolved our partnership with Shopify to make creating a Video Shopping Ads campaign even easier. This integration empowers new merchants to seamlessly integrate their catalog and data connections with TikTok. And now, merchants can launch their first Video Shopping Ads campaign using pre-populated campaign settings and best practices, directly within Shopify.

• New formats and creative: We're doubling down on formats that drive performance, focusing on creative scale and ease of use. You can now automatically populate your product catalog into formats like Carousel and Product Tiles. With Carousel, you can drive a 2x increase in CTR and 292% CTA ROAS lift for retargeting. With Product Tiles, we've seen a 14% CTR Increase and 3.2% ROAS Lift compared to Product Cards alone.²

• Maximizing discoverability: We're making it even easier for shoppers to find your products. Expanding beyond the For You page, Video Shopping Ads campaigns are now also discoverable from the search tab.

Check out brands who are already seeing success with Video Shopping Ads in Canada, like Mark's and Monos.

New studies show TikTok drives online and offline product sales

Now that you're up-to-date on the latest solutions, how does this translate to impact?

To help us understand this, we worked with trusted measurement partners Nielsen (MMx), Transunion (MTA), and Foursquare on a series of research studies covering a wide range of retail industries. By looking at the results, one thing is clear: TikTok is driving commerce everywhere, across all channels—online, in-store, and on TikTok itself.

From total sales to high ROI, TikTok delivers

Advertising on TikTok is effective at driving overall returns for retailers. Regardless of the measurement methodology, we are seeing a return for retail advertisers that's 1.6-2x better than other media channels:

• TikTok's ROAS is more than 2x better than linear TV, social and OLV for total retail.⁴

• TikTok's retail ROAS is 1.6x more efficient than the media average across TikTok, online display, online audio, online video, social, and paid search.⁵

Online sales

We've consistently seen that TikTok is a driver of online sales, a role that continues to grow as we enhance our commerce solutions. When compared to other online video channels, TikTok delivers an online retail ROAS that is 3.5x more efficient, and TikTok's retail ROAS for online conversions is 1.3x more efficient than the average across TikTok, online Display, online audio, online video, social, and paid search.⁵

In-store sales

What's more exciting is the halo effect that TikTok ads have on in-store sales and foot traffic. This new data proves what we've hypothesized all along—that TikTok's impact on sales transcends online sales and successfully drives a higher in-store return for retailers.

• TikTok's retail ROAS for offline conversions is 1.9x more efficient than the media average across TikTok, online display, online audio, online video, social, and paid search.⁵

• TikTok's cost per store visit is 38% more efficient than Foursquare's retail benchmark.⁶

• TikTok's cost per incremental store visit is 25% more efficient than Foursquare's retail benchmark.⁶

The Foursquare findings also show that, even though the purpose of Video Shopping Ads is to drive online conversions, 80% of Video Shopping Ads placements result in behavioural lift of incremental foot traffic, 2x Foursquare's benchmark. The median cost per store visit for TikTok Video Shopping Ads is also 43% more efficient than the Foursquare retail cost per store visit norms.⁶

In-app sales

As we introduce new solutions like TikTok Shop* in the US, we're also seeing the TikTok community lean into shopping natively on TikTok. 84% of TikTok users agree TikTok Shop is convenient and easy³ and TikTok users are 1.3x more likely to say they feel secure shopping on TikTok compared to other social/video platforms.³ This convenience translates to direct impact on major shopping periods: over 5 million new customers made a purchase on TikTok Shop during the 2023 Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign period.⁷

Drive sales everywhere with TikTok

So how does this work in practice? Well, that depends on your goal.

If you want to drive sales on your brand's website, then Video Shopping Ads or Web Conversion Ads are the way to go. Video Shopping Ads is the solution for catalog-based businesses to drive online sales, and Web Conversion Ads drive traffic to your site for any non-catalog business.

So what are you waiting for? Explore our commerce solutions and start driving product sales through TikTok today.

*TikTok Shop and Shop Ads are available in select markets only

Sources

1. Internal data comparisons of advertisers using both VSA and Web Conversions products

2. Internal data comparisons of advertisers using using both VSA Single video and Carousel formats; Internal data comparisons of advertisers using using Product Card vs Product Tile

3. TikTok Marketing Science Global TikTok Shop Research (US Results) 2024, conducted by Material

4. Nielsen MMM study over 7 Retailers in Speciality Big Box and Beauty Big Box (US)

5. Transunion MTA Study commissioned by TikTok, US Only ROAS inclusive of Big Box, Specialty Big Box, Beauty Retail, and Fashion/Luxury Retail

6. TikTok and Foursquare attribution studies. N = 143 campaigns. US TikTok Retail Campaigns Oct 2022 - Sep 2023

7. TikTok internal data. Data uplift shown as relative to daily average GMV of 10.20 -10.26 baseline period)