Research
BCG report: How shoppertainment fuels the purchasing journey on TikTok
Designed to inspire creativity and bring joy, TikTok is built on entertainment. People from across the globe come here to create and share their experiences and interests in a fun and entertaining way.
While this is obviously a great thing for users, how do brands take advantage of this entertainment-first environment? A recent study by TikTok and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), titled Shoppertainment: APAC's Trillion-Dollar Opportunity, demonstrates the incredible potential of content-driven commerce, or shoppertainment, on TikTok.
In this article, we'll look at some of the key takeaways from the report and how brands can drive results by incorporating entertainment-first strategies into their own TikTok campaigns.
APAC's trillion-dollar opportunity
According to the research, shoppertainment could uncover $1 trillion in market value for brands in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region by 2025, up from $500 billion today.¹
The report surveyed six APAC markets, including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea and Japan, and found that as technology provides ever more choices and control, consumer needs are shifting from more functional needs, such as value and convenience, towards more emotional needs, such as treating oneself or knowing the story behind the brand.²
This represents a huge opportunity for marketers willing to embrace entertainment-first shopping that appeals to the emotional needs of consumers to sustain the purchasing journey.
But before we dive into the details of shoppertainment, we need to first understand how consumer attitudes are changing, driven by increasing technology adoption.
The evolution of shopping
According to the study, we are witnessing certain shifts in shopping behaviors and attitudes that are shaping commerce today.
More choices, more distractions
With more channels than ever, consumers experience greater inertia and more distractions when making decisions. TikTok and BCG's research showed that 26% of consumers want more time to consider, 46% buy on a different day, and 85% switch apps while going through the consumer journey. Combine these behaviors with a growing skepticism towards branded content (34%), and you can see why brands are looking for better ways to connect with consumers.¹
Functional vs emotional needs
Through in-depth ethnographic insights and quantitative research, TikTok and BCG showed that customers in APAC have six key needs when shopping, with each need playing a unique role in the customer journey. These six needs can be divided into two main groups that shape how brands engage with consumers: functional needs and emotional needs.
Functional needs. Covering approximately 60% of the entire network of buying and selling, functional spaces are where consumers transact out of habit, focusing on existing products and services without considering new options.¹
Convenience. Making it easy for consumers to undertake their routine purchases, such as completing their weekly grocery shopping.
Improvement. Providing an upgrade opportunity for consumers (but should be an option close to their routine purchase), such as discovering a superior detergent at a slightly higher price.
Validation. Validating consumers that they are making the right choice; especially relevant for products that are of higher involvement, such as when a consumer considers upgrading their smartphone to the latest model.
Emotional needs. Covering approximately 40% of the entire network of buying and selling, emotional spaces are where change is happening and consumers are actively considering new products.¹
Recommendation. Providing a trusted recommendation to consumers in situations where they are unsure of their purchasing decision, such as when a consumer wants to purchase new shoes, but also wants to follow the latest trends.
Indulgence. Providing consumers an opportunity to indulge themselves with a purchase, such as when a consumer comes across a new color release of their favorite lipstick brand.
Inspiration. Establishing an inspirational experience where consumers can discover completely new products or brands, such as when a consumer wants to find a seasonal look and comes across a new brand that produces fresh and exciting dress styles.
So what does this mean for your brand? It's important to continue delivering basic consumer needs (convenience, improvement, validation) while also upping your game to meet their elevated emotional needs (recommendation, indulgence, inspiration).
Which brings us back to shoppertainment. Shoppertainment offers the potential for brands to engage consumers, especially their emotional needs by delivering entertainment-first content that ignites excitement, trust, knowledge and passion.
What is shoppertainment?
Shoppertainment is defined as content-driven commerce that seeks to entertain and educate first while integrating content and community to create highly immersive shopping experiences.¹ In terms of content, the study uncovered the five things that consumers find most important to making shoppertainment content engaging:
Tell stories and educate. Build content with genuine storytelling and educational value.
Focus on video-first. Embrace a video-first approach defined by short content that maintains attention
Don’t force decision-making. Ensure content is associated with interests and hobbies that align with your consumer, and don’t seek to force decision-making.
Be authentic. Create an authentic brand sentiment, with credible reviews and open and engaging community conversations; lead with authentic videos that inspire.
Recommend trends. Include the voices of credible and trusted community experts, and facilitate extended conversations between friends and users. Build this into a strong and trusted culture and following.
According to the report, brands that create the right shoppertainment experiences and reach consumers at the right time have the potential to genuinely engage consumers, inspire key brand switching behavior and influence their future purchasing journeys.
TikTok ad solutions: Turning entertainment into commerce
So how does all of this translate to commerce? At TikTok, we're committed to empowering businesses of all sizes to reach and convert new customers through innovative ad solutions built on entertainment.
Standard Ads
Sound-on and video-first, our standard ad formats such as In-feed Ads, Top Feed and TopView are designed to capture audience attention at scale with thumb-stopping creative. Meanwhile, our more interactive ad solutions such as Branded Effect and Branded Hashtag Challenges leverage fun and entertaining content to drive participation and engagement.
Shopping Ads
Consisting of Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads, Shopping Ads is a smarter and simplified solution that drives maximum impact for your business. They are shoppable videos that fit seamlessly into the For You page. This solution is designed to maximize performance combining the best features of our existing products like Collection Ads and Dynamic Shopping Ads with improved technology like fully automated, smart functionalities for creative automation and dynamic product landing pages.
TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is our full-service e-commerce solution that enables merchants to sell directly through their TikTok account. TikTok Shop creates a native way to encourage users to browse and buy on TikTok.
3 key takeaways to power your shoppertainment strategy
Now that you're familiar with shoppertainment and TikTok's entertainment-first solutions, here are some key takeaways to help power your next shoppertainment campaign:
Consumers have functional and emotional needs. Try to appeal to your customers across their needs.
Shoppertainment is a massive opportunity, both in APAC and around the world. Connect with customers through relevant campaigns that adopt shoppertainment.
Craft your content approach by leading with entertainment. This will help you better foster emotional connections that power purchases.
Want to learn more?
Watch leaders from BCG, P&G, Lazada and TikTok discuss shoppertainment on Channel News Asia TV:
Sources:
Future of Commerce research by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by TikTok. Conducted in ID, TH, VN, JP, KR, AU, Apr 2022
BCG consumer focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews (n = 112) in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Korea, Japan; BCG analysis
