Shopping behavior on TikTok

We write this article following an interesting study published by the increasingly popular social network. The fact is that TikTok has had such an exponential and dizzying growth that sometimes it is difficult to properly assess how far it is being able to reach something that some still mistakenly see as: "A network for kids".

 

We will not deny that it was the TikTokers of Generation Z who gave it the biggest boost, but today it continues to grow globally and transversally in terms of different segments. As if that weren't enough, it is accelerating in eCommerce, and that shows in the results it offers.

As we said, we are going to analyze a report prepared by TikTok for Business, from which some very interesting data can be gleaned regarding online conversion. What is most striking at first glance is this concept that they have called "infinite loop".

 

It is a concept to be explored that can also be exported to other platforms and channels. What it means is that the conversion funnel as we know it is not the same in the interaction of the TikTok audience.

 

We are used to a linear behavior progressively following each of the phases of the Customer Journey; and this model may still make sense in eCommerce, but in social networks it is different. As purely leisure content consumption coexists with purchasing, the user enters and exits the funnel constantly, interacting with the different touchpoints in a chaotic rather than sequential way.

This is how we reach this infinite loop without a definite beginning and end and that, according to TikTok report, requires brands to have a different relationship with the user: more interaction and more community, which end up generating a greater amount of sales, as well as greater loyalty to the brand.

The key to all of this is in the way the customer consumes. As we have seen in eCommerce that sell through streaming, the discovery and the purchase itself become an experience that makes the act of buying fun.

If you incorporate this network into your strategic mix of channels, you will have to do a very important exercise beforehand. It consists of understanding why and how users are on TikTok. Yes: they want to have fun and hang out, but at the same time there are other additional motivations:

It is important to note that the infinite loop that TikTok talks about does not imply that the different phases of the Customer Journey have disappeared. They are still present, but the interaction becomes more fluid.

In fact, TikTok's positive and playful approach has an important impact on the purchase cycle, especially on discovery, consideration, purchase and that very complicated part that is evangelization or prescription, the creation of brand ambassadors.

As the study credits, web users are:

 But, as we have said, the effect of TikTok goes beyond purchase. Users share their experience by making unboxings, tutorials, tests, evaluations... This affects everything from Mercadona's nougat to a hotel in the Maldives, because it is content that is massively valued and consumed by TikTokers.

 

Therefore, for every user we are able to convert into a customer, we have a potential ambassador who will interact with our brand:

 In short: in terms of purchase and post-sale, TikTok is a channel to be exploited by any brand that is able to align its content with the casual, positive and fun experience that the network is looking for.

 

Purchase motivation rises up to 39% and customers share their experience up to 1.3 times using this channel.