TikTok Live Shopping 101: How Can Small Businesses Get Started in 2024

Live commerce is without a doubt taking the e-commerce world by storm. This innovative form of online shopping allows consumers to interact with brands and products in real-time through live streaming platforms, making the shopping experience more engaging and personalized than ever before.

Known as a game changer, TikTok definitely never misses out this promising opportunity. TikTok Live Shopping is booming in 2022 and has left its competitors far away behind. 50% of TikTok users have bought something after watching TikTok LIVE. 

Have you ever wondered how your business can benefit from this feature? Let’s discover the answer in this article! 

What is TikTok Live Shopping? 

TikTok Live Shopping is an e-commerce experience that allows brands to showcase their products in real-time via live-stream events. Users watching the live stream can interact with merchants via the comment section and shop without switching to another tab.

Ultimately, TikTok live shopping offers a promising chance for brands to integrate into a larger community and tap a new generation of consumers. All its features aim to create a unique experience through the ability to discover and purchase items without leaving the app. 

Why is TikTok Live Shopping beneficial for your business?

Reach a broader audience

By choosing the right time to go on air, TikTok Live Shopping can help you to reach a larger audience than you have ever imagined. With more than 1 billion users all over the world, your streaming events evidently have a great opportunity to reach your target customer and also attract new users that show interest in your content topic.

Drive a deep engagement

A broader audience can lead to a high engagement rate which is a fundamental part of your TikTok marketing strategy. TikTok Live Shopping features encourage viewers to keep watching and interacting with your broadcast via comment or Q&A. A deep engagement helps brands to create a stronger emotional connection and understand whether their messages are effective or not. 

Connect with the audience in real time 

Connecting with the audience in real time is a refreshing way to build strong customer relationships to boost loyalty and improve the brand’s trustworthiness. Through TikTok Live Shopping, brands of all sizes can share links to their products or services, and entice viewers to shop within the live stream.

In addition, driving conversion in real time can create a sense of urgency. Indeed, a great number of customers don’t want to feel they are missing out on opportunities. Launching a limited-time promotion during your live stream can make your audience feel like they need to act immediately to get the best product at the best price. 

Create a surge in e-commerce sales

A larger audience with deep engagement and connection will definitely improve sales and boost revenue. TikTok Live Shopping gives brands the power to target their most profitable customers and sell more to existing customers. According to TikTok statistics, 67% of users say that TikTok inspires them to shop even when they don’t mean to do so. 

TikTok Live Shopping Updates in 2024

Withdrawal from competitors

With the removal of Live Stream Shopping Elements from Meta, including Facebook and Instagram, the competition has been less tight for TikTok. 

However, TikTok still needs to watch out for prominent live streaming platforms in the U.S, currently Amazon and Youtube. They both have had updated new features to enhance customer experience and attract a wider range of users. To maintain its competitive advantage, TikTok is still making significant efforts to remain vigilant and innovative.

Aiming to create a seamless integration 

While TikTok faced some challenges in the U.K. and the U.S. in 2022, the platform isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, since October, TikTok has been making a concerted effort to enhance the purchasing experience for its users. This includes a range of initiatives aimed at creating a smoother, more seamless shopping experience within the app. 

At the end of last year, TikTok announced its partnership with TalkshopLive, a Los Angeles-based live streaming app. With a proven track record of success, TalkshopLive has become a go-to platform for businesses looking to capitalize on the power of live commerce.

By teaming up with TikTok, TalkshopLive is poised to bring its cutting-edge technology and innovative approach to an even wider audience. In addition, the app’s technology enables brands to host live streams on their own e-commerce websites while running the same stream on the app, which creates an overall seamless experience.

What are TikTok Live Shopping’s main features?

TikTok live shopping comes along with useful features that help merchants to drive traffic and sales in the LIVE events. Here are the 5 main features that you shouldn’t miss out on. 

Pin products

Similar to Instagram and Amazon Live, during TikTok’s live stream shopping, brands display each product with a pin related. Then viewers can tap that pin to add products to cart. Otherwise, they can browse through all the featured items in the broadcast at the end of the live stream

Key Takeaways:

• LIVE > Products > Add from Showcase > Add and pin your desired products
• Re-pin every 30 seconds
• Pinned products should be aligned with the showcased products

Invite a co-host

You can invite another person to co-host your TikTok live stream. Depending on your brand’s goals, you can collaborate with influencers or brands that work in the same category and sector. A co-host invitation is an excellent method to generate more revenue and reach a broader audience. 

However, to leverage this feature, you should focus on these 5 points:

• Make sure that you and your co-host are following each other on the app.
• It’s a better idea for you and your co-host to be live at the same time.
• Tap the infinity icon on the left-hand side of your screen to invite a person to your live stream.
• Enter the name of your co-host then click Invite.
• After your co-host accepts the invitation, you will appear side-by-side on the screen. However, you’ll be able to see the comments only on your screen and not on your co-host’ screen.

Add a moderator

TikTok Live Shopping has significantly raised its popularity all over the world and become a playground for different types of business, especially e-commerce ones. However, this also gives unwanted chances for unwanted users to create chaos in the comment section. 

This is why TikTok has launched a live moderator to keep the entire platform and the streaming events always as enjoyable and friendly as possible. The main duty of a TikTok live moderator is to monitor all the TikTok comments and mute unsuitable comments during live streams.

To add a moderator, you need to:

• Make sure that you are following each other on the app. 
• Tap the Settings icon on the right-hand side of your screen. 
• Choose Moderators and the Plus icon to add a moderator.
• Enter the name of your moderator and then click Add. 

Invite a guest

Apart from co-hosting and moderator, TikTok users also have the power to invite a guest to their live streams. However, a little bit different, TikTok live shopping guests will be on your live and not on live themselves. They will send you a request to go live with you, and when you accept, they will appear on your screen as a thumbnail. However, your guests need to satisfy certain requirements, such as having 1,000 followers.  

Use filters and effects

Similar to regular TikTok videos, TikTok Live Shopping allows users to use any desired filters and effects. Without a doubt, it is an excellent way to capture viewers’ attention and make your live stream funnier, and more joyful.

For example, you can make your face smoother or your eyes, even reshape your face. A green screen backdrop can also be used to help you change the mood of your live stream.

Create question and answer (Q&A)

Question and answer is the last main feature of TikTok Live Shopping. It helps merchants to identify and respond to all their customer’s questions. Responding to customer inquiries and complaints promptly will meet their demands and therefore boost the buying power. Otherwise, this approach also creates a responsible and professional image of your brand. 

To turn on your Q&A, you need to:

• Access your Settings and Privacy page.
• Select Creator then Q&A.
• Tap Turn on Q&A.

How does TikTok Live Shopping work?

Requirements for live streaming on TikTok

Keep in mind that you have to meet two requirements below to go live on TikTok:

• You must be at least 16 years old.
• You need to have at least 1,000 followers on TikTok. 

It’s also necessary to follow TikTok’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Service to promote a fun, positive, and safe environment on TikTok.

How to create a TikTok live stream?

To go live on TikTok in the simplest way, you need to complete these 5 steps following: 

• Step 1: Open the TikTok application
• Step 2: Tap the + icon at the bottom-center of your screen, just like when you create a regular video on TikTok. 
• Step 3: Choose LIVE in the menu bar at the bottom of your screen. 
• Step 4: Enter the title of your live stream which contains only a maximum of 32 characters. 
• Step 5: Select Go Live. 

How to schedule a TikTok live stream event?

TikTok also gives brands the power to schedule a streaming event through 5 simple steps:

• Step 1: Access the TikTok application. 
• Step 2: Tap the Calendar icon on the top-right hand corner. 
• Step 3:  Click Create an event on the schedule page.
• Step 4: Complete the Event Name, Start Time, and Description of your live stream. Keep in mind that your Event Name can contain only 32 characters long, while your Description has a limit of 200-character. 
• Step 5: Relax and wait for the TikTok review process which can take about a few seconds to an hour. After TikTok’s approval, you’ll see your event automatically listed on your profile.

However, do note that you have to schedule your live event at least two hours in advance, if not, TikTok will refuse it.

4 winning ideas for TikTok Live Shopping

If you, like many other TikTok content creators, have been struggling with creative TikTok Live Shopping videos, don’t worry, you are not alone! Here are some awesome ideas to help kick-start your ideation engine and think outside the box. 

Demos or tutorials

A product demonstration or tutorial video illustrates your product’s function by showing it in action. It’s a great way to showcase all the significant value of the products to existing and prospective customers. Otherwise, demo videos also help your audience understand and visualize how they will experience your products once they buy them. 

Brands of different sizes have leveraged the power of tutorial videos and therefore achieved remarkable success. For example, Too Faced – a makeup brand during its first TikTok live shopping episode showed makeup tutorials and earned 72,500 unique tune-ins with 68,400 engagements.

Behind-the-scenes

Behind-the-scenes video is also an amazing idea for your first TikTok Live Shopping event. These videos reveal the secret of how your products or services are made and therefore the authentic aspect of your brand to the audience. 

This video content is also considered an effective marketing tool to connect with the customer in a deeper way and build the brand’s trustworthiness. One special thing is that you don’t have to be of studio quality, recording straight from your phone can maximize the effect created in TikTok Live Shopping.

Variety programs

Different brands appearing in one TikTok live stream can generate a great engagement rate by attracting the audience from different cultures, ages, and also interests. When testing out the TikTok streaming platform, Walmart adopted this format. Its live shopping event, which combined a marketplace, a video streaming center, and a concert venue under one roof, was so popular that the multinational retail corporation organized another one.

Product launching

Using a live stream event on TikTok to promote a new product or a special collection is a perfect approach to generate customers’ interest and encourage them to purchase items. For example, when NTWRK, a live video shopping platform, and designer Joshua Vides released a limited-edition clothing collection on TikTok’s live shopping activity. They were able to offer a direct-to-customer experience that was engaging.

Amazing TikTok Live Shopping examples to get inspired

Understanding all the benefits of TikTok Live Shopping features, many brands didn’t hesitate to organize their next streaming events. Here are 2 successful TikTok Live Shopping examples to get motivated. 

By.Sumayah 

TikTok Live Shopping has totally changed the business of Sumayah Saadi –  an LSE student who first launched her online shop in February 2021 with the goal of providing affordable, modest fashion. She has unlocked the magic of TikTok Live Shopping and made her business wonderful. 

Saadi accidentally jumped into her first TikTok live stream video and the effect made her say “wow”. During this video, she gained approximately £500 in 30 minutes. Therefore, she started to sell and invest in this TikTok feature. Until now, it’s not difficult for her business to generate £50,000 from UK sales only during a 2-hour live.

Made By Mitchell 

Made By Mitchell is also a great example of using TikTok Live Shopping to achieve business goals. Mitchell Halliday is a British Makeup Artist who aims to make high-quality products for makeup lovers, makeup addicts, and self-expressionists.

The brand’s iconic item “Blursh” quickly became one of the hottest items on TikTok Shop thanks to Mitchell’s viral video with over 500k likes. Selling on TikTok Live Shopping allows Made By Mitchell to spread its mission and values, and also boosts its sales performance. 

Let’s create your first TikTok Live Shopping video

TikTok Live Shopping is definitely a feature that every e-commerce business shouldn’t miss out on. Easy organization, the ability to interact with the audience in real-time, and the chance to increase the brand’s revenue and reputation, you will have all these powers in only one tool: TikTok Live Shopping. 

We hope this article has covered all the necessary information about TikTok Live Shopping. Stay tuned for more updates on TikTok live-stream events to create your best streaming video. If you are still struggling with any steps to access TikTok Live Shopping, feel free to contact our experts for more advice.

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