蘑菇AV

On today's episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss why livestream shopping hasn't caught on in the US and the UK the same way it has in China, what TikTok is doing to make the US鈥檚 launch more successful than the UK's, and what shoppers are looking for from a livestream. Then for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank the top four brands that have done livestream shopping well. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Carina Perkins.

With TikTok facing potential US ban uncertainties, the platform's successful shopping integration has created both challenges and opportunities in the social commerce landscape. "TikTok really showed how social commerce can work in a new way in the US," our analyst Sky Canaves said on a recent episode of 鈥淏ehind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail.鈥�

Innovations from China boost US mcommerce. Temu skyrockets past other shopping apps. Temu rode heavy advertising to reach 90.5 million unique US visitors in August 2023, following other direct-from-manufacturer apps, such as Shein and Wish. The super app model makes a comeback. WeChat Pay and AliPay became dominant portals to the internet in China.

At the same time, parent Bytedance鈥檚 slowing ecommerce growth in China is fueling the search for new markets: TikTok is recruiting merchants in Spain and Ireland ahead of a broader push into Europe. Go further: Check out our reports on UK Social Commerce 2024, Consumer Approaches to Social Commerce, and Temu, TikTok, and China鈥檚 Ecommerce Players in Western Europe.

The company will reportedly add a new section to its ecommerce platform devoted to cheaper products shipped directly from sellers in China. This move will add another formidable player to the low-cost competition in time for the holiday shopping rush. Gen Z is poised to propel social commerce forward. More than 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds are likely to buy gifts via social media.

Amazon took legal action against more than 150 bad actors across the US, China, and Europe in 2023. In late October, the retailer and Google filed parallel lawsuits against Bigboostup.com, a site that reportedly sold fake product reviews for Amazon listings and fraudulent reviews for business listings on Google Search and Maps.

Uncertainty surrounding tariffs is also contributing to inconsistent results from China. Donald Trump has proposed tariffs as high as 20% on goods from China, which could cause Temu and Shein鈥攖wo of Meta and Google鈥檚 top ad spenders鈥攖o significantly reduce their US ad budgets.

Most consumers were in favor of tariffs on China or Russia, so placing blame on tariffs on either of these countries could be unpopular. And blaming other countries鈥� retaliation against US businesses resulted in a 16-point decrease in net buyer confidence, per DKC. 5. Promote alternatives. Tariffs may reduce consumer brand loyalty, but that鈥檚 also an opportunity to attract new consumers.

But when you think about the amount of data and information on that platform; so, a few reasons why there are fears the Chinese government could order TikTok, who's owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, to do these things.

Chen at Rest at World saying that Lemon8 has also been compared to Xiaohongshu, the Chinese social media and e-commerce platform with over 200 million MAUs known as the country's lifestyle bible. And so I think ByteDance does still believe in it, and TikTok could in theory still get banned, right, Debbie? So maybe they do need a backup if that happens. Debra Aho Williamson:. Good points.

I think we can take some learnings from it in terms of where we think TikTok is going, but the US market and the Chinese market are very different. And social commerce has developed in a very different way in both of these markets. Live-streaming is huge in China. It really hasn't taken off here for a lot of different categories.

Why it matters: TikTok drove US social commerce growth last year, creating more awareness of livestream shopping in the process鈥攁nd the threat of a ban could be reshaping the social commerce landscape. Regular users of live shopping platforms have nearly doubled from 7% to 13% between June 2023 and August 2024.

Livestreaming ecommerce isn鈥檛 as big in the US as it is in China, but it has proven to be tenable. Its popularity in China, where 47.2% of digital buyers will be livestream buyers, remains unmatched. But after a few years of uncertainty, digital marketers in the US can now be sure that livestreaming has a bright future in their home market. Social media is the main driver, but not the only one.

Covering bases: The ecommerce arm of TikTok has ratcheted up its international expansion plans as it still faces the possibility of a US shutdown if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, doesn鈥檛 find a buyer. The in-app shopping feature went live in Spain and Ireland late last year and launched in Mexico last month. It became available in the UK in 2021.

The big takeaway: If any platform can make social commerce happen, it鈥檚 likely to be TikTok, given its proven ability to mint trends and drive sales鈥攏ot to mention the sterling example sister app Douyin has set in China.

Only Facebook is more popular for social commerce purchases, per a survey conducted for us by Toluna Start. A young and ecommerce-savvy user base in the UK is helping propel TikTok鈥檚 aims. More than two-thirds of the platform鈥檚 user base in the UK is under the age of 35.

So, just starting from China, TikTok has its origin there, but the name in China is actually called, Douyin. It was a huge success there in China. We forecast that the number of billion users in China will actually surpass WeChat in 2025. In a couple of years. They got into short video, of course, from the start, and then they gradually move into social commerce.

笔颈苍迟别谤别蝉迟鈥檚 social commerce goals face uncertainty. It鈥檚 leaning heavily on shopping features to grow, but it issued lower-than-expected Q4 guidance for revenues, indicating it doesn鈥檛 expect a gangbusters holiday shopping season. 笔颈苍迟别谤别蝉迟鈥檚 key selling point is shoppable social media, which is just one feature among many on larger, competing platforms.

Tariff-fueled price hikes threaten online Chinese marketplaces. Why it mattered: The tariff impact for marketers, retailers, and consumer sentiment continues to be a moving target as the rates for various countries seem to change week by week.

However, a large share (38%) of chronic condition patients are more likely to turn to online influencers and social media for medical information, per a joint survey by Hall & Partners and Think Next. 10,500 adults from China, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US were surveyed online in 2022. Drilling down on patients: Age is a determining factor for most patient engagement on social media platforms.

TikTok is taking the lead on social commerce: But Meta, Pinterest, and Snap are trying to take back the spotlight by partnering with Amazon and focusing on shoppable ads.

The trend: Younger generations continue to prioritize wellness more than older consumers and are purchasing products across a range of health and well-being categories, according to McKinsey鈥檚 recently published Future of Wellness survey of more than 9,000 consumers across China, Germany, the US, and the UK.

Notably, while the majority of its sales still come from the US, Revolve reported robust Q3 international sales growth of 20% YoY, even in China鈥攁 region that dragged down many luxury players this year.

Shoppers looking specifically for cheap Chinese goods can stick with apps like Temu and Shein. Livestream ecommerce still hasn鈥檛 taken off in the US. Livestreaming made TikTok鈥檚 sister app Douyin a retail success in China, where we forecast shoppers will spend $234.75 billion on livestreaming social commerce in 2023, accounting for 45.4% of the country鈥檚 social commerce sales.

But shoppers looking for the cheap, quirky products TikTok Shop is known for would migrate to other China-based retailers like Temu and Shein. Click here to view the full forecast for US social buyers. Digital retailers would regain affiliate activity. TikTok Shop鈥檚 in-app affiliate program kick-started last year鈥檚 creator affiliate marketing craze.