A new report from the Financial Times says that TikTok is looking to partner with TalkShopLive – a live shopping platform that lets creators sell products online through their live streaming.
This disputes an earlier report that TikTok is dropping the plan of live shopping feature, in the US and UK, after seeing poor popularity in testing. Yet, we now see a new deal coming up that may keep TikTok at par with other tech giants doing the same.
TikTok Live Shopping Feature
Adding to the bunch of video streaming and making features, TikTok is gearing up to add live shopping support to its platform. This is in partnership with TalkShopLive – an online shopping platform that lets creators sell products to their viewers through live streaming.
This is as per Financial Times, which reported that TikTok is looking to partner with TalkShopLive for the new support. Earlier, TikTok did have a live shopping feature running in the US and UK, but it pulled the plug after receiving a poor response from the audience.
Yet, it’s not settling down, considering the new report. And if it’s successful, we may see live shopping happening on TikTok as soon as next month – since the holiday season. TalkShopLive has been used by Walmart and Microsoft’s MSN, too, and allows the brands to simultaneously broadcast the stream to their own websites.
Currently, TikTok has a dedicated Shop tab to find shoppable products in Indonesia, and the new live shopping feature will just make it easy for both creators and viewers to sell/buy things online.
Its sister app, Douyin in China, has been running it successfully in QVC-style live streams, while other tech giants like Amazon, Pinterest, and YouTube have their own similar features. Facebook, too had one but shut it down within months of launch.
Talking about this possible partnership, TikTok said it’s “constantly exploring new and different options for how we can best serve our community, creators and merchants in markets around the world,” which could include “partnerships which further support a seamless eCommerce experience for merchants”.
