Social media giant TikTok has announced the introduction of its affiliate marketing program called TikTok Shop, which will enable US creators to earn commissions by promoting products on the app. This move is aimed at replicating the social-shopping success of Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, which has been a major source of revenue for parent company ByteDance.
Creators in the affiliate program can post videos or live streams featuring items for sale, such as a neck massager or frying pan, in exchange for a commission on the sales they drive. Similar to TikTok’s “paid partnership” tag that appears at the bottom of promotional videos, affiliate-enabled TikTok posts are labeled “eligible for commission.” Creators can also link to products in a separate “showcase” tab on their TikTok accounts, enabling followers to make purchases via the TikTok Shop user interface.
A spokesperson for TikTok confirmed that the company had been testing the Shop feature in the UK and Indonesia for months and that it was part of an ongoing test program. However, the spokesperson emphasized that the TikTok affiliate program was still in its early stages and that the company was continuing to invite brands and merchants to test and learn from the community.
TikTok Shop’s US rollout has already seen creators experimenting with affiliates and other shopping tools. For example, content creator Max Milton highlighted a $29 notebook from retail brand Revolve, one of the early participants in the program, in a TikTok video. The video includes an “eligible for commission” label and links to a Revolve product.
Similarly, Jess Val Ortiz, a creator with 9.4 million TikTok followers, partnered with Revolve in March to promote a live-shopping stream showcasing the brand’s “affordable” outfits, according to a video Ortiz posted on March 24.
However, social shopping has been slow to catch on in the US, with some large tech companies coming up short in their efforts to replicate the success of Asia’s massive social e-commerce marketplace. Meta-owned Instagram, for instance, has scaled back some of its shopping efforts, including its own native affiliate program for creators and live shopping. But most big tech companies are not giving up on the social-shopping dream yet, with YouTube recently testing an affiliate program for its TikTok-like feature Shorts.
TikTok is offering various incentives to promote TikTok Shop in the US, with some brands setting commission rates as high as 20% to attract creators. Commission rates for creators in the program are chosen by sellers and negotiated with creators directly. While some sellers are in the early stages of experimenting with the affiliate program, there aren’t many influencers using it yet.
Despite the low adoption rate, sellers like Raffi Arslanian, owner of the high-end candle brand Thompson Ferrier, are bullish on TikTok Shop as a tool that could help boost sales and expand their customer bases.
“Everyone’s trying to get in on this shop-via-video,” says Solyman Najimi, president of Juka Innovations Corporation, which owns TubShroom, a drain-protector maker that has set commission rates as high as 20% to attract creators. “I don’t know how much success they’ve all had, but TikTok seems like it has the best shot of really going anywhere. They do make it super easy, and their audience is just massive.”
In conclusion, TikTok’s foray into in-app affiliate marketing for creators comes at a crucial moment as it seeks to replicate the success of its sister app Douyin. While it is still early in the testing phase, the TikTok Shop program has the potential to boost sales and expand the customer base for brands that choose to participate.
With TikTok’s massive audience and user-friendly interface, it seems that the company has the best shot of success in the US social-shopping market. However, it remains to be seen if US consumers will embrace social shopping on the same scale as their Asian counterparts.
Regardless, TikTok’s move into affiliate marketing is a sign of the company’s ongoing efforts to monetize its platform and provide new revenue streams for its creator community. As the social media landscape continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how TikTok’s affiliate program and other social-shopping initiatives fare in the highly competitive e-commerce space.