Why TikTok Shops Might Be The Next Big Opportunity

22 Nov 2023 · 7 min

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In short

Marketing School Episode #2614: Why TikTok Shops Might Be The Next Big Opportunity

Podcast Hosts:

  • Neil Patel
  • Eric Siu

Episode Summary: In this episode, Neil and Eric dive into the burgeoning potential of TikTok Shops as a new frontier in e-commerce. They analyze the growing trend of American consumers purchasing products via TikTok and discuss the implications for businesses looking to leverage this platform. The hosts highlight essential factors for success, including product quality and relationship-building with creators, while also noting that TikTok Shops may not be suitable for all business models.

Key Takeaways

  1. TikTok's Market Potential
  2. Consumer Behavior:
  3. One in ten Americans is projected to make a purchase on TikTok Shops within the year.
  4. The growth rate of social buyers on TikTok is significant, with trends indicating a rising number of users engaging in e-commerce on the platform.
  1. Advantages of TikTok Shops
  2. Platform Support:
  3. TikTok is actively promoting its Shops feature, presenting a tailwind for businesses willing to adopt it.
  4. New features on social media platforms tend to receive considerable promotional support, enhancing visibility and engagement for sellers.
  • Entrepreneurial Opportunities:
  • Greg Eisenberg's assertion: An entrepreneur could potentially make $100 million through TikTok Shops without holding inventory or needing venture capital.
  • The relative ease of starting a TikTok shop compared to traditional startups can lead to more entrepreneurs finding success.
  1. Relationship Building
  2. Importance of Creators:
  3. Building strong relationships with content creators can help drive traffic and sales.
  4. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to leverage the existing distribution networks of creators to maximize the reach of their products.
  1. Limitations of TikTok Shops
  2. Not Universal for All Businesses:
  3. TikTok Shops may not be suitable for businesses in the B2B sector or those selling high-ticket items that require personal interaction before purchase.
  4. High-value services (e.g., consulting contracts) are unlikely to succeed via TikTok Shops due to the need for consumer trust and personal engagement.
  1. Broader Opportunities on Social Media
  2. Cross-Platform Strategies:
  3. The strategies employed on TikTok can be adapted for success on other platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, which also offer significant marketing potential.

Discussion Points

  • Statistics on Social Buying:
  • The episode discusses the increase in social buyers on TikTok and the implications for marketers.
  • Advice for Entrepreneurs:
  • Eric and Neil suggest that those interested in exploring TikTok Shops should focus on creating or sourcing compelling products and developing relationships with creators.

Conclusion TikTok Shops represent a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to enter the e-commerce space. By understanding the platform's dynamics and building the right connections, businesses can capitalize on this growing trend while being mindful of the limitations inherent to their specific market.

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Call to Action

  • Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.
  • Explore more content on [Leveling UP YT](https://www.youtube.com/c/LevelingUP) and [Neil Patel YT](https://www.youtube.com/c/NeilPatel).

Links Mentioned

  • [Greg Isenberg Post](#)

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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00All right, so we are going to talk about how TikTok shops might be the next big opportunity. So those of you that can see my screen, it's okay. I'll read off of it if you can't. But by the way, we have a new marketing school channel, which I'll talk about in a second. But Greg Eisenberg, who's a friend who talks about community quite a bit. So he says this. He says, someone is going to make$100 million in 2024 with a TikTok shop. They'll probably have no inventory, no venture capitalists, and be 24 years old. This stat is crazy. One out of 10 Americans are going to buy something on TikTok shop this year.

0:34So Neil, can you see this graph okay or not really? I can see the graph. And I believe it too because I know a lot of people that are doing amazingly well in D2C on TikTok right now. It's much more profitable. You can scale it quite well than most of the social channels out there. So look at the percentage change here. So you can see the percentage. So first and foremost, where my cursor is. So in 2023, you can see 33 million social buyers on TikTok. So U.S. has 330 million people. that's exactly 10%, right? And then you can see the rate of change over time. So in 2021, a lot of people were using it and then the growth rate slows down a little bit, but still it's a lot, right?

1:1440 % growth rate, 7.5, 5.6%, and then percentage of TikTok users as well, which is a pretty high chunk. So it's just going to continue to get bigger. I don't know about you, Neil, but have you bought anything off of TikTok? I have not bought anything off of TikTok. Neither have I, right? So it's like, it's just because we don't do it doesn't mean other people aren't doing it. It just means we're getting older. So, right. I have bought things because of Tik TOK though, but not directly from Tik TOK. Yeah. So look, indirect conversion. Totally. Yeah. And so Greg says this, right. He says, look, um, I don't know how to say this to any other way, any other way, but every entrepreneur should be thinking about selling their product or service on a Tik TOK shop, not because it's a new product, but because Tik TOK wants to see Tik TOK shops succeed.

1:57They're pushing it big time. So it's a ton of tailwind for you. And typically what we see with these new features, whether it's like Instagram launching stories, right? Whenever they launch a new feature or like live when Facebook launched live a long time ago, these new features get pushed quite a bit, right? And then this is a feature that directly ties in with their revenue. So they're going to be pushing it. So what Greg says here is he said, I, I'd use ads lives or affiliate sellers to drive traffic. I partner with creators to leverage their distribution. You are more likely to become a millionaire building a TikTok shop than a founder or early founder at a VC-backed startup.

2:35You probably will make more money doing this too than trying to create a startup. It's just such a massive opportunity. You just have to make sure the product is really cool. If you can't create a good product, go find a good product, white label it, and then go sell it on TikTok. Look, it's a big opportunity. We're even seeing Pinterest as a big opportunity, but a lot of people just don't care to leverage it or talk about it. it's a massive company like people take pinterest for granted uh and when you look at the revenues were like 750 million or something yeah it's a 20 billion dollar market cap company so it's a substantially you know decent sized company like even snap there is volume there um but pinterest at least in its current form is bigger than snap from a market cap market cap perspective and what most people get wrong is they look at it as just like oh tiktok well if it works well on TikTok, it'll probably work well on Snap, it'll probably work well on Instagram, and it'll probably work well on Pinterest.

3:32So you can just run the same playbook, you may have to adjust it a little bit here and there, but you can end up generating quite a bit of revenue from all of them. Here's how I see it. Look, if you're good at building relationships, so let's say you build relationships with distribution, which might be the creators, and then you go find a product that looks really interesting, you can be the connector. And you being the middleman, you can actually make this all happen because it's you drove the strategy, you drove the ideas, and you don't necessarily need to go through all the pain of creating all these products and services or finding distribution.

4:05I'm not saying networking is an easy thing. It takes years to build great relationships. But this is just yet another way for people to do really well on top of all the new ways for people. The cost of creating a business nowadays is the cost of failure really is really nil, right? It's like little to nothing. And so that's more of a reason for those of you that are listening, maybe you're in college right now to go out there and try something like this. Well, here's one thing to know if you're going to end up doing this, it won't work for all businesses. For example, if you're in B2B and you're selling high ticket items, and when I mean high ticket, I'm not talking about those people who are like, buy my coaching program for five grand.

4:46I'm talking about, let's say someone wants to sign up for a consulting client from my agency, NP Digital, and it's a million dollar contract, it's not gonna happen on TikTok. It just won't. So it's like for me to set up a TikTok shop and sell consulting packages at a million plus dollars, I'm not gonna do well from that. So you just gotta keep in mind who your ideal customer is, the purchasing price. Because if your purchasing price is so large that someone needs to end up talking to you before they buy from you, it's less likely to do well on tiktok shop all right look tiktoks first consumers right tiktok look tiktok social buyers like people are buying people are buying products typically when even when you look at facebook shop or whatever people are typically buying products so that is it for today please don't forget to rate review and subscribe and we'll see you tomorrow

From the publisher
In episode #2614, We discuss the potential of TikTok shops as the next big opportunity in e-commerce. We highlight the growing number of Americans buying products on TikTok and the platform's push to make TikTok shops succeed. We emphasize the importance of having a good product and building relationships with creators for successful TikTok shop ventures. However, we note that TikTok shops may not be suitable for all businesses, especially those selling high-ticket items or requiring personal interaction before purchase. Overall, TikTok shops present a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the platform's popularity and drive revenue. Don’t forget to help us grow by subscribing and liking on YouTube! Check out more of Eric’s content (Leveling UP YT) and Neil’s videos (Neil Patel YT)  TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: (00:00) Today’s topic: Why TikTok Shops Might Be The Next Big Opportunity (00:23) One out of ten Americans will buy something on TikTok shop this year (01:05) Discussion on the growth rate of social buyers on TikTok (02:26) Importance of considering selling products on TikTok shop (03:00) Opportunities on other social channels like Pinterest (03:40) Building relationships and being a middleman for TikTok shops (04:33) Not suitable for all businesses, especially B2B and high-ticket items (05:30] That’s it for today! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe! Go to https://www.marketingschool.io to learn more! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Greg Isenberg Post  Leave Some Feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with Us:  Single Grain << Eric’s ad agency NP Digital << Neil’s ad agency X @neilpatel  X @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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