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Wed Oct 12 2022 11:42:53

Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

By: Ina Steiner

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Amazon could be facing a threat from a surprising corner: TikTok. According to Axios, TikTok is planning to build its own product fulfillment centers in the US. 

TikTok is the favorite social platform for young people, according to a recent Piper Sandler survey, followed by Snapchat and Instagram (though the latter continues to lead in monthly usage).

Axios said TikTok's move into fulfillment signifies its commitment to ecommerce as its next major revenue stream, following the explosive growth of its ads business.

That's the opposite approach of major marketplaces that started with ecommerce and expanded into advertising - now a major source of revenue for major platforms.

As of now, TikTok is helping Amazon. Marketplace Pulse founder Joe Kaziukenas shared screenshots on Twitter showing six influencers promoting the Amazon Prime Early Access sale on Tuesday, tweeting: "This is how social commerce looks like in the US. Amazon is getting crazy traffic from TikTok where people discover deals."

This post on the website of antivirus software firm Kaspersky explains more about what TikTok is and why it has raised some serious privacy concerns.

Like others before it, TikTok has succeeded in part because of organic growth. Search Engine Journal published the results of a study last year (granted, it was commissioned by TikTok itself) that found respondents described the platform as "authentic, genuine, unfiltered, and trendsetting." But a push to monetize the site through ecommerce could put at risk the trust users have in the platform.

TikTok faces another challenge. More warehouses are one thing - and ecommerce software can handle multiple ecommerce platforms and fulfillment methods. But moving product from warehouses to people's front doors is a major challenge, and shipping costs continue to skyrocket.

Let us know if you're seeing sales taking place on or through social media platforms and what works - and doesn't work - from a seller point of view.



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Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: Snapped This user has validated their user name.

Wed Oct 12 14:22:38 2022

The insurmountable difference between a ‘mass’ eMarket and a ‘social’ one is ‘personal’.  But the ‘mass’ has declared that business isn’t personal.  So they don’t treat their ‘sustenance’ as people.

Tha

TicTok, or any other social - more personal - venue seeking to eMarket would have a long way to go logistically speaking if they ever wanted to ‘compete’.  Though clearly any ‘letting go’ of a “successful past” attempting to appease the street isn’t a stretch for an organization that once did have a lock on ‘personal’, so there’s precedent, decimating as it may be.  But if they keep their niche intact and let eMarketing evolve with supporting apps tailored to need vice greed, now THAT would be ‘innovative’.

Wouldn’t bet my previously ‘influenced’ pre-owned designer stuffed closet on it just yet though.  

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

This user has validated their user name. by: The End

Wed Oct 12 16:41:50 2022

China :
Give 'em an inch and they take a mile.
Time to Zero China.

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: moonmyst This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 00:29:49 2022

Yes, by all means let's have Communist China's TikTok gain free reign in the U. S.
The handwriting is on the wall and I am scared!

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 04:02:33 2022

But moving product from warehouses to people's front doors is a major challenge, and shipping costs continue to skyrocket.
^^ This will be TT's biggest challenge.  I envision them buying a warehouse operation vs. building a warehouse system like AMZ.  And remember, AMZ has Prime membership which counts for its buyer-ship.  It took AMZ years to build up the ecommerce site and the warehouse and transportation system.  TT won't be able to do it on that scale.  The best they will do is be another Ebay.  Also AMZ is just this year scaling back on building more warehouses and is closing some of them.
Also, Poshmark and Whatnot have live auctions that are attracting sales, and basically doing the same thing that TT influencers are doing - selling on camera.  Like QVC.

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 04:03:08 2022

Ina, are you taking suggestions to change & upgrade your website?

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: Stone Cutter This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 12:00:37 2022

***Go ahead, build those facilities***

With the current bad state of .U.S. and China relations it would be stupid for TikTok to spend money on new facilities only to have the U.S. throw them out with possible sanctions.

So the question...which U.S. States will allow these warehouses? It’s up to each State to approve these facilities. The pressure needs to be put on the States.

The Biden administration, with the approval from Congress, is putting money into making semiconductor chips, here in the U.S., to avoid further chip purchases from sleazy China.

Yes, time to zero China!

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: LDWCallsOut This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 16:14:30 2022

Comparing TikTok to Amazon is comparing chalk to cheese.  Amazon delivery vans are on my street daily, but most of the residents here like me are retired professionals. Just a few graduate students and young families mixed in.  I doubt that any of my neighbors are occupied with Tik Tok.  

Tik Tok isn't a venue or a marketplace.  I admit to viewing some cute kitty videos on there (I'm not registered) but even those are often just sidelines for young women users posting mostly videos of themselves in swimsuits, lingerie, or sausage skin tight workout wear.  Which suggests Tik Tok might attempt competition with Etsy.  

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This user has validated their user name. by: iheartjacksparrow

Thu Oct 13 16:38:58 2022

I can't see any venue competing with Amazon as far as fulfillment. TikTok would have to build (or buy) warehouses, and are they going to acquire a fleet of delivery trucks? [Maybe eBay has some unused newspaper trucks they can rent to TikTok.] If I'm looking to buy something, I want to see photos and get a description, not watch a video posted by a Gen Z "influencer" telling me, "Like, this is so, like, awesome."

Perminate Link for Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?   Is Ecommerce Big Enough for both Amazon and TikTok?

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Thu Oct 13 18:48:30 2022

If I'm looking to buy something, I want to see photos and get a description, not watch a video posted by a Gen Z "influencer" telling me, "Like, this is so, like, awesome."
^^THIS

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by: Whatever This user has validated their user name.

Mon Oct 17 14:28:36 2022

The End - spot on - can we say it louder? Wake up America - did you see Crazy Rich Asians or whatever that movie was called? They said it was a romantic comedy - no it wasn't. It was a documentary on how stupid Americans are handing over  billions probably trillions of USA dollars to make a few super rich chinese folks really wealth.  Watch it again.



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