TikTok is set to partner with Florida-based TalkShopLive to launch its live shopping feature in the USA, as per a report published by Financial Times this Saturday.
Founded in 2018, TalkShopLive is an online platform that allows creators to sell and consumers to buy via live streams.
Started by the brother-sister duo Bryan and Tina Moore, the company since its inception has worked with many famous personalities like Matthew McConaughey, Alicia Keys, and Dolly Parton.
The shopping categories on the website range from books and music to food, beauty, fashion, and sports.
TikTok and Live Shopping
A concept that first originated in China and one that garnered success worth millions of dollars, is a popular feature of TikTok in several Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand, etc.
TikTok introduced the live shop feature on its app last year in partnership with Shopify.
It started with allowing accounts of creators to add a catalogue tab in their profiles and now has a separate feed to display products sold by businesses.
The partnership with Shopify also gave TikTok the liberty to create and run campaigns on the app.
Will This TikTok Expansion Prove to be Successful?
TikTok reportedly gave a statement saying,
“When it comes to market expansion for TikTok Shop we are always guided by demand and are constantly exploring new and different options for how we can best serve our Community, Creators, and Merchants in markets around the world.”
This is not the first time TikTok has ventured outside of Asia to expand its live shopping feature. Last year the app expanded to the U.K. and since then has been testing how it fares in a non-Asian market.
Reports have suggested that the expansion failed in the U.K. market and that the China-based app is questioning its plans of expansion.
Historically, live shopping has not worked out well in the American market as well. It was introduced by Facebook in 2018 and Amazon collaborated with influencers to deliver the same shopping concept back in 2019.
While Facebook announced the closure of the live streaming feature, last month, to focus on its reels feature, Amazon is yet to provide figures about its success or failure of the feature.
Amazon has also recently launched the live shopping feature in the Indian e-commerce market.
Whether this expansion will lead to success for TikTok or not can only be seen with time, but it’s worthy to note here the app is already under a lot of scrutiny from lawmakers in the U.S. concerning the safety of user data.
Read More: Amazon Launches Live Stream Shopping; 150 Creators on Board
