While TikTok Is Planning Its Comeback In Indonesia, It Is Also Helping Sellers In The United States To Sell More During The Peak Season.

After more than a month of waiting, TikTok Shop finally has definite new trends in the Indonesian market. At the same time, TikTok also has good news in the Vietnam and US markets.

On November 17, Temmy Satya Permana, Indonesia’s Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises, confirmed in an interview that TikTok Shop will reopen in the country. He said that TikTok will comply with relevant laws and regulations in Indonesia and will choose to cooperate with local e-commerce platforms in Indonesia to restart its e-commerce business.

Prior to this, many people had revealed that TikTokShop had been negotiating cooperation with a number of Indonesian local e-commerce companies, including Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and Blibli. According to the latest news released by Bloomberg, TikTok is currently exploring potential investment in Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest local e-commerce platform, and the investment may be completed in the next few weeks. People familiar with the matter said that the two companies may take the form of a joint venture and may jointly establish a new e-commerce platform.

Image source: Google

It is reported that the review of the agreement is still in progress. If the negotiations are successful, it will help TikTok further gain support from the Indonesian government and social recognition, and re-develop its e-commerce business locally; Tokopedia can also cooperate with TikTok. Develop its social e-commerce and enrich the platform’s products, content and services. Regarding this news, TikTok and Tokopedia have not yet made a clear response.

Image source: Google

Just a few days ago, Tokopedia officially announced its cooperation with Instagram, owned by global social giant Meta, claiming that users can live broadcast on Tokopedia and Instagram, and sellers can also place ads on Instagram or Facebook.

As soon as this move came out, Tokopedia's intention to develop social e-commerce to strengthen its business development has become obvious. After TikTokShop failed to enter the Indonesian market, this is undoubtedly a great opportunity for Tokopedia to pick up traffic and seize market share. Therefore, for Tokopedia at this stage, if it finally chooses to cooperate with TikTok, there are actually pros and cons.

Image source: Google

It is also worth noting that on November 20, Rifan Ardianto, Director of the Electronic Systems and Trade Services Bureau of the Ministry of Trade, also stated in an interview that so far, no proposal from TikTok in the form of an Electronic Systems Business License (SIUPMSE) transaction has been received. PMSE business license application.

As a result, it seems to be more confusing when TikTokShop will return to Indonesia smoothly, whether the final negotiation results with Tokopedia will be smooth and what form of cooperation will be adopted to restart the business. We can only wait patiently for official news.

Although people have speculated that TikTokShop's market share in Southeast Asia will drop significantly after the closure of the Indonesian site, judging from the data, this does not seem to be the case.

According to the latest forecast data from research organization MomentumWorks, TikTokShop’s e-commerce market share in Southeast Asia has increased instead of falling, from 13.2% in July this year to 13.9%. The reason for this situation is largely due to TikTokShop's continued strong performance in other Southeast Asian markets.

According to the e-commerce market report for the first half of 2023 previously released by Metric, a Vietnamese data research company, TikTokShop, which has been online in Vietnam for just over a year, has surpassed Lazada to become the second largest e-commerce platform in Vietnam after Shopee.

In order to meet the growing and diversified online shopping needs of Vietnamese users, and to support the marketing node of the year-end super promotion, on November 20, TikTokShop Mall officially announced its official launch in Vietnam.

Source: tuoitrethudo.com.vn

For consumers, they can take the initiative to quickly find and buy genuine and high-quality products with confidence, which not only saves time and effort, but also enjoys services such as free shipping and free returns within 15 days; for brand owners and sellers, the launch of the mall is undoubtedly a They have added a new promotion channel to help increase the conversion rate of peak season orders and the brand's own awareness.

In Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand and the Philippines, TikTok’s influence continues to deepen. It is reported that Thai Prime Minister Saitha has invited TikTok to open a training center in Thailand to help train Thais to use the platform to promote services and products; Philippine President Marcos also hopes that TikTok can help more local sellers promote products on the platform. With official support, TikTokShop’s future development momentum is bound to become stronger and stronger.

Source: TheManilaTimes

In addition to continuing to delve into the Southeast Asian market, the U.S. market has also become a top priority for TikTokShop’s e-commerce business development.

According to the holiday shopping season sales forecast report recently released by the National Retail Federation (NRF), from November to December this year, U.S. retail sales will reach US$957.3 billion to US$966.6 billion, which is expected to set a new record.

Source: NRF

Facing the top priority of the year-end peak season, as early as September after the mall was launched, TikTokShop began to actively prepare for the largest Black Friday sale of the year, and this year-end shopping season event will also be a test of whether TikTokShop can succeed in the year-end shopping season. The key battle to gain a foothold in the U.S. market, where major platforms are fiercely competing, is a battle.

In order to promote sales growth during the peak season and strive to seize more share in the US e-commerce market through major promotions, TikTok has put a lot of effort into it.

Open an exclusive Black Friday activity entrance to attract traffic to sellers; provide sellers with large discount subsidies of up to 50%; launch a special Tab entrance for mall activities; launch a variety of subsidy and reward programs; launch "selected audience" advertising services for advertisers.. ….

In addition, to ensure the efficient operation of packages during peak seasons, TikTok is following Amazon's FBA logistics service and expanding its warehousing and distribution network in the United States by cooperating with third-party logistics providers such as ShipBob and Newegg.

Image source: pexels

Thanks to the highly skewed platform resources, since TikTokShop officially launched its Black Friday promotion on October 27, the overall performance of TikTok’s US stores has been remarkable.

It can be seen from the first week of the Black Friday preemptive purchase event released by TikTokShop cross-border e-commerce that between October 27th and November 2nd, GMV sales in the US market increased by 155%, and order volume increased by 145%. The number of goods sold increased by 133%.

Source: TikTokShop cross-border e-commerce

Recently, according to the latest data released by TikTokShop, the payment GMV (total transaction volume) and payment volume of the six major categories in the U.S. market during Black Friday have all achieved substantial growth. Among them, the daily payment GMV of the women's clothing and children's shoes category increased by 144%, and the payment volume increased by 135%; the daily payment GMV of the digital 3C category increased by 281%, and the payment volume increased by 280%; the daily payment GMV of the fast-moving consumer goods category increased by 162%, and the payment volume increased by 170%.

Source: TikTokShop cross-border e-commerce

With the support of official policies and the boost of platform traffic dividends, many sellers in the US region of TikTokShop achieved huge sales during the Black Friday hot war.

Faced with the "increasing pressure" of the upstart social media TikTok, Amazon, which has dominated the U.S. e-commerce market for many years, obviously has its own response strategy.

Recently, Amazon, which is trying to adapt to the development of social e-commerce, officially announced that it has reached a cooperation with Meta to launch a new in-app shopping function on Meta’s two major social platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Users can click on Amazon product ads on the platform to purchase products directly. Immediately afterwards, Amazon teamed up with Snapchat to create a closed loop of social platform shopping, allowing users to achieve a one-stop experience from advertising to placing orders on Snapchat.

Source: CNBC

After joining forces, Meta and Snapchat, which have strong social influence, can not only use Amazon's mature e-commerce model to optimize the e-commerce shopping experience within the platform, but also increase advertising revenue by attracting advertisers; for Amazon, This cooperation with Meta and Snapchat can help it quickly enter social e-commerce. The new traffic entrance will also help Amazon reach more user groups in the future, expanding its influence while further consolidating its position in the e-commerce market. .

Image source: Google

All in all, in the face of eager competitors, whether in the Indonesian market that is about to make a comeback or the US market that is currently making rapid progress, TikTok, which has been making frequent efforts, still has a long way to go to realize its e-commerce ambitions.