For many consumers, especially younger ones, it was difficult to distinguish between social networking and online shopping.
Due to the inability to shop in person and the explosive growth in TikTok downloads, a trend known as #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt emerged that would later be referred to as a cultural phenomena.
The hashtag, which allows users to share what they’ve purchased based on the app’s product recommendations, has been posted more than seven billion times to far.
TikTok is succeeding with their generation, according to Lilia Souri and AJ Pulvirenti, co-hosts of the marketing podcast “Gen Z on Gen Z”.
Lilia Souri, 27, adds, “It’s become one of the biggest because of how sophisticated the algorithm is and because, even before TikTok Shop was created, we were seeing shopping behaviors happening on TikTok as a whole.”
Her 25-year-old co-host, AJ Pulvirenti, continues, “You can buy a product directly on the platform and then continue scrolling, in a cycle of watch, shop, repeat.”
Social shopping is a rapidly expanding and sizable market. According to estimations by Statista, it was valued at $570 billion (£446 billion) globally in 2023 and is expected to be worth more than a trillion dollars by 2028.
TikTok appears to be in a precarious situation despite being one of the major participants. If TikTok’s Chinese parent business doesn’t sell it, it might be prohibited in the US.
