Since its launch in the U.S. in 2023, TikTok Shop has sold more than $4.4 billion worth of beauty and wellness products, according to NielsenIQ. When it comes to converting discovery into sales, beauty is TikTok Shop’s top category, according to the retailer. According to TikTok, 53.4% of users who discover a beauty brand on TikTok Shop go on to purchase the brand, and 71.5% of beauty shoppers say the app’s shopping platform heavily influences their purchasing decisions beyond the app.
There’s no doubt there’s money to be made selling beauty on TikTok Shop. With the burgeoning livestream category and ample affiliate networks, the social media platform has turned everyone from small-scale users to mega creators into potential salespeople. But as TikTok Shop is an online-only platform that prioritizes discounting, capturing that consumer without sacrificing brand identity is another matter.
At Glossy’s E-Commerce Summit in Miami, brand leaders and executives gathered to discuss the highs and lows of working with TikTok Shop, and how to make the TikTok game work to their advantage. Their comments, shared here anonymously, have been edited for clarity.
On playing the TikTok game
“TikTok is by nature a data platform, and they are out to sell for themselves. TikTok is a mafia, and the only reason we have such strong support from them is that we work really well within their confines and we understand the mutually aligned objectives. But it has been hindering us as we expand to DTC.”
“We get support in our traffic, with our Lives and ensuring that everything goes smoothly, but it’s very, very much predicated on your willingness and ability to conform to the TikTok way of life, and that’s very difficult for brands who have a strong identity outside [the platform]. They want product drops specifically for them, exclusives. There’s revenue maintenance, there’s just a lot of criteria in order to get that support, and then to keep it.”
“We don’t participate in a lot of the [promotional] campaigns because we’re not a discount brand either. If you do have the proper support from your TikTok manager, you can still have that same campaign traffic without a discount. … You can definitely inquire. They can give you the campaign tag, you get the campaign push, but you don’t have to discount your product.”
On the TikTok halo effect
“Once you’re in the Shop, you’re going to get priority [in-feed], because they want to drive folks to [TikTok Shop]. So the algorithm will prioritize your content over someone who doesn’t have a Shop, because they don’t care whether they make it to your DTC, but they do care if it makes it to the Shop. So, while you might not have a direct, one-to-one contribution from the Shop that you’re wanting to see as a comparison to some of your other channels, you will still experience that halo. One of the young women who spoke yesterday said something to the effect of: 68% of buyers who shop on TikTok Shop end up ultimately purchasing on Amazon, because that comes back to that trust factor. But just being in TikTok Shop is what got that product in front of them.”
“On all these social commerce platforms, as much as you want to push certain products, the algorithm will surprise you every single day. … We had a video from an affiliate that was posted over a year ago. We did not pay her, we did not contract her. She happened to tag this SKU. In the last month, that video got picked up in the algorithm. On our GMV Max ads, we switched it from manual to auto, and we gave our leadership an eight-week test, and in that time period, this [one SKU] has been our No. 1 product on TikTok Shop in the last month.
“We have not talked about that product cross-platform, I would say, in six-plus months, and now it’s doing 60% of all of our sales. And it was one video, one creator, she has not been paid. … The algorithm can pick something up, pick a product up that you don’t talk about, and that is now our best-selling product right now.”
On using third-party tools
“We use one called Cruva, it’s like an AI tracking tool, where you can actually monitor the halo from TikTok Shop onto your DTC and onto your Amazon. … I think, to be able to show that this is driving people to our stores and this is driving people to our DTC and driving people to Amazon, I will say that was a big unlock for us, because then, once you put in the initial investment and it starts scaling, we’re up, like, 600%, I would say, in the last month on TikTok Shop.”
“You should be thinking about TikTok as a media channel to halo everything, halo to Amazon, but halo to retailer. So we use a tool called Prescient AI, they’re an MMM tool at scale, and we’re getting the lift of our sales from TikTok, driving to in-store at Ulta, and the lift we’re seeing versus Amazon and Ulta, it’s a six-times greater lift of in-store sales traffic. Because they see it and they want to buy it at a trusted retailer, they want to touch and feel it, so they walk into the store to buy it and test it out. That made me the best friend of everybody on the Ulta side.”
On maintaining brand value
“I think, to be very successful as a brand on TikTok, you have to be fiercely protective of your brand and your brand identity, and just be willing to push back against the reps. Our reps will call us and say, ‘You have to do this campaign,’ You have to invest all this money,’ ‘You have to do 30% off.’ [We’re] not a promotional brand. We don’t do Lives. So I have no problem pushing back against them. … We’re willing to test things, but we’re not willing to, I would say, sacrifice our brand with TikTok, which is what they want you to do, at the end of the day.”
“You have to be the fiercest advocate for your brand. You cannot let it run on autopilot, just like you wouldn’t for Walmart, or Ulta, or whoever.”
“The biggest thing to protect your prestige beauty brand is the product itself, and it’s the word of mouth of people talking about it. … It’s the army. It’s when you get pulled into the algo just a little bit into the product category, you then start hearing a chorus of voices of thousands of people, so you don’t get ad fatigue. You are surrounded by this, and you feel as a consumer like it’s going viral. Test it yourself, like go and give TikTok a signal that you’re interested in something that you’re definitely not, like a mattress or a BMW, and you’ll start to see everyone start talking about that in your algo.”
“We sell SKUs up to $1,500 on TikTok Shop, and they sell. And it’s really based off of that social experience, people able to actually have the product, it’s that see-and-feel without actually being physically there, which is also super beneficial in the livestream space, where you can see the product actively being used as well as having that social support. So I don’t think that a prestige brand would have any trouble on there. And, like we’ve been talking about, the algorithm will just cater to people in that price point.”
