Open your online shop in Douyin (Chinese Tik-Tok)

Douyin expands into e-commerce: brands can now open an online shop in the Chinese Tiktok

We have recently been witnessing how Douyin is pulling ahead of all its competitors, not only in terms of the app’s core business but also by diversifying and developing new products, as discussed in the Chinese Clubhouse article. 

Just under a fortnight ago, Douyin launched a new e-commerce-based feature that aims to help brands on the platform see their conversion rates grow: these include coupons, banners, brand recommendations and recommendations of the brand’s products or services, among others.

As the company has stated, this will improve brand visibility by 63% and increase click-through rates (CTRs) by 250% every month. Just one day since the new feature had been implemented, the number of brands with hundreds of thousands of followers who had already used it exceeded 200.

Moreover, Douyin’s power is evident in its massive number of daily users: in the first quarter of 2021, the platform peaked at more than 700,000,000 users across its three platforms (Douyin, Douyin Huosan Edition and Douyin Speed Edition); these numbers were achieved thanks to its significant marketing and advertising efforts, during the Chinese New Year Gala in February 2021. This year, the company became a partner and supplier of red envelopes (digital envelopes with money and discounts handed out to the audience during the Gala), ousting Pinduoduo, the company’s exclusive partner every year.

Beyond the platform’s popularity for the famous dances and challenges, Douyin is an excellent opportunity for companies to exploit. Many brands have already implemented Douyin as a part of their campaigns; a great example was the 2021 China Autumn/Winter International Fashion Week 2021, which took place three weeks ago. The event organisers teamed up with Douyin for the launch of a campaign that consisted of two main actions:

• An interactive augmented reality exhibition was developed in which ten brands participated.
• A theme song was launched with the hashtag #WeAreAllFashionable which has more than 60 million views and thousands of video replies.

It is noteworthy that Douyin has significantly more optimised e-commerce capabilities than its Western version, Tiktok, as it has direct links to retailers such as Taobao and Suning, which can facilitate the monetisation of content. Despite being a platform whose target audience is mainly focused on Chinese youth, there are countless users of different socio-demographic profiles and with distinct interests, which are endless: from keeping up to date with the news to learning about fashion, cooking, or watching wedding videos or newborns. The good thing about having such a broad audience is that generational preferences are different, and practically every company can tailor content to its target audience.