While TikTok shopping is known and popular in Asia, a disastrous experience in the UK made the company rethink if it still want to pursue its plan of bringing it to the US, according to 9to5Mac.
The plan to bring "TikTok Shop" to the US have been abandoned after the "social media platform's foray into QVC-style shopping in the UK was hit by internal problems and struggled to gain traction with consumers," as per Financial Times report.
TikTok Shop Failed in UK
Last year, TikTok Shop was launched in the UK, the Chinese company's first market outside Asia.
Using TikTok Shop, brands and influencers broadcast live and sell products. On the screen of the viral short-video app, there's a clickable orange basket.
Social media platforms see this form of livestream commerce as the potential future of shopping.
The social media app take a commission on sales. Its rivals, YouTube and Instagram, developed similar features in Europe.
The sales of Chinese Douyin app was more than triple year per year. The model has proved profitable for TikTok parent ByteDance.
In the first half of this year, TikTok had planned to launch the shopping feature in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. And later in 2022, they plan to expand it into the US, according to several people briefed on the matter.
But the expansion plans will not be happening anymore after the UK disaster. The UK project "failed to meet targets and influencers dropped out of the scheme," according to Financial Times.
"The market just isn't there yet. General consumer awareness and adoption are still low and nascent," a TikTok employee said.
Despite TikTok's offering of subsidies and cash incentives to encourage brands and influencers to sell through the app, a lot of TikTok Shop livestreams have achieved poor sales.
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TikTok London Office Has Toxic Work Culture
Based on the Financial Times investigation last month, it was revealed there had been a "mass staff exodus from the company's ecommerce team in London." The employees complained that the working culture enforced by the company's Chinese leadership is aggressive.
9to5Mac reported that since TikTok Shop's launch, at least 20 members of the London ecommerce team, or around half of all its original staff, have left. Others say they are on the verge of quitting.
As per Financial Times report, Joshua Ma, a senior ByteDance executive who ran TikTok Shop in Europe, was replaced after the revelations. Comments made to London-based staff that he "didn't believe" in maternity leave was investigated by the company.
According to TikTok, it had no current plans to make the shopping features available in Europe. At present, the company is focused solely on making the venture a success in the UK.
TikTok Shop was recently launched in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Since last year, it has been available in Indonesia.
"We are always looking at ways to enhance our community's experience and regularly test new features that inspire creativity, bring joy and innovate the TikTok experience in markets around the world. We're excited to experiment with new commerce opportunities that enable our community to discover and engage with what they love." TikTok said.
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