TikTok Shop is Better Than Shein

On Tuesday, September 26, we had a guest speaker, Jessica Throneburg, from Little Details boutique. During the class she touched on the topic of the TikTok Shop and how it is starting to resemble Shein. The TikTok Shop is slowly becoming more popular as more and more people are advertising it on their accounts. Temu is another online shop that has grown to virality amongst social media users. These different online shops are quite similar in branding and user platform. One could say that the TikTok Shop is becoming a new version of Shein and Temu.

TikTok Shop is exactly what one may think it is; an online shop filtered through TikTok. According to Ivan Mehta of TechCrunch, “TikTok has been testing its e-commerce initiative in the U.S. since last November.” For almost a year Tiktok has been advertising every product under the sun to its users. They rely on creators to promote their products and generate revenue. Creators can sign up for the TikTok Shop Affiliate program through the app and earn commission on every sale they generate. This makes TikTok Shop a great place for small businesses to promote their products and gain a profit. A creator must have over 5000 followers and be at least 18 years old.​​ These creators will create videos about the different products and then in post production, provide

a link to the TikTok Shop for the product. Users can also look along the top line of their screen and click the “Shop” button to access TikTok Shop. Shein was founded as ZZKKO in Singapore in October 2008. However, after the new CEO shifted the business to fast-fashion and changed the name in 2015, Shein rose to virality in 2020. 2020 was the beginning of the pandemic and with many people struggling financially and unable to go outside; Shein’s low prices and large catalog had most of the world in a chokehold. You can purchase most anything on Shein, from clothes, to bedding, to stationary. Even though Shein has become a household name, the ethical side of their business has become a huge issue and there have been many articles outlining the questionable values of the Shein corporation. Temu is the new and improved version of Shein, founded in July 2022 and grew to virality in September 2022. Temu is quite similar to Shein; low prices and expansive catalog. As one begins to dig, these online shops begin to look quite similar.

Online shopping has become more popular after the pandemic as the economy has left many people with lower incomes than necessary. TikTok is new to hop on the affordable shopping train and might be slowly taking over. Like Shein and Temu, TikTok sells many popular products at a low price, so a person can still participate in a trend without breaking the bank. As well, TikTok offers a large variety of products for users to choose from. These attributes are what drew consumers to Shein and Temu and the reason they are so popular. A person will purposefully turn to these companies for the sole purpose of buying a knockoff or “dupe” of a product. The homepage for all these platforms are quite similar. They present the newest deals at the top to draw users in, then show all the categories of products one can purchase from.

However, TikTok gains a leg up because all of the promotion for their products are from the creators that use the app. TikTok has used the phenomenon of users enjoying watching creators present their hauls of products from their respective shopping trips as their main source of marketing. The creator gains money while the user gains entertainment and shopping inspiration. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. Another interesting aspect of the TikTok Shop is that they don’t only sell dupes of products, but also the original full price item. The

BIRKENSTOCK clog has been advertised in both the original through the Revolve storefront and the knock off version. While the initial pull of the feature is to purchase the knock off version of the product, the ability to buy the original product is an interesting aspect of TikTok.

TikTok Shop is slowly making a name for itself as a prominent part of users “for you page’s”. Its familiar homepage and ease of use has many people turning to this feature of TikTok as their main mode of online shopping. Being able to see the product in use and what it looks like on other people has really pushed TikTok Shop ahead of other retailers such as Shein and Temu. TikTok understands its users behaviors and will continue to play into the way they interact with their app.