Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

There is still a month to go before the "Black five" promotion of the US version of "Singles Day", but there are new variables in the US e-commerce market. Amazon, as the No. 1 leader in the North American e-commerce market, ushered in a new challenger this year: TikTok Shop (hereinafter referred to as TikTok e-commerce).

Since its official launch in the United States on September 12, the performance of TikTok e-commerce has continued to attract attention. According to the Wall Street Journal, TikTok currently has average daily sales of about $7 million in the United States, with a goal of reaching $10 million a day by the end of the year. By contrast, Amazon had average sales of about $603 million a day last year. Although the sales gap is obvious, Amazon has made no secret of its fear of TikTok e-commerce.

Following the example of TikTok, Amazon launched Inspire in order to maintain its dominant position in e-commerce and extend the stay of users, Amazon launched the short video function Inspire in December last year. Inspire is similar to TikTok, where users can browse pictures and videos of products recommended by the platform within Amazon and buy products of interest directly.

According to Amazon, users have viewed more than 1 billion product posts since the launch of Inspire. Amazon also revealed this week that it is testing another social feature where users can get feedback from friends on products they are interested in.

But bringing goods with short videos is not necessarily suitable for Amazon. Daniel Buchuk, a researcher at Watchful Technologies, an Israeli artificial intelligence company, said it would be a difficult task for Amazon to get users to accept the new social function of Inspire.

He says most users choose Amazon to buy goods, not to browse videos. Amazon also relies heavily on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to earn commissions from celebrity promotions on social media networks. Some online celebrities also say that Amazon Inspire is far from attractive enough.

Amazon scrambles for social media celebrities since 2017, Amazon has launched an online celebrity talent program to attract creators through bonus incentives. For some, Amazon's generous bonus incentive is enough to replace a normal full-time job.

Michelle Lei quit his job as a software engineer last year to become a full-time Amazon celebrity. She promotes Amazon's household products through TikTok and Instagram and earns thousands of dollars a month.

The number of videos promoted by Amazon on TikTok has doubled every year since 2019, to more than 400 million in July, according to research firm Marketplace Pulse. Amazon recently began to provide online celebrities with more analytical tools to make it easier for them to track traffic and online sales.

Online celebrities and talent is one of the most important assets of TikTok.

TikTok e-commerce has a long way to go to catch up with Amazon. While Amazon imitates TikTok to make short videos, TikTok e-commerce is also studying how to become a safe and reliable shopping choice like Amazon.

"[social ecommerce] is a major change in the way people shop, and we hope we are doing the right thing." Marni Levine, head of e-commerce at TikTok, said Levine declined to comment on whether TikTok sees Amazon as a competitor. Amazon, on the other hand, is much more high-profile, and its spokesman said Amazon's social e-commerce has "grown significantly" over the past five years.

TikTok e-commerce still has a long way to go to build a logistics supply chain that can rival Amazon.

Amazon has a sound warehousing and logistics infrastructure and distribution team in the United States, and can deliver packages to almost anywhere in the United States in two days. Amazon delivered an average of more than 13 million parcels a day in the United States in 2022, according to the company.

TikTok e-commerce is also stepping up efforts to improve its supply chain and logistics.

Some sellers said that TikTok e-commerce informed them that they must deliver the product to their customers within three days after receiving the order, or they would face a delay in collection. In addition, TikTok ecommerce is building its own distribution network so that it can deliver goods on its own, which other social media platforms have failed to do. TikTok has also recruited executives from Amazon, and its team in the United States has grown to more than 300.

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