The 2024 TikTok E-commerce White Paper is released! Unlocking the traffic code of TikTok e-commerce

As a new blue ocean of global traffic, TikTok has achieved explosive growth in 2023 with its advantages of dual drive of content and shelf e-commerce, and its revenue performance is particularly eye-catching. According to Kalodata data, TikTok's daily GMV peak in the United States in 2023 was as high as 35 million US dollars, and TikTok's daily GMV in Southeast Asia was nearly 70 million US dollars. It is reported that the target of TikTok Shop in the United States in 2024 is 50 billion US dollars, and TikTok will also usher in faster growth in the future.

As the world's leading TikTok e-commerce data analysis tool, Kalodata has jointly released the "2024 TikTok E-commerce Development White Paper" with the industry's leading media organizations: 36Kr, TT123 and cross-border guide Cpsea. The white paper mainly includes 8 parts, including TikTok's e-commerce market data in various countries, categories, stores, products, influencers and content lists, as well as TikTok's e-commerce business strategies, aiming to reveal TikTok's e-commerce trends and provide marketing strategies for merchants to succeed in TikTok operations. (The book has a total of 129 pages).

In addition, we are fortunate to have invited Hong Peilin, director of Shenzhen E-Commerce Service Center, Peng Xiaoqiu, head of global content reporting at 36Kr, Lu Honghai, CEO of Ennet, Musk, co-founder of TT123, Lin Chao, founder of Cross-border Guide, TCL, a brand seller on TikTok, Sibiao, a partner of CreatoRev, a top MCN agency in the United States, Nguyen Van Can, founder of Mega One, a well-known TSP and MCN agency in Vietnam, Sky Laosi, a seller/KOL in the US region of TikTok, and other senior practitioners in the field of cross-border e-commerce to conduct in-depth interviews, in order to help sellers grasp the development trend of TikTok more accurately and crack the secret of TikTok e-commerce traffic.

Before we get into the main text, let’s first listen to TT123 co-founder Musk’s views on which types of cross-border merchants are more suitable for entering the TikTok e-commerce market.

"The most suitable sellers to enter TikTokShop are, first of all, traditional shelf e-commerce sellers with existing stock in their local countries. This is obvious, because product selection and stocking are natural barriers, and these are two very deep subjects. For sellers who have not done overseas product selection and stocking, they will experience a lot of pitfalls, so sellers who have gone through these two processes are the most advantageous.

Secondly, sellers who are highly sensitive to content are strong in content presentation and popularity control, because TikTokShop is a platform that uses content as a traffic driver. If you capture the content, you capture the traffic, and if you capture the traffic, it is very likely to be converted into sales.

Finally, for those who are "socially addicts", TikTokShop is still very dependent on influencers at this stage. There are a large number of local influencers who are good at managing traffic. If you have very strong communication skills and emotional intelligence, you can get a lot of resources from influencers in this market. Then you can also control the traffic and I believe you will do very well. "

01 TikTok e-commerce market will develop rapidly in 2023

Judging from the TikTok e-commerce market data in 2023, the overall GMV shows a steady growth trend:

TikTok's US market has been growing steadily since its internal beta in August 2023. With the start of the first year-end promotion in the US, the GMV of the US market in November reached its annual peak of nearly US$1.4 billion. On Black Friday, the transaction volume was nearly US$35 million.

Although TikTok's Southeast Asian e-commerce market has encountered setbacks, it is still growing rapidly. Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are the main contributors to TikTok's GMV, with a strong momentum. It is worth noting that due to the impact of Indonesia's policies, many sellers are still on the sidelines and have not yet promoted their products on a large scale.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of TikTok’s e-commerce development opportunities, Kalodata interviewed Director Hong Peilin of the Shenzhen E-Commerce Service Center to see what insights he has.

“As the world’s most popular and fastest-growing Internet application platform, it may mean the most important way for new Internet users to obtain information. These are the new generation of Internet users, and their needs are urgently needed to be met, which of course will bring important business opportunities.

Short video apps can present content that is more intuitive than text and pictures, which will further lower the threshold for e-commerce shopping and help more sellers achieve branding. The hosting model will give more factory-type sellers opportunities to grow.”

Below we will take the United States as an example for analysis. For data on Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries, please view the full version of the white paper.

02 2023 TikTok US Category List

The white paper shows that the five categories with the highest GMV in the United States in 2023 are beauty and personal care, women's clothing and underwear, sports and outdoor, mobile phones and digital products, and health care.

In addition, health care, sports and outdoor, and household daily necessities are the fastest growing categories. The GMV of these three categories in December 2023 increased by 611%, 448% and 222% respectively compared with September 2023.

For TikTok e-commerce practitioners, choice is definitely more important than hard work. Finding a high-potential market is a crucial step to achieve high sales. You can use Kalodata to help you explore potential categories.

03 2023 TikTok US Store List

The white paper shows that among the top 10 categories of GMV of TikTok Shop in the United States, the top three stores are The Beachwaver, Wyze and Halara US, which belong to the categories of beauty and personal care, mobile phones and digital products, and sports and outdoor. In terms of store transaction amount, The Beachwaver is far ahead with a revenue of 21.87 million US dollars, ranking first!

As one of China’s top 500 companies, TCL is also a leading brand seller in TikTok’s e-commerce field. For this white paper, Kalodata specially invited Cheryl Chen, head of TCL’s SEA team in Asia Pacific, to learn how TCL accurately understands the needs of overseas users in the process of operating TikTok?

“Generally, we will conduct market research and data analysis to understand the consumption habits, preferences and behavioral characteristics of overseas users. The forms include questionnaires, user data analysis tools and other means to collect relevant information.

Second, conduct user interviews and focus group discussions from time to time to communicate directly with overseas users to understand their needs, pain points and expectations, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of their psychological and behavioral characteristics.

Third, pay attention to the social media activities and interactions of overseas users, and understand their interests, hobbies and values ​​by observing their words and deeds, interactive topics and comment feedback.

Fourth, establish good communication channels with overseas users, actively collect their opinions and suggestions, and timely adjust product and service strategies to meet their needs and expectations. "

04 2023 TikTok US Product List

The white paper shows that from September to December 2023, the top 10 categories of TikTok's US GMV are beauty and personal care, household goods, computers and office equipment, health care, mobile digital devices, women's clothing and women's underwear, sports and outdoor, food and beverages, food and beverages, and kitchen supplies.

Among them, the GMV TOP1 product in the beauty and personal care category: Beachwaver rose gold curling iron, with sales of 10 million US dollars, firmly sits at the top of the sales ranking of various categories of TikTok products in the United States!

Regarding scientific product selection, the white paper also points out that we should focus on the core selling points of products, combine platform ecology and consumer insights, and create hot-selling products. For conventional products, we can focus on the three major consumer scenarios of festivals, seasons and practicality to conduct hot-selling product insights; for new and unique products, we can explore the scarcity of products internally and grasp the core pain points of consumers externally. This is how we can achieve success!

The overall economic environment is currently on a downward trend. In this context, how can Chinese sellers improve their operating efficiency and reduce costs when going global? To answer this question, we specifically connected with Peng Xiaoqiu, the head of 36Kr's global content reporting, to see what suggestions he has for overseas merchants.

“In an economic downturn, businesses should pay more attention to the input-output ratio and refine their operations.

First, it is necessary to clarify brand positioning and target markets, understand consumer needs and preferences, and conduct targeted marketing and product design to improve efficiency;

In addition, they should also optimize their supply chain management, reduce production costs, maintain good relations with suppliers, and ensure a stable supply of goods. In recent years, flexible supply chains have been repeatedly mentioned and practiced in the apparel industry. The cost control and supply chain management experience behind this model can also provide reference for other industries.

The economic downturn also means increased risks. Overseas sellers may feel the most deeply about geopolitical changes and the tightening trend of compliance. This also requires sellers to be more aware of changes in international trade policies, tariffs, exchange rates, etc., adjust strategies in different markets, and look at overall development. "

05 2023 TikTok American Talent List

The white paper shows that from September to December 2023, the top 10 independent influencers in the top 10 categories of TikTok's US GMV are itsmekelsc, teddyandbrittney, hiddensteals, drchrispharmd, catshrank, vprincemusic, billion ai rebridgette, girldadsos, aliiceberg, and caileneasely. Among them, independent influencer itsmekelsc earned US$4.12 million by promoting beauty and personal care products, and topped the list of independent influencers!

Judging from the income of the top 10 independent influencers in TikTok's US GMV ranking, independent influencers in the beauty and personal care, household daily necessities, and mobile phones and digital products categories have higher incomes, with a total income of US$8.96 million, accounting for more than 52% of the total income of the influencers on the list.

06 2023 TikTok US Live Broadcasting Ranking

The white paper shows that from September to December 2023, the TOP1 live broadcast rooms under the top 10 categories of TikTok's US GMV came from the accounts highonlaurenelise, mronos_trendy_us, onzpo, newegg, selfdestructking, meowfashion99, gamerkbm, fdcutewig, itsme.april.1214 and xanadu_supermarket. Among them, the account highonlaurenelise won the first place in the live broadcast sales list with sales of 290,000 US dollars in a single live broadcast!

Judging from the revenue of the TOP1 live broadcast rooms in the top 10 categories of TikTok's US GMV ranking, the TOP1 live broadcast rooms in the three categories of sports and outdoor, household daily necessities, and beauty and personal care had a total single-game revenue of US$700,000, accounting for 54% of the total revenue of the live broadcast ranking list.

07 2023 TikTok US Short Video List

The white paper shows that from September to December 2023, TikTok's top five e-commerce short videos in the United States GMV came from stores/brands Homeika, AnkerUS, Hoga Store, and The Beachwaver, belonging to the four first-level categories of home appliances, mobile phones and digital products, household daily necessities, and beauty and personal care.

Among them, Homeika's e-commerce short video topped the list with a single video revenue of 3.63 million US dollars! Hoga Store's two short videos generated a total revenue of 3.1 million US dollars, ranking 3rd and 4th on the list respectively.

According to Kalodata data, all of TikTok’s top 5 e-commerce short videos in the US GMV have placed ads, and the advertising ROAS of all short videos is greater than 1. Among them, Homeika’s short videos with products not only rank among the top in terms of revenue, but also its advertising return rate is the first!

08 TikTok’s four-step e-commerce strategy

Regarding TikTok's e-commerce operations, the white paper gives suggestions in four aspects: product selection, store analysis, influencer promotion, and content production.

Goods are the foundation, and an excellent product selection strategy is the key to success in the "content + shelf" scenario of TikTok Shop. According to the operating rules of content e-commerce, product usage scenarios and sales characteristics, they can be divided into regular products and new and unique products. For regular products, we should focus on the three major consumer scenarios of festivals, seasons and practicality to conduct hot product insights and strategic layout; for unique products, we should explore the scarcity of products internally and grasp the core pain points of consumers externally to seize the initiative and achieve success; we can effectively use the filter items in the Kalodata product interface to obtain this part of data.

After choosing the right category, you need to plan and operate your own store internally, and learn from the top sellers in the market externally. You can use Kalodata to study the operating strategies of target stores and understand their revenue composition, including self-operated income, influencer income, and mall, so as to formulate appropriate promotion strategies. In addition, you can also use Kalodata to more accurately grasp market demand and development trends, so as to maintain your competitive advantage.

Selling products on TikTok can be done not only through operating a store account, but also by inviting influencers on TikTok to promote products. Understanding the influencer's traffic and ability to bring goods is the first step in selecting cooperation influencers. Through Kalodata data, you can view the influencer's recent transaction amount, interaction rate and other indicators to identify the intended influencer, use Kalodata to find influencers for easy contact and establish connections to reach promotion cooperation, so as to increase TikTok store revenue and brand reputation.

Finally, the key to running TikTok's e-commerce business is to create explosive content. TikTok's content is divided into live broadcasts and short videos. Currently, most of the platform's GMV is achieved through short videos. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on data such as video types, content design, viewing and transaction conversions to understand consumer habits and content preferences, so as to formulate effective promotion strategies. From a global perspective, the transaction volume of TikTok live broadcasts will also grow rapidly in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to study the strategies of high-quality live broadcast rooms, analyze the broadcast time, product settings, live broadcasting techniques, etc., in order to learn effective live broadcast sales skills, optimize their own live broadcast rooms, and improve transaction conversion rates.

In order to integrate knowledge and action and implement the suggestions and strategies in the white paper more efficiently, Kalodata also interviewed TikTok’s US e-commerce seller & KOL Sky Laosi to see what insights he has for newcomers entering TikTok?

"As an influencer, you can start from the traffic side, obtain TT traffic by shooting short videos, and then convert them.

As a business, we can start with influencer marketing and gain traffic through the short videos of influencers with a sense of originality. ”

Partner Acknowledgements

The 2024 TikTok e-commerce development white paper was jointly released by Kalodata, 36氪, TT123, and cross-border guide Cpsea! Thanks to the following partners for their support and promotion of this white paper (in no particular order)!

Our Service Clients

Kalodata has successfully provided services to more than 500,000 sellers, influencers and institutions around the world. It is committed to providing the most comprehensive TikTok data and efficiency improvement tools to solve problems faced by merchants in content creation, influencer cooperation, competitive product analysis, and product planning.