TikTok is building an e-commerce ecosystem

The Future. TikTok is stepping on Amazon’s turf with the ambition to create a global e-commerce supply chain system and product fulfillment centers that would bring TikTok-marketed products (almost) right to your doorstep. If the system takes off in the US, it could give China a legitimate competitor to Amazon’s global dominance… only a few years after Amazon shuttered its own business in China due to local competition.

Shipping & scrolling

USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon… TikTok?

• Axios found more than a dozen job postings on LinkedIn that point to TikTok’s ambition to create a global e-commerce supply chain system.
• That includes building its own fulfillment centers that will handle “parcel consolidation, along with transporting goods from one stage to the next and managing free returns.”

As of right now, none of the postings indicate that TikTok will build its own shipping fleet to deliver products to your door… but that’s the logical next step.

Backdoor Amazon

Creating a physical supply chain shows that TikTok is doubling down on its plan to build a worldwide e-commerce business. 

• It’s been experimenting with a live-shopping feature in the UK (which hasn’t been going great) and announced plans to expand it in the US.
• It wants to recreate the social-shopping success of Chinese platforms like Alibaba, Taobao, and JD.com for a global audience on the backs of the platform’s influencers.

TikTok told Axios that for places like the UK and Southeast Asia, where the company’s e-commerce efforts already exist, the supply chain system will provide “a selection of merchants which offer a range of product options as well as delivery options.”

Hmmm… sounds like a very popular Seattle-based retail giant we all use.