According to the Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter revealed that the current average daily sales of TikTok e-commerce in the United States is about US$7 million, and the goal is to reach US$10 million per day by the end of the year. By comparison, Amazon's average daily sales last year were about $603 million. Although the sales gap is obvious, Amazon has made no secret of its fear of TikTok e-commerce.
In order to maintain its dominance in the e-commerce field and extend users' stay, Amazon launched the short video function Inspire in December last year. Inspire is similar to TikTok. Users can browse the product images and videos recommended by the platform within Amazon and directly purchase products of interest.
According to Amazon, since the launch of Inspire, the number of product posts viewed by users has exceeded 1 billion. Amazon also revealed this week that it is testing another social feature that will allow users to get feedback from friends on products of interest.
But short video delivery is not necessarily suitable for Amazon. Daniel Buchuk, a researcher at Israeli artificial intelligence company Watchful Technologies, said that Amazon has a very difficult task in getting users to accept Inspire, a new social feature.
He said that most users choose Amazon to buy goods, not to browse videos. Amazon earns commissions by promoting products through social media influencers, and also relies heavily on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Some Internet celebrities also say that Amazon Inspire is not attractive enough.
Since 2017, Amazon has launched the Internet Celebrity Talent Program to attract creators through bonus incentives. For some, Amazon's lucrative bonus incentives are enough to replace a regular, full-time job.
Michelle Lei quit her job as a software engineer last year and became a full-time Amazon influencer. She makes thousands of dollars a month promoting Amazon home products through TikTok and Instagram.
According to data from research firm MarketplacePulse, the number of views of videos promoting Amazon promotions on TikTok has doubled every year since 2019, with related video views exceeding 400 million in July this year. Amazon recently began providing influencers with more analytics tools to make it easier for them to track traffic and online sales.
While Amazon is following TikTok in making short videos, TikTok e-commerce is also studying how to become a safe and trustworthy shopping choice for users like Amazon.
"(Social e-commerce) is a major change in the way people shop, and we hope we are doing the right thing." TikTok's e-commerce director Marni Levine said. Levine declined to comment on whether TikTok views Amazon as a competitor. Amazon is relatively high-profile. Its spokesperson said that Amazon's social e-commerce has "achieved substantial growth" in the past five years.
Amazon has a complete warehousing logistics infrastructure and distribution team in the United States, which can deliver packages to almost anywhere in the United States within two days. According to the company's data, Amazon delivered an average of more than 13 million packages per day in the United States in 2022.
Some sellers said that TikTok e-commerce informed them that they must deliver products to customers within three days of receiving orders, otherwise they will face delays in payment collection. In addition, TikTok e-commerce is building its own distribution network to be able to ship items on its own, something no other social media platform has done. TikTok e-commerce has also recruited many executives from Amazon, and its US team has grown to more than 300 people.
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