Last week my roommate got a chamoy pickle in the mail and my brain began to smoke trying to conceptualize what she meant when she said she bought it from TikTok. Every time I’ve seen an ad on my FYP (which at this point is like every other video) for lipgloss, a face-shaping contraption, or an outfit that was being sold from the TikTok Shop, I assumed it was a scam. I stand to be corrected.
It hadn’t clicked for me how the TikTok Shop made any sense, selling anything and everything including brand name products for super cheap rates. As someone who’s easily influenced and loves making a good ol’ transaction, I decided to do some research so I can hop on the TikTok Shop train too.
Here’s the scoop.
TikTok shop by definition
The first thing that helps in realizing what TikTok Shop is and why, is understanding social commerce. It’s exactly what it sounds like, but by Shopify‘s definition, social commerce is “the process of selling products directly through social media platforms. It allows businesses to engage with customers where they spend their time, providing a seamless shopping experience that can boost customer engagement and sales.”
Another example of this is Instagram’s shop, which didn’t get as much hype, but essentially is the same thing. Third-party brands are able to make profiles and sell items on the shop, allowing TikTok to take part of the commission.
We all know that TikTok influencers are creditable for a lot of purchase trends and for creating hype around certain products, so honestly, we can give a round-of-applause to whoever decided to capitalize on it by creating this extension.
how is everything so cheap?
Every clothing item or beauty product I see on TikTok looks like a must-have, but is labeled at a quarter of the price that it would be on any other site, including Shein. Sus, right?
Distractify explained that “by keeping the prices low, more users will likely keep shopping on TikTok Shop after their first buy, especially since TikTok Shop’s algorithm makes it easier to vet every customer’s needs.”
So it seems as if no, the low prices doesn’t inherently mean that you’re about to get scammed, it just means Tik Tok is a girl-boss business woman that would rather mark items as cheaper so they make a little money rather than no money if users bought the item from the third-party directly. She’s really just that girl.
Is it safe to use?
Well, let me start with something interesting I found. Digitalcommerce360 might have just saved us all from getting scammed. The site claims that in the terms in conditions section of TikTok Shop’s checkout page, it reads “we make no representations, warranties, or guarantees, whether express or implied, that any content on TikTok Shop is accurate, complete, or up to date. We have no visibility or control over the contents on or available through those sites or resources and you acknowledge and agree that we have no liability for any such content.”
Take that as you will, but I would say at the least, take the product reviews into consideration.
It actually gets worse, believe it or not.
Though it’s been claimed that TikTok Shop is working on enforcing more regulations to keep shoppers safe after being questioned by federal, local, and state governments, the state, the buyer policy says that “Sellers are independent controllers of the data that they collect about you via TikTok Shop, and TikTok is not responsible for their compliance with applicable law” according to Digitalcommerce360.
Something smells a little fishy to me.
What we’ve seen so far
I mean, my roomate actually received the pickle and I’ve seen enough hauls to conclude that at least most of the time, you’ll actually receive what you’ve ordered.
Whether it looks like the picture or how much of your information is being taken is another question, but I can say at least it hasn’t come out to be a total scam so far.
We can only conclude based on the immediate criticism of TikTok’s brand extension that we’ll be seeing a lot of changes in the shop.
To all of my fellow transaction-loving girlies, all I can say is, shop safely and with intention (and let me know if the face-shaping contraption is worth it).