GMV increased 6 times in half a year! Overseas sellers use TikTok for Business to do e-commerce marketing

TikTok is generally considered by cross-border e-commerce sellers to be the next traffic hotspot and has always attracted much attention. With the wave of going overseas, more and more companies are going abroad. With the increasingly fierce competition, they all hope to find new breakthroughs here.

Not long ago, e-commerce metrics expert Triple Whale released a research report: According to monitoring of 5,000 online stores, they purchased $29.9 million in social media advertising on TikTok in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 60.3% from the previous quarter.

In the first half of 2022, consumer brands spent $48.4 million on advertising on TikTok, up 231% year-on-year. The growth was driven by online stores with annual sales of $1 million to $5 million.

These data all indicate that overseas sellers have begun to seize this new traffic outlet.

As we all know, Q4 is the traditional peak season for cross-border e-commerce sellers. As sellers are preparing for the peak season, TikTok for Business held the "2022 NEXT E-commerce Overseas Marketing Summit" on September 15 to reveal the latest marketing insights and the node marketing guide for Q4.

1 billion users with rich shopping mileage touchpoints

As early as last year, TikTok's global monthly active users exceeded 1 billion, making it one of the most active applications in the world, and these massive users will eventually be converted into consumer power.

According to a recent Deloitte China survey, e-commerce users included in the survey placed 38.4 online orders on TikTok in a year. One-third of these users maintained the habit of weekly online consumption, and 21% of their annual household income was invested in online consumption, exceeding the global average.

From the data, we can see that TikTok users are a high-potential consumer group that cross-border e-commerce sellers cannot miss. However, in the process of contacting sellers, they often mention a confusion that it is difficult to convert traffic into orders.

By observing the shopping mileage of TikTok users, it is not difficult to find that their touchpoints are very rich, which may come from a celebrity video, a live broadcast, or a brand advertisement. There is no fixed starting point and end point, but they are constantly touched and circulated during use.

From this we can see that "telling" every content well is crucial for sellers' order conversion.

Now, more and more sellers are actively creating brand content on TikTok, opening live broadcasts and stores, and aggregating natural traffic and advertising traffic on corporate accounts to attract loyal users and cultivate more frequent and regular consumption behaviors.

However, in terms of advertising, the person in charge of TikTok for Business's overseas operations strategy put forward two points of attention. First, the life cycle of an advertisement is only 2 weeks. If it is not replenished in time, it is easy to have problems such as decline and difficulty in running, which will cause fluctuations in the overall account. Second, the variety of material types can give the machine more learning and matching space, and increase the proportion of excellent plans that can pass the cold start in the account.

There is a saying in the cross-border e-commerce industry: "30% depends on operations, and 70% depends on product selection." Choosing the right product is equivalent to 70% success. Therefore, it is particularly important for sellers to understand the consumption preferences of TikTok users.

Users pay attention to different categories at different nodes

TikTok for Business divides different festivals and activities into three categories: consumption nodes, holiday nodes, and blessing nodes, and analyzes the characteristics of these nodes and the corresponding product selections that have been successfully implemented on TikTok.

For example, during the back-to-school season and the end-of-year sales, the platform has a large promotional force and scope, and users are very willing to shop. Therefore, the product selection direction is relatively wide, and more will be focused on just-needed products. Some families who need to replace large home appliances during the holidays will also choose to buy at this time when the promotion is the strongest.

For example, during the back-to-school season, 3C products for freshmen or daily necessities for dormitories are the first choice. On Black Friday, the selection focuses more on skin care products, beauty products, clothing, and accessories that are suitable as Christmas gifts for family and friends.

Holiday nodes such as Ramadan and Golden Week in the Middle East. This node has more localized elements, and its feature is that users have a long leisure time, and there will be more scenes like staying at home or parent-child interaction . Therefore, yoga and fitness products are essential for staying at home, and you can do some simple exercises at home, or parent-child interactive toy cars, puzzles, and robots are all popular items.

Blessing nodes such as Valentine's Day, Mother's /Father's Day, etc. This is the node with the strongest product selection orientation . For such festivals, users have very clear designated people to bless, so customized gifts are the most popular , such as Valentine's Day accessories, creative gift boxes, or parents' T-shirts, sand paintings, necklaces, etc., which are all relatively popular items.

With good product selection, good creativity is like icing on the cake. The person in charge of TikTok for Business's overseas operations strategy revealed that there are three magic weapons to create creativity on TikTok: First, the theme. The golden first 3 seconds determine the effect of more than 60% of the materials , so the core information of the product, such as new products, discounts, cash back, convenience, etc., should be placed in the front. Second, real people. Most of the hot-selling materials of e-commerce on the platform are blessed by real people. Real people appear on camera, real people try on, and real people speak, all of which show the selling points of products more vividly and powerfully. Third, creative tools. The platform's countdown stickers are widely used during the promotion period .

Now some brands have mastered TikTok’s “traffic code” and achieved rapid growth.

With a growth rate of over 600% in half a year, YOU has made traffic flow smooth

Haibei Lizhi's beauty brand YOU has been deeply rooted in Southeast Asia for many years. However, in Southeast Asia with such a young population structure, most of its consumers are middle-aged women. Many times they will ask "Where are our young consumers?"

Through TikTok, YOU found them. Liao Yige, head of Haibeli's e-commerce , revealed that by attracting new users, YOU achieved an explosive growth of more than 600% month-on-month in half a year .

In addition to the gratifying growth in e-commerce sales, during this year's Ramadan, YOU also tried a new online full-link integrated marketing strategy through TikTok, achieving three marketing goals on the same platform: product promotion, brand upgrading, and online sales.

How does it do this?

Ramadan in Southeast Asia is equivalent to the Chinese New Year, and both are a happy family holiday. In the past, most businesses used TVC blockbusters, discount banners, etc. to promote their products during this holiday. However, YOU has taken a unique approach and implemented a one-stop full-link marketing on TikTok.

Starting from the pain point of "urging marriage" faced by young Indonesian women , it joined hands with TikTok experts to launch the #WouldYouLoveYou challenge on TikTok, encouraging young women to love themselves, be themselves, and fulfill themselves. It also told women's growth stories through TopView (open screen ads), deeply empathized with target users, and received highly positive comments from users.

"First time watching a commercial." said the user.

On the basis of emotional communication with consumers, YOU also launched a more entertaining song and dance filter challenge #HyAmino around facial cleanser products with TikTok influencers, which brought fresh vitality to users' Ramadan entertainment. This series of activities also contributed to the rapid growth of TikTok Shop single products and GMV.

In the end, the brand challenge initiated by YOU achieved outstanding results during Ramadan: 8.8 billion video views, 5.2 million user-generated content and 880 million user interactions . In terms of TikTok Shop conversion, in the first half of Ramadan, YOU ranked first in the live broadcast rankings in the local category, and the single product Rouge Power also ranked first, and the sales of acne products were among the best.

With the wave of going overseas, the competition for traffic will only become more and more fierce. For sellers, TikTok is undoubtedly a new traffic outlet. Therefore, how to convert traffic into orders is the top concern of many sellers. The successful experience of brands that have already emerged is of great reference significance to other sellers.