TikTok could be fashion’s next frontier, as teens use the platform to find fashion inspiration.
Fashion brands are making big bets on TikTok advertising, but young entrepreneurs are setting their sights on their own path. One example of this is Takeout by Syd, a TikTok user who has 100k followers and offers a virtual styling services starting at 20 dollars. Sydnee Grill, who advertises the service as “your dream outfit just one click away”, has helped to democratize and monetise personal style by offering to make outfits from users’ existing wardrobes and send links to buy items from other websites. Grill is enjoying a boom in business. “Fashion has been a passion for me for many years. I love clothes and helping people feel good about what they wear. Grill explains that Takeout is her way of sharing love for fashion with the world on her website.
Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap are well-known retailers who are trying to capitalize on viral moments when their items go viral. High engagement rates can be generated by hashtags such as #fashionhauls or #OOTD (outfit-of-the-day), which are often used by influencers. Retailers must ensure that there is enough stock in order to maximize sales when a product is featured goes viral.
Social commerce is on the rise
According to eMarketer, social commerce sales in America are expected to increase by 35.8 percent to 36.62 Billion dollars this year. This would be a slight decrease from the 38.9 percent year-over-year growth in 2020 when the Covid pandemic left more people shopping online from home. China’s social commerce sales surpassed 351.65 billion dollars by 2021.
TikTok’s genius is its ability to make it easier for anyone to find you. Its algorithm encourages discovery and creation, giving brands greater opportunities to create product-focused campaigns. This could, when shared, lead to a FOMO (fear over missing out). Although commerce on Bytedance’s TikTok may still be in its infancy it already has a following comparable to Facebook’s network of social media platforms.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok users use the app for more than 850 minutes each month. It also has one of the highest engagement rates per post on social media. Most notable, TikTok has overtaken Facebook and its messaging platforms as the most downloaded app in the world, according to App Annie, a market tracker.
