How to Set Up TikTok Shop in Canada to Maximize Your Sales Opportunities

Written by: Yikai Li, General Manager at Nativex Europe and North America

The news that TikTok is about to launch its social commerce offering “TikTok Shop” in Canada should have marketers in the country buzzing with excitement.

TikTok Shop is a powerful source of sales, making it easy for brands to turn engagement from their TikTok followers into sales. And in many respects, brands are knocking on an open door. Consumers are well versed in buying things from their mobile. Insider Intelligence believes that by 2027 mobile will account for almost half of all e-commerce sales.

TikTok is popular in Canada, particularly among Gen Z users. Figures from eMarketer suggest that in June 2023, 25% of these Gen Z users spent more than an hour a day on the platform, with 38% saying they spent at least half an hour a day using TikTok.

The launch of TikTok Shop opens up this audience to brands looking to launch or expand their social commerce offering in Canada. And it’s easy to get started. All you will need to do is sign up as a seller and complete the onboarding process; upload your products to TikTok Shop and link your TikTok Shop account to your TikTok Account. But before you do any of this, take a moment to read our advice on how to succeed on TikTok Shop.

1. Choose How You Are Going to Sell
There are several ways to sell your products on TikTok Shop. Live Shopping allows brands to incorporate products into a livestream session, much like a shopping channel on regular TV. It’s a concept users are familiar with, combining the convenience of online shopping with the ability to present the product’s key features and benefits during a live demo.

Alternatively, you can create shoppable videos that incorporate the products, again with the ability to highlight key features and benefits. A link in the video takes users directly to the Product Detail Pages, where users can make purchases.

Another option is what TikTok calls Product Showcase. This enables you to add a selection of curated products to your profile, from where users can buy directly.

Beyond these choices, you need to decide whether to sell directly from your account or work with influencers. Working with influencers who have already built up a loyal following who trust their advice and recommendations, can make sense if you’re looking to hit the ground running and start seeing sales immediately. But take care in choosing the influencers you work with, and make sure that you specify, in your contract with them, the level of sales you expect to see, and the basis on which they will be paid.

If you want to grow your own TikTok account, selling directly can help, especially if you offer exclusive or limited-edition products to incentivize users to follow your account so they will receive an alert when you have something new for sale.

2. Start Small
While TikTok Shop has been available to users in other countries for a while, it is new to Canada, so users may take some time to feel comfortable buying from it. So, start by offering inexpensive items, with clear instructions on how to return the product with a full refund if the user is not completely happy with what they have bought. Also, consider offering products for sale on TikTok that are not available through any other channels to encourage users to come on board.

3. Allocate a Budget for Testing
Like every sales channel, TikTok has tools to help sellers get the most out of it. TikTok Shop Ads can help you supplement your organic reach by presenting your products to other TikTok users unfamiliar with your brand. Set some budget aside to experiment with Shop Ads, testing different creatives and messaging to see which resonates best with the audience.

4. Be Realistic
TikTok users are in the habit of going to the platform for entertainment; that’s how it started out, and that’s largely what it’s still used for. So be realistic about your sales expectations while users get used to the idea of TikTok as an eCommerce channel. Establishing your presence early will enable you to start building confidence and trust with users so that you can start ramping things up when others are just getting started.

5. Connect Your Trusted Partners
TikTok has hundreds of app integrations, from commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to multichannel platforms like ChannelAdvisor and Pipe17, as well as shipping services like Flowspace and Easyship. These integrations make it easier for you to replicate your existing eCommerce processes and workflows on TikTok, so make full use of them.

6. Follow the Asian Example
Social commerce has long thrived in Asia, proving to be a lucrative avenue for sales. Livestreaming alone has amassed billions of dollars in transactions, with numerous young professionals forging independent careers as hosts.

7. Choose the Right Partner to Work With
Any new sales channel can take time to fully understand and get the most out of it, especially when it’s one in a completely new category. Social commerce is a unique proposition, and social commerce on TikTok differs from social commerce on any other social platform.

So, before you do anything else, choose the right partner to work with — ideally, one that already has a direct relationship with TikTok and that has helped other brands get their TikTok Shop operations up and running. They will help you navigate the space and advise on the right strategy to produce a strong return on investment so that, in time, TikTok Shop becomes as valuable to you as any of your other sales channels.