The 2023 TikTok Shop Launch and Its Reception
At first, social media users were excited. Another opportunity to make money in a capitalist society is like a moth to a flame—we cannot help ourselves. For those who struggle to find conventional jobs and those living with impairments, the TikTok Shop symbolized the promise of a supplemental source of income, or even allowed those who prefer remote work to make selling products their full-time jobs. For others, it simply represented an opportunity to get rich quickly. Struggling college students could market products for extra textbook cash and increase their Target run budgets. Aspiring influencers could make it big by riding the coattails of the HSN entrepreneurs who paved the way before them.
However, others quickly realized what TikTok would soon become after the app launched its shop. Instead of short-form comedy clips, folks were spoonfed gilded e-commerce slop. TikTok lexicon shifted from “Vibe check” to “Run, don’t walk to get [insert product].” For every funny video you see, there are five product-pushing advertisements that have the same formulaic, urgent tone.
Anything shiny and new will be treated as such. It’s not out of the ordinary to get excited about the newest addition to an app you scroll on for countless hours every week. I know I was excited—until the TikTok Shop infiltrated every corner of the app and became an egregious stain on what the app used to be.
Products Are Priority, Second to Entertainment
At first, users were not given the opportunity to promote products—the TikTok Shop existed autonomously. This in-app autonomy was quite weird because the shop now had a clickable button reserved for them on TikTok’s UI, yet there was very little cross-collaboration between the “For You Page” and its respective section. I wish it had stayed this way, kept apart from the unsuspecting doomscrollers who use TikTok to perk up when they’ve had a long day. Now, we all have to be reminded about how much money we don’t have whenever we scroll past the thousands of users who overconsume on a daily basis.
When the shop finally allowed creators to make commission through video promotions, they set specific guidelines. You had to have at least 5,000 TikTok followers, be at least 18 years old, and be accepted into the TikTok Affiliate Program. At first, the products available on the shop were solely exclusive to the fashion and beauty realm. TikTok was not Instacart—at least, not yet.
Now, in addition to dropshipping companies selling 100% polyester croptops, small businesses sell their nonperishable and perishable edible goods on the TikTok Shop. Small businesses found a gold mine with the shop, but where are the regulations, at the very least, regarding the sales of food products? All of this to say: Overconsumption on TikTok has gotten out of hand.
“Free and Refundable Samples:” The TikTok Creator Pilot Program
Spoiler alert: It’s only getting worse. TikTok launched the TikTok Creator Pilot Program, which allows creators with fewer followers to product-push and earn commission through sales. This directly affects users’ scrolling experience. Now, half of the content on TikTok is advertisements. We’re looking at two-thirds of it being e-commerce mumbo jumbo.
Additionally, the Pilot Program allows sellers on the TikTok Shop platform to offer users “free” or “refundable” samples. These shops are roping users in with the promise of free goods, and in the “refundable” samples’ cases, a money-back guarantee if they successfully promote the product they are “sampling”, as shown in their sales. So, they get a free product and earn commission, but at what bigger cost?
Users are effectively roping other users in with this promise because if they can do it, you can, too. It’s all feeling a bit MLM-esque.
that.official.b.m.stacey on TikTok
I know. Capitalism, Blah Blah Blah…
Will the TikTok Shop be the reason for the app’s eventual demise? Surely not. A capitalist structure relies on diction of urgency—“Run, don’t walk”—and capitalizes on the growing financial instability the average American deals with. This is the reason so many social media users purchase from Shein, Temu, and other giant warehouses overseas that have lower costs compared to American-made products. This makes it easier for all of us to overconsume, yet we’re purchasing from these places in the first place because we don’t have enough money to do so locally. The TikTok Shop is, like everything else, a symptom of a larger issue at play. But that’s a story for a different day. In the meantime, run, don’t walk, to the park so you can touch some grass.
