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One of the world’s fastest-growing social media platforms is looking to go brick-and-mortar in its e-commerce efforts.
TikTok, the popular social media platform that allows users to stream looped videos, is planning to develop its own system of fulfillment centers in the U.S. as indicated by a dozen new job openings posted on LinkedIn, Axios reports.
The sixth-most-used social media platform globally with 1 billion active monthly users, according to data compiled by DemandSage, has been testing the e-commerce waters in the UK for the past year with mixed success. It is now prepared to launch live shopping in the U.S., the Financial Times reported.
TikTok is seeking to build an “international e-commerce fulfillment system” involving warehouses, supply chain systems for U.S. e-commerce efforts that will perform parcel consolidation, and transporting of goods handling free returns, it wrote in the job listings.
“By providing warehousing, delivery and customer service returns, our mission is to help sellers improve their operational capability and efficiency, provide buyers a satisfying shopping experience and ensure fast and sustainable growth of TikTok Shop,” TikTok wrote in one posting.
It is unclear if TikTok has leased or bought any real estate related to its efforts, but the postings were based in Los Angeles and Seattle, Axios reported.
The U.S. expansion pits TikTok against e-commerce retail giants Amazon and Walmart, and will have the platform searching for industrial real estate at a time when demand remains strong despite some high-profile pullbacks.
TikTok has been able to lure consumer dollars to its platform. According to DemandSage, TikTok users spent $2.3B on the platform last year, up from $1.3B in 2020.
More than 60% of TikTok users are engaging in e-commerce on the platform, according to a 2022 study commissioned by TikTok, with more than half of the users using the platform to discover new products or brands and nearly half open to making a purchase through TikTok over the next few months.
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