Everything Shoppable Everywhere, All At Once

Apr 3

Everyone wants to make everything shoppable - regardless of whether shoppers want to shop everywhere.

That seems to be some of the growing tension in the media world. Fans of TikTok have grumbled lately that since the platform launched TikTok Shop, their feeds are being flooded with shopping videos.

Get used to it kids.

Marni Levine, head of TikTok Shop’s U.S. operations for small and medium businesses, told attendees at The Information's Creator Economy Summit that there were no plans to dial things back. That's likely because the money in commerce media is just too good right now.

A few weeks ago, YouTube announced a series of changes aimed at making its videos more interactive, and ideally more e-commerce friendly. The Google-owned video titan may need to push harder, particularly among its native talent. Business Insider reports that many creators are not keen on - or even very aware of - YouTube's affiliate program.

One issue may be simply be YouTube's historic user experience/expectation. Sure, there are millions of product oriented videos and unboxing channels. But YouTube is also very entertainment-centric (consider how much it is pushing YouTube Shorts, reported The Information) which may not be the ideal format for commerce.

Still, it’s understandable why every platform wants to nail shopping. As analyst Brian Wieser noted in his newsletter Madison and Wall, big brands are increasingly shifting large chunks of their media budgets to retail media outlets – without increasing their overall ad spending outputs.

Ad dollars used to chase eyeballs, now they chase shopping carts.