Walmart partnered with TikTok in December 2020 for the first test of a new livestreaming shopping experience in the United States using the TikTok platform.
The test seems to have worked very well, and Walmart announced on March 9 that it will use TikTok again to host another livestreaming shopping event, Spring Shop-Along: Beauty Edition. The one-hour live stream will feature TikTok creators and influencers.
Walmart didn’t say how much it sold at its first TikTok live shopping event, but said it was able to grow its TikTok follower base by 25% with more than seven times more views than expected.
These indicators were sufficient for Walmart to choose to return to TikTok again. Last time, they focused on holiday live streams and dealt with apparel, but this time they will promote beauty products.
Spring Shop-Along will take place on Walmart’s TikTok channel from 9pm EST on March 11th. Like the last holiday event, this event will feature a variety of TikTok creators who will talk and introduce their favorite items.
One of the participating creators has already been announced. Gabby Morrison (@GabbyMorr), who has 3.5 million TikTok followers.
Gabby and other creators will be demonstrating their skincare, make-up, and hair care routines during the 60-minute live event, showing off Walmart’s beauty products in action. The beauty brands featured are NYX, Maybelline, The Lip Bar, Bliss, Kim Kimble, and Marc Jacobs perfumes.
Event viewers can get beauty advice or tap the product’s “pin” to shop for featured products directly within the TikTok app. Items can be added to the cart and settled during or after the event.
“The brand has found a unique location on TikTok to create content that encourages the community to talk to the community or discover new products,” said Blake, a global business solution for TikTok. Chandlee said in a statement about Walmart’s plans.
“It’s exciting to see how the TikTok community loves to engage with their favorite creators and discover new products in a live-stream shopping experience. Innovative ways to support the journey from discovery to purchase. We look forward to continuing to build and seeing brands like Walmart bring creativity to our users,” Chandley added.
Walmart was interested in leveraging TikTok for e-commerce ahead of the holiday live stream. Walmart, in particular, planned to invest in TikTok when it was threatened to ban TikTok from selling its US operations to US companies under the Trump administration.
The forced sale that TikTok’s US operations may be spun out to new owners Oracle and Walmart will be shelved while the Biden administration is reviewing its move under the Trump administration.
Shopping on the live stream is gaining more and more interest and investment in the United States. Numerous startups are entering the market, including NTWRK, recently funded Bambuser and Popshop Live. Leading tech companies are also participating in mobile and live video shopping.
Google’s mobile video shopping Shoploop R & D project has been integrated into search. Facebook has acquired video shopping startup Packagd to build live shopping and has invested heavily in video shopping on Facebook and Instagram.
Amazon is doing live shopping through Amazon Live like QVC. Alibaba (AliExpress), JD.com ,, Pinduoduo, WeChat, and TikTok’s Chinese sister app Douyin all support mobile video shopping.
However, Walmart said its plans to partner with TikTok for livestream shopping were not the result of negotiations to acquire the business. Walmart has been using TikTok’s platform for over a year. In addition to deploying the TikTok channel, Walmart even required employees to produce TikTok videos.
We asked Walmart for comment, but declined to reveal the numbers for the first live stream on TikTok. But the pilot test seems to have exceeded expectations.
“We’ve seen more than seven times as many viewers as we expected, and we’re happy to see TikTok followers increase by 25% after the first event, and we’re happy with the smooth checkout experience,” a spokeswoman told TechCrunch.
“We can’t disclose sales, but we exceeded the forecasts we had made before the event.”
After this week’s live shopping event, Walmart says it plans to bring more shopping experiences to TikTok by continuing to partner with creators to feature different products via different formats.