Best Buy is launching a TikTok Shop storefront in late October with close to 10,000 products, including headphones, cameras, laptops, and small appliances from major brands. The storefront will allow shoppers to buy products from Best Buy without leaving TikTok, just in time for the holiday season.
Best Buy will fulfill the orders themselves, same as they do with non-marketplace items sold on their own website, and shoppers will be able to return eligible purchases directly at a Best Buy store or by mail — a great perk that separates the retailer from most other brands that sell on TikTok Shop.
Jonathan Greer, VP of e-commerce at Best Buy, said:
“Social media isn’t just influencing what people buy anymore. It’s shaping how they discover products, with creators playing an increasingly important role in what people notice, consider and want to try. Launching on TikTok Shop lets us meet customers at that exact moment of discovery and make it easy to shop.”
The partnership also unlocks new ways for brands to work with TikTok creators. Brands that advertise through Best Buy Ads will be able to run creator videos as paid campaigns with shoppable links, then measure which creators and products drove sales using Best Buy’s own shopper data.
A marketplace joining a marketplace? Am I in bizarro land?
As you know, Best Buy launched its own third-party marketplace last year, yet now they’ll be selling through another marketplace. And they’re not alone in doing so. Ulta, which launched its UB Marketplace last October, started selling on TikTok Shop in March, and I’d imagine that there are more to come.
TikTok has created an environment that welcomes other retailers that operate marketplaces because it offers a social channel they otherwise wouldn’t reach. Meaning, it might not make sense for Best Buy to create a storefront on Amazon (although they have partnered on launches in the past) because both platforms are competing to be where shoppers begin their product searches. However, TikTok Shop is more discovery-focused, so it brings Best Buy new customers rather than competing for ones who were already shopping.
I’m going to guess that Best Buy’s next stop is going to be Whatnot, as their product catalog would be a perfect fit for live selling. Perhaps they’ll dabble with live selling on TikTok first before moving on to other platforms. We’ll find out soon.
