TikTok has exceeded the 1 billion mark in the United States, India, and Japan. In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convert public domain traffic. Under this situation, various global expansion brands and cross-border sellers have begun to establish their own owned audience pools. Through cooperation with KOLs, etc., they have established their ownowned audiencepool.
Cross-border sellers have endless means and tricks, laying a certain foundation for later brand building.
With such high attention, TikTok has become a necessary sales and interaction channel for all walks of life.
Today we will talk about Walmart’s TikTok journey.
Walmart entered the TikTok platform in October 2019, providing customers with an engaging and seamless shopping experience through elaborate live streaming shopping events. On March 11, 2020, Walmart held a special spring event for beauty products, Spring Shop-Along: Beauty Edition, inviting celebrities such as Gabby Morrison, who has 3.5 million fans, to showcase beauty products.
Its fashion product special event held in December 2019 was the first time a retailer held a live broadcast event on TikTok.
Walmart has also followed in elf's footsteps and created brand songs on TikTok, such as #WalmartHolidayShuffle. Walmart also encourages employees to post on TikTok while at work in exchange for monetary rewards.
William White, chief marketing officer of Walmart, said: Beauty is a mature category on TikTok. “TikTok is a platform for users to learn about the latest beauty products or get inspiration for creating new makeup looks through beauty tutorials.”
Before and after the epidemic, Walmart improved its beauty positioning and launched exclusive brands such as Mindy McKnight’s Hairitage and new brands such as The Lip Bar.
Walmart also hired Musab Balbale, vice president of omni-channel beauty, to ensure that stores match online products.
Next, analyze Walmart’s TikTok strategic layout.
// How did Walmart launch its TikTok strategy?
“Walmart’s overall social strategy is focused on being friendly with customers, engaging with them on the channels they prefer, being thoughtful and integrated into their lives.
Walmart focuses on displaying quality products in a variety of fun and interactive ways to increase brand awareness.
Specifically, Walmart began using the TikTok platform in October 2019, focusing on exploring current trends and understanding users’ interests and hot topics. Participate in topics through your own account and conduct one-on-one interactions to let users understand the products provided.
Why is TikTok so important to Walmart? Is it to engage with existing customers or to attract new, younger customers?
“Walmart is focused on building relationships with customers and staying connected with them. Forming a owned audience pool of its own, leveraging TikTok and these events gives Walmart the opportunity to highlight products on a platform where users seek inspiration.
These events allow TikTok users to purchase beauty products from international brands, private labels, and black-only brands at affordable prices, while providing opportunities to reach important customers, such as target groups Millennials and young families, as well as GenZers who are new to the brand.
Walmart wants to be a retail leader, conquering new territories for its customers and brands. Through this event, we created a new shopping experience and plan to continue to develop new forms of shopping in social media communities.
// Is TikTok live streaming to increase sales or brand awareness?
“Both.
But the biggest benefit is the establishment of an owned audience pool. After holding a shopping event in December 2019, Walmart analysis learned that users hope to shop directly on the TikTok platform.
Spring Shop-Along: Beauty Edition event allows customers to purchase products recommended by content creators directly on TikTok in real time. They only need to click on the icon of the product of interest, add it to the shopping cart, and check out during or after the event.
// How does Walmart create fashion experience activities?
“First, Walmart gives creators more room to express their personality.
Therefore, this event highlights the advantages of creators, allowing them to interact with the audience on a platform that is familiar with the creators, and share beauty tutorials using their favorite beauty products.
Secondly, it is necessary to provide a dynamic experience for the audience, let the audience participate in the entire event, and display the products they are interested in in more detail based on the audience's voice.
Therefore, in this special event, the creators will test the products on-site for the audience.
Why is beauty a new opportunity on TikTok? What products are featured in this event?
“Beauty is a hot topic on TikTok”
This live shopping method allows us to highlight our beauty products on a platform where users seek inspiration, providing TikTok users with a new way to discover and purchase products.
The live broadcast display covers various products such as skin care products, cosmetics, hair care products and perfumes, with brands including NYX, Maybelline, Bliss, Kim Kimble and The Lip Bar. The level of interaction during the second event was satisfactory. The number of viewers exceeded that of the first live broadcast. After the event, a large number of new fans were also added.
Are campaigns on TikTok comparable to marketing campaigns on other social media?
“Walmart regularly partners with creators and publishers to create content on Walmart’s website and social media to promote our products. Like this campaign, Walmart ensures that content is created organically and promotes products in authentic ways to best resonate with audiences.
Also, work to simplify the purchasing process, such as adding shopping links on fashion bloggers’ Instagrams, or offering purchase of product bundles included in recipes on lifestyle websites.
To sum up, all sellers or brands can better obtain the transformation from public domain traffic to owned audience through different channels.
In the later period, sellers and brands will be able to achieve better conversions through related new acquisitions and marketing. Then the focus is on how to divert customers to the owned audience pool and how to find an excellent and reliable customer management tool to improve the conversion of owned audiences.
As a software with more than one billion users, WhatsApp has a large customer base, especially the advantage that strangers can add users without verification. It is also the first choice to use WhatsApp to attract customers.
SocialEpoch WhatsApp SCRM system, a customer management tool that integrates WhatsApp multi-account access, real-time one-click translation, self-backup of chat records, and batch import of address books, can help global expansion companies build and maintain their own owned audience pools.
All cross-border sellers, hurry up and build your own overseas owned audience pool!
