TikTok Shop might be the next big thing: survey

New year, new ways for consumers to shop. Well, kind of. A new report from The New Consumer and Coefficient Capital found that spending will continue to grow this year as inflation slows, though consumers are still worrying about rising prices, and TikTok Shop is going to be a major player facilitating this spending, WWD reported.

The social e-commerce platform that debuted in September is already generating a $3 billion run rate in the US and “could become the next Amazon,” Natalie Borowski, investor at Coefficient Capital, told WWD. “It really is going to be defining consumer shopping in the years to come,” she said.

And while age is no bar, the success of TikTok Shop may be directly proportional to Gen Z’s endless fascination with the social platform. Cue TikTok dances.

When more than 3,000 survey respondents in the US were asked which social media platform they would choose if stranded on a desert island, 26% of Gen Z respondents said…you guessed it, TikTok. Meanwhile, only 11% of millennials picked the platform.

And although TikTok Shop is relatively new, many respondents have already made purchases there. And, and, and…92% of those said they’d do it again. More than half of the TikTok Shoppers were under 35.

Another highlight of the report was the focus on sustainability, which time and again has been reported as an important factor for young shoppers.

TikTok Shoppers favor apparel, skin care, and hair care products, and spend around $30 per order, the survey found. And these shoppers increasingly want their goods “cheap, chic and sustainable,” according to the New Consumer.

“There is some idealism that’s kind of natural for being a younger consumer and wanting to shop at a trendy place where you can get a lot of stuff for a little,” New Consumer founder and editor in chief Dan Frommer told WWD. “But the dream, of course, is that it’s both, that through technological and other advancements in manufacturing and businesses putting their money where their mouth is, someday sustainable products will be the inexpensive products.”