At a billion users and rising, TikTok’s influence is growing by the day, and with the holiday season fast approaching, many marketers are now looking at how they can utilize the reach of the platform to maximize their results in the period.

And while TikTok doesn’t offer as many ad options as other platforms, it definitely does influence user action, and purchase behavior. Which is the focus of a new report that TikTok has conducted, in association with WARC and Publicis Groupe, which specifically analyses the concept of ‘community commerce’, which TikTok says is central to its marketing appeal.

You can check out the full 37-page guide here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key notes.

First off, TikTok outlines the process of ‘Community Commerce’:

As explained by TikTok:

“Community commerce specifcally speaks to the notion of entertaining, compelling content that just happens to feature brands. It is creator-driven, word-of-mouth marketing that has taken over the TikTok platform and injects a new opportunity into content creation on social that is more authentic to its environment.”

In other words, TikTok’s branded content, created in conjunction with creators, and then the broader in-app community, can help to build stronger bonds, and establish your brand as a more likeable, desirable product to TikTok users.

Which is not necessarily easy to get right, with creative being the key. But by working with TikTok creators, who know the platform, the community commerce approach can drive significant results, which the report also highlights in its data stats.

As you can see here, for the report, the researchers conducted a survey of 2,230 consumers across 11 markets, to glean more insight into the role that social platforms now play in their respective product discovery and purchase processes. As reflected in this data, social platforms clearly do play a significant role in such, while consumers are also increasingly open to buying on social platforms direct, another key shift for the sector.

That’s why every platform is now working to incorporate in-stream buying, with the pandemic-led rise of eCommerce also playing a key role in driving more in-stream buying behavior, opening up significant new opportunities in this respect.

Live-stream commerce is also a rising consideration:

Which again underlines why more social platforms are looking to incorporate more eCommerce, and live-stream shopping options, aligning with these key shifts.

TikTok, specifically, is leaning into these trends in a big way, with new in-stream shopping tools and live-stream shopping experiments to take advantage of the latest shifts. Each element is central to its ‘Community Commerce’ model, facilitating improved discovery and action direct from video clips, and providing means for creators to better monetize their efforts, and for TikTok itself to maximize its revenue generation process.

The report also provides insights into TikTok shopping trends specifically, including the most effective in-app approaches for different verticals.

It also looks at how user response to creators is changing, and what people like to see from influencer videos.

There’s a heap of interesting and valuable insight here, definitely worth a look for those looking to get a better understanding of the social commerce shift.

You can download the full Role of Community Commerce guide here.