Short video app TikTok is moving to actualize its e-commerce divestment plan. The company announced on Monday it is expanding partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify, and will begin a pilot test of TikTok Shopping among select Shopify merchants across the U.S., U.K. and Canada in the weeks to come.

Last October, the social video platform announced its plans to partner with Shopify in creating an online store for its audience. TechCrunch reports that the TikTok’s e-commerce started with new tools that allowed Shopify merchants to create, run and optimize their TikTok marketing campaigns directly from the Shopify dashboard, as well as new integrations within the TikTok For Business Ads Manager.

The Monday announcement means that the existing deal has been expanded to serve TikTok’s burgeoning network. Soon, Shopify merchants with a TikTok For Business account will be able to add a new “Shopping” tab to their TikTok profiles and sync their product catalogs to create mini-storefronts on their profile.

According to the report, Kylie Jenner, who is among the early adopters of the new service, will use the feature with her Kylie Cosmetics brand, which will be available to shop directly on TikTok. The pilot is also underway with other Shopify merchants in the U.S. and U.K., and will roll out to merchants in Canada in the weeks ahead. Merchants can request to join the pilot through Shopify’s own TikTok channel, the company notes.

Another aspect of the new partnership involves bringing to Shopify merchants product links that can be used to tag products in their TikTok videos. This way, TikTok users will be able to click the tagged product to be directed toward the merchant’s storefront for checkout.

“Creators are paving the way for a new kind of entrepreneurship where content, community, and commerce are key,” said Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, in a statement. “By enabling new in-app shopping experiences and product discovery on TikTok for the first time, Shopify is powering the creator economy on one of the fastest-growing social and entertainment platforms in the world. We are excited to help this next generation of entrepreneurs connect with their audiences in more ways—and with TikTok as a visionary partner,” he added.

Shopify also said there’s growing demand among merchants for working with TikTok, noting installs across Shopify’s social commerce channels increased by 76% from February 2020 to February 2021.

TikTok has been steadily developing its e-commerce features over the years, with tests that included the 2019 launch of the Hashtag Challenge Plus, which added a shoppable component to a hashtag, directing video viewers to shop a website from within TikTok. Last year, brands like Levi’s leveraged TikTok’s “Shop Now” buttons that allowed consumers to make purchases through links posted on TikTok. And, in addition to last fall’s initial unveiling of the Shopify partnership, Walmart began using TikTok for livestreamed shopping events.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported TikTok was preparing a larger expansion into e-commerce in the U.S. in 2021, which included the ability for users to share links to products, a commission program and livestreamed shopping, all in an effort to challenge Facebook. It later noted that tests of in-app shopping had begun with some brands in Europe.

TikTok’s larger goal with shoppable content could ultimately be to challenge Facebook and Instagram, which has also been investing in online shopping in recent years with things like Facebook and Instagram Shops, a dedicated Shop tab in Instagram, shopping in Reels and more.

However, in TikTok Shopping, the checkout takes place through Shopify — by clicking the storefront or product link within TikTok, the user is directed to the merchant website to make the purchase and complete the transaction. Shopify then powers the transaction and payment. On Instagram Shop, meanwhile, checkout takes place natively inside the app, and transactions are processed through Facebook Pay, which can feel more seamless to the end user.

TikTok tells TechCrunch it plans to pilot these new shopping solutions among hundreds of Shopify merchants, ahead of a more public launch.

We are happy to note that LinkedIn approved our application to upgrade Tekedia Institute to an educational institution; we had it before as a Company, but now, it is a School. With this, you will see Tekedia Institute under Education as you list your educational qualifications.

So, for Tekedia Mini-MBA, Tekedia Advanced Diploma, Tekedia Certificate programs, Tekedia Practice, etc, programs you can pick the school “Tekedia Institute” under Education and type the qualification.

—To List for Mini-MBA:
Go to Education section in your LinkedIn profile:
School: Tekedia Institute
Degree: Mini-MBA
Field of Study: Business Administration Management,  General

—To List Advanced Diploma in Project Management:
School: Tekedia Institute
Degree: Advanced Diploma
Field of Study: Project Management

As always, every certificate issued by our Institute is auto-verifiable here using the unique code on the certificate .Celebrate your achievement and let the world know that you are alumni of our amazing Institution.

Employers: please prioritize Tekedia Institute graduates when you are looking for people who understand the mechanics of business. They are masters of the critical tenets of business within the philosophy of corporate value creation, community advancement and upliftment of the human race.

Comments from LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: Very true Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe.
#Technology is an enhancer to productivity improvement.
The technology doesn’t have to be complex or complicated but should be #effective with respect to the local content. That is, focused on the strengths, needs, the potential and resources that are locally present as seen in the video.

Comment 2: Improve productivity? Not enough in our case. The foundation is too flawed to support any meaningful structure.
Look at the state of the nation, yet the president is comfortably cooling off inside Aso Rock, the legislators that ought to have woken him up are even more asleep, snoring their lives away, while Nigeria is bleeding.

Our elite military academy was embarrassed and desecrated by criminals, yet 7pm passed without a national broadcast from the supposed president, rallying his compatriots and letting the criminals know that we are coming for them, wherever they are.
After 9/11 happened and President Bush spoke to Americans, and informed the terrorists about what was to come, did you notice how young people enlisted in the military and went after the terrorists? Nobody had time to talk about Republicans or Democrats, but fighting to defend what America stood for! But because we have mercenaries and aliens in power, they are carrying on as though all is well.
The enemies of Nigeria want to ground Nigeria, and they have plenty enablers in the corridors of power and in the military, no amount of improvement in productivity can beat that.

Comment 3: 100% agree Ndubuisi Ekekwe .
I present to various agrofood companies in Africa an NMR solution which allowed them to get fat and water content of any food (plus some other characteristics and it is non destructive) in less than 1 min.
The answer was “Why investing new ? We have soxhlet and oven (which takes 4-5 h). It is cheaper”
And this is everywhere in Africa I hear that. East or west, north or south, francophone or anglophone.

Comment 4: The Problem is the Local Culture.
We have a very Subsistence Culture. Your average Nigerian doesn’t want to change the world. They just want to import things and make money. The Producers just want to produce enough to give them a house, a wife, 5 or 10 fleet of cars and a Chieftaincy Title, chikena. We’re very small minded and as a result, are not really driven to scale anything. People or someone must desire Scale before we can have it.

Asians, on the other hand, have a Commercial Culture. These guys think Global from day one and as a result they always have the compulsion to Mass Produce. They are masters of the 20/80 Rule. We need to first put our people in a Commercial State of Mind or create a system that does that but Sachetises the machineries of Mass Production so that the aggregate of our Subsistence contributions are sufficient.

Comment 5: A lot of those street kids designing demos can do these and even more, but Govt has killed or still killing most of them. The political class is busy using time and resources to build their destinies to organize royal weddings and funerals.

Today’s Tekedia Institute Live has started. Our faculty is a veteran of UPS, DHL, etc;  he has seen all domains of supply chain across global territories. His expertise is lean management and optimization of supply chain systems. That is how to get the alpha results because commerce is nothing but supply chain. Zoom link in the Board school.tekedia.com