Learning how to utilize social media platforms can greatly increase traffic to a small business website or profile and lead to more sales a profit for the business owner. The trick to breaking into the media market is identifying the most effective platform to grow a following, and then evolving that audience to more platforms. The largest and most impactful merchant media platforms are arguably Amazon, Facebook and TikTok.
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Amazon has proven to be a valuable resource for entrepreneurs to make sales without the burden of obtaining merchandise prior to making sales. This business strategy is called drop-shipping. It is possible to sell products from a third-party with minimal effort, without promoting products on social media.
This is an effective profit strategy utilized primarily by many retailers during shopping seasons, though mass-production entities like Alibaba allow everyday entrepreneurs to purchase product in bulk, and use Amazon to ship the product to the customer. The profit margin is reliable, the product is abundant, and the customers are happy.
This relatively simple business practice is most effectively capitalized on TikTok and Facebook by influencers posting subtle advertisements on their profile, linked to their merchant profile on Amazon.
The TikTok Shop provides ease of purchase to users of its platform, and benefits the business-owner with its patterns, identifying the target audience with its For-You-Page algorithm.
On TikTok there is also an opportunity for collaboration between merchants and influencers, allowing content creators to earn a percentage of profits as well as show support for small-business owners by boosting sales.
TikTok offers a simple three-step, free registration process and boasts 47.6 billion views of the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit as of March 2023. This is most advantageous to merchants marketing their own products, but the most common struggle is providing inventory for up to thousands of orders immediately after a video goes viral.
Meta provides a solution to this problem on Facebook, allowing a merchant to start, stop and pause advertisements as needed. Their algorithm, though similar to TikTok’s, isn’t as smoothly received by the audience, but offers the benefit of setting custom audience targets like age, location and target gender for your product.
Meta also offers the same creative opportunities of collaboration. This platform is more advantageous for larger businesses, as they provide a direct link to all app stores to allow app downloads. Facebook is more cooperative with a marketing budget, as they charge a registration fee.
TikTok has been stigmatized for originating in China, however the US had taken precautions in 2021 after the pandemic caused online sales to skyrocket. The Executive Order 13873 prevents foreign adversaries from obtaining personal data through online purchases.
Since this level of protection was activated, TikTok and Facebook are on a level playing field, and both platforms are great contenders to market and sell products to users across the globe.
Reach out to Profile ReDefined to find the most effective sales alternative for you and your business.
Case studies. Meta for Business. (2023). https://www.facebook.com/business/success
Doupnik, E. (2015, December 15). Drop-Ship E-commerce Models Threaten Marketplace Alternatives. EBSCO. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=e4a3634f-9cfe-4a14-9ac8-5f9da84a4e13%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3D%3D#
ICT Supply Chain. U.S. Department of Commerce. (2023, September 7). https://www.commerce.gov/issues/ict-supply-chain
Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data From Foreign Adversaries. Federal Register. (2021, June 11). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/11/2021-12506/protecting-americans-sensitive-data-from-foreign-adversaries
TikTok. (2023). Grow Your Business with TikTok Shop Today!. TikTok Shop. https://seller-us-accounts.tiktok.com/account/register?ad_platform_id
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