Discovery commerce: leveraging TikTok as sales channel
It happens without you even noticing. You’re scrolling through videos, a mix of entertainment, information, and relaxation, then you see content that shows you the solution to a problem you didn’t know you had or a product that fulfills a desire you hadn’t yet expressed. You didn’t search for it on Google, you didn’t go into a store. It found you. A few taps later, the purchase is complete, without ever leaving the app.
If this experience is familiar to you, it’s because TikTok has long since ceased to be just an entertainment platform and has transformed itself into a powerful channel that blends discovery, search, and sales into a continuous and natural flow.
Forget what you thought you knew about social commerce, because we are now experiencing a more profound revolution, which has a specific name: Discovery Commerce. In this article, we analyze how it works, the strategic opportunities for brands, and the implications for all digital marketing.
Discovery commerce: don’t call it social commerce
For years, we have used the term “social commerce” to describe the sale of products through social platforms. That model, however, was based almost entirely on your social graph: you saw products recommended by brands or influencers you already followed, or perhaps by a friend. It was a digital extension of word of mouth. TikTok has broken this pattern, replacing it with discovery commerce, a much more powerful paradigm.
This new approach is not based on who you know, but on who you are. The entire mechanism is designed to turn chance discovery into a purchasing opportunity, creating an experience that combines entertainment and shopping in a continuous flow. You don’t go hunting for products; the products come to you, proposed by an algorithm that knows you better than anyone else.
The algorithm as a shopping advisor: from interest graph to business
At the heart of this revolution is the “For You Page” algorithm. Unlike other platforms, it doesn’t just show you your contacts’ content, but analyzes your every interaction (likes, comments, viewing time, shares) in real time to build an “interest graph,” or a map of your real and latent interests.
This makes it the most powerful personalized shopping advisor ever. The algorithm doesn’t ask “what do your friends like?” but “what might you like right now?” In this way, it breaks down the boundaries of your social bubble and exposes you to a universe of brands, creators, and products that you would never have discovered otherwise. The result is a recommendation engine that blends entertainment and impulse buying, reducing acquisition costs for brands and maximizing sales opportunities.
An experience that doesn’t feel like shopping
The real strength of discovery commerce is that it manages to integrate sales so naturally into the content flow that you don’t feel like you’re in a purchase funnel. The line between entertainment and shopping dissolves. You’re watching an honest review, a helpful tutorial, or an exciting unboxing, and the product is right there, just a tap away.
This process breaks down the cognitive barriers to purchasing. There’s no friction of having to exit the app, open a browser, search for the product, and enter your details. The impulse generated by the content is converted immediately, as demonstrated by an impressive statistic: 67% of TikTok users admit to having been inspired to buy something they saw on the platform, even when they had no intention of making a purchase. It is no longer just a product that is being sold, but an experience, a story, a dialogue.
The numbers of discovery commerce: discovery turns into business
The ability to generate demand out of thin air is only the first step. The phenomenon becomes even more interesting when analyzing the behavior of those who have already become buyers. According to research by GlobalData, 83% of all buyers say they discovered a new product on TikTok Shop, and 70% discovered a new brand.
This means that the platform is not only a channel for converting existing demand, but above all a driver for generating completely new demand. And the scale is global: since its launch in Asia in 2022, TikTok Shop has exceeded $70 billion in GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) worldwide. In Italy, with nearly 24 million active users, the platform has already attracted over 8,000 sellers in the first few months since its launch, demonstrating a rapid adoption rate that confirms the power of this new business model.
Search is changing: why searching on TikTok is the new searching on Google
If until yesterday your instinct for searching for information was to type a question into Google, today you—and many others! – find yourself opening TikTok more and more often. This change in behavior is more than just a youth trend; it reflects a profound evolution in what it means to “search” online. Gen Z, in particular, has already overturned the hierarchy: for them, Instagram and TikTok are the preferred search engines for discovering places and products, surpassing Google.
This doesn’t mean that one channel is replacing the other, but that your intentions as a user have diversified. On Google, you look for factual answers and solutions to specific problems. On TikTok, you look for perspectives, inspiration, and, above all, visual evidence. You want to see how that dress really looks, how that blender works, or what effect that cream has on a real person’s skin.
No longer answers, but perspectives: your search for authenticity
The real revolution in TikTok search lies in the fundamental change in demand. As explained by Sissi Xu, Search Ads Product Strategy Lead at TikTok, every search on the platform is not just “What is the answer?”, but also “Whose opinion can I trust?”. You are no longer looking for objective truth, but an authentic point of view that resonates with you.
This transforms search from a transactional interaction to a social experience. We scan a chorus of voices—creators, experts, other users—before deciding what convinces us. That’s why content that “shows” rather than “sells” is so effective: a tutorial, an honest review, or a product comparison builds trust that no traditional product page can ever match. The data confirms this: 38% of users believe that watching creator content is more useful than reading a review on a website.
A hybrid journey: how you use TikTok and Google in a complementary way
Your search journey is no longer linear, but a continuous flow between different platforms. Behavior analysis shows that you move fluidly between the world of traditional search and that of social discovery. The study conducted by WARC highlighted two main paths:
- 38% of users start their search on a traditional search engine (such as Google) and then move on to TikTok to learn more, seek opinions, and find visual evidence.
- 34% of users, on the other hand, start their journey directly on TikTok to find inspiration and ideas, then turn to Google to search for more technical details or purchasing options.
Understanding this dual behavior is crucial for brands. It means you need to be present on both channels, but with different strategies: on Google to capture informed demand, on TikTok to stimulate latent demand and build trust through authentic content.
Capitalizing on intent: the impact of Search Ads on your sales
TikTok has understood the commercial value of this new search mode and has created Search Ads, a tool that allows brands to intercept it at the moment of maximum intent. These campaigns place your ads directly in the platform’s search results, appearing in a native and non-invasive way just when a user is actively exploring a topic.
Their effectiveness is surprising. A meta-analysis conducted by TikTok in the US and Canada revealed that campaigns that included a search component generated a purchase lift (incremental increase in purchases) 2 times higher than campaigns that did not. The impact is even more pronounced for big brands, which achieve a 2.2 times increase, and for the retail sector, with a +1.9 times increase and a significantly higher ROAS (return on ad spend).
For you as a marketer, this means one simple thing: search intent expressed on TikTok is not just “visibility,” but a concrete opportunity that translates into measurable, direct results on revenue.
TikTok Shop: the funnel closes, the purchase becomes native
The real breakthrough that transformed TikTok into a complete commercial channel is the introduction of TikTok Shop. If discovery and search are the stages that capture your interest, the Shop is the engine that converts that interest into a transaction, eliminating any possible friction. The entire process, from inspiration to checkout, takes place within a single environment, making the purchase a natural extension of the content you are viewing. For you as a seller, this means higher conversion rates; for you as a buyer, a smoother and more immediate experience.
The in-app revolution: what has changed since March 31, 2025
March 31, 2025 marks a watershed moment for digital commerce in Italy. From that day onwards, TikTok Shop officially became operational in our country, along with France and Germany, opening up a direct sales channel to a pool that now has around 24 million active users. Whereas before you could discover a product on TikTok and then have to search for it on an external e-commerce site, now you can purchase it directly via a banner or link integrated into the video.
The market response was immediate and overwhelming.
In the first six months of operation, over 8,000 Italian sellers opened their own stores on the platform, recognizing its enormous potential. Brands, small and medium-sized businesses, and creators began transforming their profiles into veritable digital storefronts, taking advantage of an audience already accustomed to an immersive experience and ready to convert.
The 4 native purchasing methods: how to turn content into shopping carts
TikTok Shop is not a single feature, but a set of integrated tools designed to make purchasing a simple and contextual action. You can find a product and buy it in four main ways:
- Shoppable Videos. This is the most popular method. While watching a video, a shopping cart icon or a small banner indicates that the products shown are for sale. With a tap, a product card opens directly on the screen, allowing you to add it to your cart and complete your purchase without ever interrupting your viewing.
- Live Shopping. These are the new vertical format teleshopping programs. During live broadcasts, creators show products, answer your questions in real time, and create exclusive offers for viewers. The products appear on the screen and you can purchase them with one click while the event is still ongoing.
- Product Showcase. This is the shopping section of a brand or creator’s profile. By accessing it, you can browse the entire catalog of products for sale, as if you were on a traditional e-commerce page, but while remaining within the app.
- Store Tab (Shopping Center Tab). Currently being released in various markets, it is a real marketplace aggregated within TikTok. Here you can discover and purchase items from different sellers, with the algorithm offering you deals and new products based on your interests.
Live shopping as the new teleshopping: data and performance
Of all the modes, Live Shopping is the one having the most disruptive impact. It is no exaggeration to describe it as the direct evolution of the teleshopping that dominated local TV in the 1980s and 1990s. The format is incredibly similar: there is a charismatic presenter, a product shown on camera, superimposed text, and a strong sense of urgency. The Corriere della Sera newspaper called it “a true modern teleshopping program.”
The key difference is interactivity. Whereas before there was a switchboard, today there is a real-time chat where you can ask questions, request to see a detail, and interact with hundreds of other potential buyers. This mix of entertainment and interaction has proven incredibly effective. Live shopping sessions have grown exponentially, with a 72% year-on-year increase in the UK alone.
The results are measurable: 76% of consumers who interacted with TikTok Shop made at least one purchase from a live stream in the last year. And the performance can be explosive, with cases of brands turning over $100,000 in a single two-hour live stream or Lidl selling out its entire catalog of products in just 18 minutes. This format turns shopping into an event, driven by urgency and social proof, creating an engaging experience that traditional sales channels cannot replicate.
The creator economy at the center: the virtuous circle of affiliation
Creators are the fuel that keeps the engine that enables transactions running at full speed. The true genius of the TikTok model lies not only in having integrated a shopping cart, but in having built around it an affiliate program so accessible and powerful that it has created a new standard for the creator economy.
This system transforms every creator, from micro-influencers with a few thousand followers to stars with a huge audience, into a potential sales partner. It is no longer just a matter of “promoting” a product in exchange for a fixed fee; it is about actively participating in the success of that product, earning a commission on every sale generated. It is a model that aligns the interests of brands and creators, creating a virtuous circle based on trust and results.
The democratization of sales: how to monetize trust
The TikTok Shop affiliate program has effectively democratized e-commerce and drastically lowered the barriers to entry, allowing you to monetize your community and the trust you’ve built without having to deal with the complexity of opening your own store, managing inventory, or handling shipping.
For brands, this means being able to rely on a distributed, authentic, and highly scalable sales network. Instead of investing huge budgets in a few big endorsers, you can collaborate with hundreds of niche creators, each with a deep and genuine connection to their audience. Sales no longer happen through a cold advertisement, but through the recommendation of a trusted person, and that changes everything.
The affiliate program for brands: your scalable sales network
If you have a brand, TikTok Shop provides you with a suite of tools to manage collaborations strategically. You can activate the program directly from the Seller Center and choose between two main modes:
- Open Collaboration (Open Plan). With this option, you add your products to the “Product Catalog” accessible to all creators enrolled in the program. You set a standard commission for each item, and any creator who feels that product is in line with their audience can choose it, add it to their showcase, and start promoting it. It’s the ideal way to get started, maximize visibility, and find out which creators generate the best results.
- Targeted Plan. This is the strategy for the next level. Instead of opening up to everyone, you directly invite specific creators to promote your products, often offering them a higher, customized commission. This mode is perfect for building long-term relationships with top-performing affiliates, launching exclusive products, or creating targeted campaigns.
Becoming an affiliate: requirements and opportunities for creators
From the creator’s side, joining the program is surprisingly simple. Although requirements may vary slightly, you typically need to have at least 1,000 followers and a minimum of recent activity on your profile (e.g., 50 views in the last 28 days).
Once you’re in, the process is straightforward:
- Choose products from the catalog that are in line with your niche.
- Add them to your storefront with a tap.
- Create content (videos or LIVE) and tag the products.
Every time a user purchases through your link, the system tracks the sale and automatically credits you with the commission set by the seller, which can vary on average from 5% to 20%.
Affiliation as a sales driver
Analysis of the most successful stores on TikTok Shop reveals an unequivocal truth: the vast majority of sales do not come from official brand channels, but from the affiliate network.
According to a study by Lengow, between 80% and 90% of the turnover of the top performers on TikTok Shop is generated by affiliate creators. This data is reinforced by user behavior: another study shows that 78% of buyers on TikTok discover products thanks to influencer content.
Strategic implications for your brand: a channel to be structured methodically
It is now clear that ignoring TikTok Shop is no longer an option, but you need to be careful: activating a profile and uploading a few products in the hope that the magic of the algorithm will do the rest is the quickest route to failure. Approaching TikTok Shop requires the same strategic discipline that you would devote to opening a new structured commercial channel or optimizing your e-commerce, because that is exactly what it is: a business lever that directly impacts your sales models and margins.
Enthusiasm for the platform’s potential must therefore be accompanied by serious reflection and a well-defined action plan. Before you start, you should have clear answers to some fundamental questions.
The basics of your strategic approach
Successfully entering TikTok Shop requires a holistic approach that brings together strategy, content, media, and operations. The spontaneity and naturalness you see in successful videos are, in most cases, the result of careful planning. To avoid wasting time and resources, start with these strategic questions:
- What is the right value proposition for this channel? You can’t just replicate your e-commerce site. Which products in your catalog lend themselves to a visual demonstration? What exclusive offers can you create?
- How does it integrate with other channels? You need to define how TikTok Shop will interact with your website, physical stores, and other marketplaces, especially with regard to promotions and pricing, to avoid conflicts.
- What levers do you activate for profitability? You need to define the right KPIs to monitor (such as ROAS, CPA, ROI) and balance awareness activities with direct commercial push activities.
- What operating model will you adopt? Who in the company will handle content, logistics, and customer service? Larger brands, for example, must agree to create content tailored to TikTok, because the platform’s spontaneous language is an obstacle for those accustomed to more rigid creativity.
Risks and critical issues: how to navigate an environment that is still imperfect
Alongside the enormous opportunities, it is essential that you are aware that TikTok Shop is still in a settling phase, with critical issues that you cannot ignore. The shopping experience for the end user is still far from being as reliable as that of established marketplaces.
Here are the main risks to consider and mitigate:
- Returns and refunds management: unlike Amazon, on TikTok Shop, returns management is often left in the hands of the individual seller. You need to define clear policies and a simple process, because each seller may handle times and costs differently, creating potential frustration.
- Quality and counterfeiting: the platform encourages high purchase volumes because it earns a commission on every sale regardless of the seller’s reliability. This has led to an increase in products of dubious quality or blatant counterfeits, especially in the beauty sector, where a growth of more than 50% in fake products has been reported. Monitoring the channel also means protecting your brand reputation.
- Impulse buying: The entire platform is built to stimulate emotional reactions and impulse purchases. A study by Shopify estimated that about 68% of social commerce purchases are driven by impulse. While this is an advantage, you need to be transparent and build a relationship based on trust so as not to disappoint expectations.
- Logistical sustainability: For small and medium-sized businesses, sudden, viral success can turn into a logistical nightmare. You need to ensure that your warehouse and shipping processes are ready to scale quickly in the event of an unexpected spike in orders.
The levers for your growth: data, sectors, and key KPIs
To structure your strategy, you need to focus on the sectors that are already performing best today and the KPIs that really matter. In Italy, the main interests of users driving conversations and purchases are beauty, technology, and sports. In terms of the most purchased product categories, we find fashion, beauty, electronics, consumer goods, and home furnishings.
These sectors work because they lend themselves beautifully to the visual demonstration and storytelling typical of the platform. But there is one piece of data, one KPI, that more than any other demonstrates why selling on TikTok is strategically different: the return rate. In the fashion sector, which suffers from an average return rate of 30% in traditional e-commerce, this percentage drops to 10% on TikTok Shop, the same as a physical store. This is because the video format and live streams function as a virtual “product trial”: you see the garment being worn, understand the fit and how it looks in real life, drastically reducing the uncertainty that leads to returns.
Finally, to measure the effectiveness of your collaborations, remember to use simple but effective tools, such as creating dedicated discount codes for each influencer, so you can accurately track the performance of each affiliate and optimize your future investments.
The impact on digital marketing: what changes for your website and your SEO
Your work does not end within the app, and it is not enough to have an effective strategy on TikTok Shop or to have optimized your SEO for TikTok: the biggest mistake you could make is to consider it as a channel isolated from the rest of your marketing activities.
Here, too, the keyword is multi-channel approach: its true strategic strength emerges when you integrate it with your other digital assets, first and foremost your website, and when you understand that its success is rewriting the rules of online communication.
TikTok, in fact, is not just a direct sales machine, but also an extraordinary discovery engine that can and should fuel your entire funnel. The people who discover you on the platform are a valuable audience that you can cultivate over time, turning an impulse purchase into a lasting relationship with your brand.
TikTok and your website: integration strategies
Think of TikTok as the largest and most dynamic “upper floor” of your shopping mall. It’s where people stroll, have fun, discover your storefronts, and maybe make their first purchase. Your website, on the other hand, is your single-brand store: the place where you can offer the most complete experience, collect data, and build true loyalty. The two channels are not in competition, but work in synergy.
That’s why your strategy needs to include bridges to bring qualified traffic from the app to your site:
- Take advantage of the link in your bio. It’s your most valuable asset. Use it to direct users not only to your homepage, but to specific landing pages, product collections, or newsletter sign-up forms.
- Create content that encourages clicks. Not everything has to be sold and concluded on TikTok Shop. You can create videos that intrigue and link to an in-depth article on your blog, a downloadable guide, or a complex product configuration available only on your e-commerce site.
- Analyze behavior. Data shows that this flow is natural for users. 62% of people click on links on TikTok to discover products directly on brand websites. Your job is to make this journey as easy and rewarding as possible.
The goal is to use TikTok’s enormous visibility to fuel an asset that you control 100%, where you can collect first-party data and build a community that doesn’t depend on algorithm fluctuations.
From social search to new formats: how your content is changing
TikTok’s impact goes beyond sales and is forcing brands to fundamentally rethink the way they communicate. To be successful, you need to embrace change in three key areas:
- Authenticity becomes a requirement, not an option. Overly polished or blatantly promotional content doesn’t work. The public rewards honesty, real experiences, and genuine narratives. This means you must be willing to show behind-the-scenes footage, engage openly with the community, and let creators and users tell the story of your product.
- Short, dynamic vertical video becomes the standard. You need to learn how to communicate effectively in a matter of seconds, capturing attention from the very first moment. This requires a change of mindset in content production, prioritizing creativity and entertainment value over formal perfection.
- Communication becomes bidirectional and real-time. Tools such as Live Shopping transform sales into a dialogue. You are no longer just conveying a message, but answering questions, gathering instant feedback, and building a direct relationship with your customers.
Finally, as we have seen, the way people “search” on TikTok is a gold mine of insights. Queries generated within the app become alternative paths to traditional search. Your SEO work, therefore, is enriched and extended to strategic “social listening” on TikTok to understand the problems, doubts, and desires of your audience, and then create content on your site that provides the best and most complete answer, intercepting the user at every stage of their new, complex purchasing journey.
Listening to these conversations allows you to understand the real language of your customers, discover new needs, and adapt your entire content marketing strategy—not only on TikTok, but also on your blog and other channels—to be truly relevant and visible.
