How can retailers prep for a potential TikTok ban?

Whatever the outcome of pending legislation, online retailers should diversify their social media strategies now, say two digital marketing experts.

How can retailers prep for a potential TikTok ban?

Today’s social media landscape presents online retailers with a tough challenge: keeping abreast of changes in the platforms that consumers inhabit while maintaining a cohesive brand strategy across different channels.

With the uncertainty of a potential U.S. ban of TikTok looming on the horizon, the task at hand for online retailers could get even trickier.

Particularly for younger audiences, TikTok is a widely used social media platform. Its “bite-sized” pieces of content cater to the shorter attention spans of younger buyers, most especially Gen-Z but also many Millennials.

These age groups look to TikTok for influencer opinions and reviews of products and, with the recent debut of TikTok shop, are increasingly making purchases directly through the app.

If TikTok were to disappear overnight, online retailers would instantly lose access to a crucial means of communicating with this group of customers.

This is all the more reason to be developing and diversifying a social media strategy that is not overly reliant on a single platform, said Meghan Stabler, senior vice president of marketing at BigCommerce, an e-commerce software solutions provider.

“While TikTok feels synonymous with Gen Z, you can’t underestimate the power of other social platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Both have embraced video-driven content with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, and (they) continue to grow in popularity, should TikTok cease to exist.

“Let’s not forget, YouTube is without question the most popular social media platform amongst Gen Z, with some studies showing that up to 96 percent of Gen Z identify as active YouTube users,” Stabler said.

There is also a previous instance of TikTok being banned, which saw other platforms swoop in to fill the vacuum. This can inform the approach taken by U.S. companies, said Arjan Singh, the author of “Competitive Success: Building Strategies with Corporate War Games.”

Singh noted that a TikTok ban, while certainly disruptive, would not be without precedent.

“This has happened before: India banned TikTok in 2020, and You Tube, Instagram and Snapchat were the replacements,” he said. ” So, the expectation is that in the U.S. there will be a shift to these platforms, but it’s not clear if that will happen.

“So we are looking at two scenarios: Either the big three dominate, or there (will be) a lot of platforms that people go to. Brand and retailers need to war game for both as it’s not yet clear which way it will go,” he added.

This second scenario could prove particularly channeling for retailers, Singh noted, as younger users “scatter” to different social media platforms.

“There are a lot of other platforms (on the scene) like BeReal, Twitch, Discord, Reddit, Snap and, to a lesser degree, Twitter and Facebook. Brands and retailers will have to figure out how to navigate this new dynamic where there might not be a platform of choice and there is a lot more ‘platform hopping’ from users.”

The huge number of social media players on the scene is all the more reason for brands and retailers to diversify their online marketing strategies now, and this is true, both Singh and Stabler said, regardless of what happens with TikTok in the short-term.

Singh urged companies to “proactively be on multiple platforms and ready to quickly scale up and down as needed” based on changes in the social media landscape.

Stabler, for her part, urged online retailers to be prepared to proactively adapt to instability.

“The social media landscape is changing daily, and new platforms are bound to emerge, especially with the potential absence of TikTok,” she said. “Knowing that the social media landscape is constantly evolving, the most important strategy for e-commerce retailers to prioritize is flexibility and diversification.”