Social Commerce: TikTok Shops vs. Meta Shops

I’ve been babbling a TON about TikTok Shops lately.

Mainly for 2 reasons: pure excitement & the fact that not much tactical or operational content is available online today. I’m focusing a decent chunk of my own time on it in 2024 and want to be helpful to the DTC community and share my findings.

The first mistake I see people make is rule out TikTok Shop because of Meta’s failure in social commerce execution. You can’t compare TikTok Shop to Facebook or Instagram Shops. I’ll give you a side-by-side comparison below.

The downfall of Meta’s attempt at social commerce was put on full display about a year ago when Instagram removed the “Shop” tab from the app.

This misstep marked the very moment TikTok would steal Meta's lunch in the social commerce race.

It's amazing what has transpired in just 12 months since this move. Social commerce seemed dead in its tracks.

I viewed this as Meta admitting defeat and divesting investment from social commerce to focus on bottom line and satisfying public markets (which only cared about profit).

Since this move, TikTok has gone full gas and has momentum larger than I ever expected.

I anticipate Meta will reinvest more into social commerce again very soon.

TikTok Shop has the playbook on full display. It’s not perfect, but it’s working. Even in its current janky state.

Zuck is watching & learning. Taking ideas and improving them is what Zuck does best, right?

Now, I’d like to break down the exact snapshot of how vastly different TikTok Shop is from Facebook and Instagram Shops. Before launching on TikTok Shops, you must understand all of the subtleties. It’s an entirely new sales channel and much closer to launching on Amazon than on Meta Shops.

If you made it this far, your head is probably spinning and want nothing to do with learning an entirely new ecosystem.

Let me tell you though — it is WORTH IT.

Meta will most certainly relaunch the Shop tab on Instagram and Facebook in 2024 and relaunch its affiliate marketplace. It’s only a matter of time.

Social commerce is the future.

If you need help in any area of TikTok Shop or Social Commerce in general, my team at The Snow Agency is here for you. Just submit your info > HERE < and we’ll get in touch with you!