TikTok Shop is a Nightmare

If you love services becoming essentially unusable due to NeverEnding ads, then you'll love TikTok. TikTok has been taken over by these little orange shop icons selling you God knows what. This is unedited, uninterrupted scrolling on the For You page of just TikTok Shop videos. This is not the shop tab; this is the algorithm. These are regular people making shoppable product videos en masse. If you click the orange shop icon, it prompts you to buy whatever they are selling, giving the person a commission.

Ever since we handed off dropshipping to your local finance bro, companies like Teu and Etsy saw just how much money you can make when you let people optimize e-commerce and speedrun money. TikTok saw that and said, "Yes, money please." Letting the masses get a hold of anything low-effort that can make money is a recipe for the next gold rush, but this time with less dissent. It has evolved from podcast bros selling courses on dropshipping. TikTok has modified dropshipping and made it so easy and accessible that just about anyone can be a seller and is participating in selling random products from TikTok's pre-selected dropship manufacturers.

In fact, it's become so much of a problem I was being impersonated while they tried to sell snacks under my name. The support really keeps the party going. Big shout out to everyone who joined. Honestly, it could have been worse. Sorry to those who already bought the viral vacuum just for it to cost less than a pizza. Now I know the economy or whatever, but I didn't know pizzas were $ 83 now. This is from the official brand account too, feeling sorry for everyone who bought the H vacuum at full price because, right now, it's cheaper than a full fridge of food. I mean, they're technically not wrong.

Besides these videos feeling sorry for me, sellers also run live streams to sell stuff, which is how I found out about this chair. So you can sit any way you feel like, whether it's crisscross or one leg under, whatever it may be, you guys will be super comfortable in this chair. It does lean back as well; it rotates, it goes up and down. I got fed so many ads for this goddamn chair that it actually got me to [ __ ] buy it, but you want to know why? Holy [ __ ] oh, oh, that's what you're doing. But I also actually wanted to buy something from TikTok shop if I was going to be reviewing this lovely service, so I bought the chair.

But before I bought more stuff, I realized that everything on here is just going to be the same products that are on Amazon and Teu, considering this chair is also on Amazon. Although I must admit it's way cheaper on TikTok shop with all of the discounts they give you, which is exactly how they're guaranteeing success and is the same thing that Teemu did to establish themselves, selling so much stuff at a loss to get people used to buying on there. Teemu literally loses money with this business model, a competitor to Amazon and Teemu, but at what cost?

Becoming influencer hell more than it is, and I'm partly an influencer, so I can't stand myself sometimes. TikTok, where everyone can sell everything to anyone all the [ __ ] time. But something that's not from TikTok shop and I really, really like and is really, really cool are shirts—dare I say, cool shirts. I'm always hyped to talk about cool shirts because they always make the coolest [ __ ]. My new favorite sweater for the very cold American summers is the fake reality sweater. That's right, folks, the embroidery is beautiful. This is what a Bob Ross painting looks like when you're really, really high. Have I shown you the treasure chain where you can hide secrets that also matches perfectly with the death bracelet and both are adjustable? Or this fishing cap that is a wonderful conversation starter? If you're into bright colors or not, cool shirts have something for you. Head to shirtswithaz.co/Gabby and use code coolgabby for 10% off, which is the first time anyone's ever put my name next to the word cool, so thank you again. That's code coolgabby for 10% off. Thanks to cool shirts for sponsoring, and now back to my favorite app, TikTok shop.

TikTok wants this to be a thing so bad, they're attacking this on all fronts, enticing buyers to buy and sellers to sell. When I opened the shop tab on TikTok, it greeted me with this big beautiful present for 25% off just for being here, I guess. New customer deals of up to 50% off, random coupons stacked on top of coupons, free shipping, free returns, allegedly. I wasn't super comfortable with giving TikTok my address and personal data because no other American company has any of that. So I made a new TikTok account and realized they were not giving me any coupons; they wanted my data and mine only. This is probably to prevent people from abusing the new customer coupons since they can probably detect that it's on the same phone, same IP address, my favorite food, what middle school I went to, my mother's maiden name, my social security number.

But why are sellers so motivated to sell me freeze-dried Skittles or this really ugly hockey puck? Koozie can co co KO cooler. I mean, people are getting really creative with their ads. Your dad's going to die someday. Look what I just got! Thank you, you're so right now that you said that. In fact, it makes me want to just jump at the opportunity to buy from you. We got someone selling us earbuds while standing in front of a peacock. I guess the peacock is there for shock value. The fake version of me just had snacks spinning on this motorized Lazy Susan with the phone sitting on a tripod. You could just keep that going forever unless they get banned.

Y'all remember when this flying orb went crazy viral all over TikTok? Literally no. What is this, a dog toy? Wait, that's my mouse, but cheaper. There are reputable sellers on here like Newegg, which kind of separates it from the Teemu junk. They are selling stuff for cheaper on TikTok shop than Logitech's own website. But you want to know why there's a never-ending sea of advertisements from your everyday person? Because sellers get commissions from 10 up to 50% of each product they sell. Not only that, but they can request free samples of things they want to sell, which is pretty enticing if you get this $ 70 chair for free, all while doing TikTok sponsored incentives to make even more money.

They've gamified the entire selling process. [ __ ] Elden Ring, let's hop on TikTok shop. Next, they'll be implementing Farmville like Teemu did. You can do side quests for money rewards like doing a certain number of lives with the product, posting five videos with product links. But in some cases, they require you to make a certain amount of money, like to get this $ 45 reward, you have to sell over $ 500 worth of product. This can be a high bar to reach and, no offense, doesn't seem worth it or realistic for the average person. So people see this, they try to do it, get almost nothing from it, all while providing companies free advertising. Companies pay thousands of dollars for advertising, whether that be traditional advertising or through influencers, and now they're basically getting it for free while TikTok subsidizes the losses.

It almost feels like, in a way, people are being taken advantage of. But who cares about these side quests because the real money can be made with mainline quests: campaigns. These are absolutely insane. You can win up to $ 110,000 by essentially competing for who can sell the most GMV, which does not stand for Good Motor Vehicles. It stands for Gross Merchandise Value, which means who can sell the most money worth of stuff. They want people to participate. They want people to participate so bad they won't leave me alone. They've sent me like a hundred notifications begging me to join, to start selling on TikTok. Leave me alone.

To start selling and become the next $ 35anaire, you have to sell your entire soul to them. They literally need your social security number, which makes sense for tax purposes, like if you're making money through YouTube, Twitch, Etsy. But TikTok claims that this is privacy protected and is only used to verify if you're over 18, which I find really strange because I thought it would be for tax stuff, unless it's different because it's a Chinese company. I'm not going to think too hard about it. They want you to add products to your showcase, which is on your profile, and they pretend that brands want to collab with you, which is probably just an automated invite for you to sell their stuff. They send you 100 notifications, even several times a minute.

They've integrated TikTok shop into every part of the app, and it doesn't matter if I think that this is good or bad for the future of TikTok because it only matters if the Golden Corral clientele and Congress get their way. They are promoting this a lot better than Instagram shopping, which is not a high bar to cross, considering you might not even know what Instagram shopping is. I like the idea of Instagram shopping being so unknown that even Instagram themselves posted an article being like, "What is Instagram shopping?" No, seriously guys, we don't know what it is. I don't know how it got there. Can someone explain to us what Instagram shopping is?

But I do find this really interesting because I was just thinking about how TikTok shop on Instagram would get so much backlash if the Reels started getting flooded with only advertisements for products. Instagram too had the shop tab, just like TikTok, but it got so much backlash that they ended up removing it. But also Amazon has its own influencers now where they get commissions. Like, there are Amazon influencers now that make thumbnails like these. There's nothing wrong with it, I just never thought I'd see this.

And now I just got an email that there is YouTube shopping with commissions. All of this is essentially commodifying promoting affiliate links, which is kind of just the evolution of a salesperson or even a product influencer. Like, is this so different than a sales guy at a sports team selling season tickets and getting commission off of that? Or a waiter only making money off tips, which is just commission off of someone's meal? This whole thing is kind of giving anyone a sales job if they're successful at it.

And is that so bad? And is that so different than what I do? Did I leave the sink on?

Keywords

TikTok Shop
Dropshipping
E-commerce
Ads
Algorithm
Orange shop icons
Commission
Teu and Etsy
Finance bro
Products
Discounts
Coupons
Data
IP Address
Personal Information
Sale Campaigns
Social Security Number
Side Quests
Mainline Quests
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
Notifications
Instagram Shopping
Amazon Influencers
YouTube Shopping
Affiliate Links
Salesperson
Product Influencer

FAQ

Q: What is TikTok Shop? A: TikTok Shop is a feature integrated into TikTok's algorithm that allows regular users to create shoppable product videos. It employs a lot of discounts and coupons to entice buyers, and sellers receive commissions from the sold products.

Q: Why is TikTok Shop being criticized? A: TikTok Shop is criticized for overwhelming users with ads and focusing heavily on dropshipping, which often results in low-quality products. Additionally, TikTok's aggressive promotional strategies flood users with notifications, making the experience suffocating.

Q: How does TikTok Shop compare with other e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Teemu? A: TikTok Shop often offers products cheaper than on Amazon or Teemu through hefty discounts and coupons. However, it relies heavily on dropshipping, which has mixed reviews regarding the quality of products.

Q: Is it safe to use TikTok Shop? A: Concerns have been raised about privacy, as TikTok collects a lot of personal data including your social security number, address, and more. This data is allegedly used for verifying sellers' age and for tax purposes.

Q: What is the difference between side quests and mainline quests on TikTok Shop? A: Side quests are smaller tasks that sellers can complete to earn rewards, like running a certain number of live streams or posting videos with product links. Mainline quests are larger campaigns that offer more substantial rewards for higher sales volumes.

Q: Are there any notable sellers on TikTok Shop? A: Yes, reputable sellers like Newegg also use TikTok Shop, offering recognizable brands and products. This separates it somewhat from platforms like Teemu that are filled with less-known or lower-quality items.

Q: Can anyone sell on TikTok Shop? A: Yes, TikTok has made it easy and accessible for almost anyone to become a seller, provided they are willing to share their personal data and meet certain requirements set by TikTok.