Tokgistic: TikTok Launches UK Fulfillment Service

TikTok launched a new fulfillment service in the UK to help merchants who sell on its social media platform. Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) comes just a few months after ecommerce platform Shopify sold its fulfillment service (which included Deliverr) in May to Flexport.

According to Tuesday’s announcement, “FBT is a logistics offering available in the UK where TikTok Shop stores, picks, packs and then ships merchants’ products to the TikTok community. It is designed to help free merchants from time-consuming logistics via a simple, fast and affordable solution, so they can focus on important aspects of their business such as marketing, content and product development.”

The service is only available to TikTok Shop merchants based in and delivering to the UK, and packages must not exceed a weight of 30kg or a cubic volume of 31.5 cubic litres per shipment. Not surprisingly, merchants don’t have to store all of their SKUs at the warehouse or use FBT for all of their products.

TikTok cited the following benefits of using its new fulfillment program:

• Same day, automated fulfilment for all orders made by 7PM Monday to Saturday.
• A next working day premium delivery service. -Improved customer feedback and ratings through our instant messaging service and dedicated customer service employees.
• Improved metrics in terms of reduced delivery times.

In addition to offering merchants advertising opportunities, in May, TikTok Shop launched an affiliate program in the UK, giving creators “a new and exciting opportunity to monetise their content, creativity and influence by collaborating with sellers on TikTok.” It also encourages sellers to provide samples to creators “as a way to help creators promote quality content and show your product in use.”

In June, there were reports that TikTok would build out a fulfillment service for US merchants, with The Information reporting that TikTok was building out a fulfillment service comprised of third-party logistics companies it had begun testing with US sellers.

Sellers can review the cost of using TikTok’s UK fulfillment service on this TikTok.com help page and can find more information and FAQs about FBT on a portal on Pipak.com.

Wondering what all the fuss is about TikTok shopping? Check out this article from The Guardian today. And more information about TikTok Shop is available on this page.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 – present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 – present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.