Core Model & Services
- Merchant Role: Act as suppliers to bulk stock goods in TikTok’s European local warehouses, focusing solely on supply chain and product selection without managing warehousing, fulfillment, or content operations.
- Platform Responsibilities: Handle end-to-end services including warehousing, order delivery, returns processing, local influencer matching, content promotion, and compliance risk control. Local in-stock samples enable same-day shooting by influencers, boosting conversion efficiency.
- Logistics & UX: Leverage FBT official warehouse direct shipping, with free shipping available for some products, shortening delivery times, cutting fulfillment costs, and increasing user repurchases.
Eligibility & Onboarding
- Eligible Entities: Local merchants in the four EU countries, as well as enterprises from mainland China and Hong Kong, China.
- Key Requirements: Possess VAT qualifications for the warehousing country and the ability to stock local inventory in Europe. Brand merchants, distributors, and sellers with differentiated product resources are preferred.
- Onboarding Method: Currently invitation-only. Merchants submit qualifications and product information via the platform’s invitation channel, then complete warehousing and system integration upon approval.
Merchant Benefits & Growth Opportunities
- Cost Reduction & Efficiency Gains: Cut labor and time costs related to warehousing, logistics, after-sales, and influencer coordination, focusing on supply chain optimization and new product development.
- Traffic & Influencer Support: The platform matches products with influencers based on product attributes and fan profiles, prioritizing niche local influencers to drive content conversion.
- Compliance & Risk Mitigation: The platform takes on local requirements such as VAT and product compliance, lowering merchants’ compliance risks.
- Case Success: During the beta phase, Spanish brand DON FELIZ quickly partnered with automotive niche influencers via the model, achieving over 10,000 units sold in 2 months and validating the model’s effectiveness.
Industry Impact & Platform Strategy
- Platform Transformation: Evolve from a traffic platform to a heavy-asset infrastructure provider, strengthening local fulfillment capabilities to solve the core pain point of cross-border e-commerce fulfillment.
- Competitive Landscape: Intensify competition in the European cross-border e-commerce market, forcing other platforms to upgrade local services while offering Chinese merchants a more efficient overseas expansion channel.
- Long-term Layout: As a crucial step in TikTok Shop’s "local-to-local" strategy, the model is expected to expand to more European countries and other regions, further improving its global e-commerce ecosystem.
