Lidl has ticked all the right boxes with its latest social media venture. Firstly, it’s launching its own take on viral sensation Dubai chocolate – which sells for as much as £15.99 for 200g on Amazon – at a bargain price.

At £3.99 for 122g, the knafeh and pistachio-filled Dubai-style chocolate bars are touted as the only own-brand take on the trend, and the most affordable option in a UK supermarket (a claim only rivalled by Home Bargains, whose Dubai-style chocolate ‘Dubites’ sell at £3.99 for 100g).

But that’s where the second point of difference comes in. While Home Bargains is selling its lines in stores, Lidl has chosen to flog its wares through the growing TikTok Shop channel. Yes, that does mean the £3.99 bar comes with a £1 postage fee.

But it’s still far cheaper than alternatives – and the channel offers a chance to create sellout hype.

Lidl’s TikTok ambitions

That much is illustrated by Lidl’s debut on TikTok Shop last month. The discounter sold out of its limited run of 3,000 high-protein bundles – priced at £5, and touted as worth £30 – in just 18 minutes. Considering Dubai chocolate is arguably even more of a hot trend than protein – the subject of over 300,000 posts on TikTok – there’s no reason why Lidl’s latest deal can’t match or even beat that success.

The activity is arguably testament to the growing power of TikTok’s shopping arm. The company’s own stats certainly point to potential: as many as 49% of users have taken action after viewing supermarket content on TikTok. And the audience isn’t exactly niche, either. TikTok says as many as one billion people globally and around 70 million in the US use its shopping function.

“With over a third of TikTok’s 1.69 billion users already shopping through the platform, it’s no surprise Lidl wants in,” summed up Marc Holland, e-commerce partnerships manager at Smurfit Westrock, on LinkedIn earlier this month. He hailed the discounter’s debut on the shopping function as a sign of things to come. “What’s next: fresh produce? Full meal kits? An entire virtual supermarket?”

TikTok certainly has ambitions for this side of the business. It says 56% of UK users made purchases directly through social media last year – and predicts the industry will more than double to £16bn by 2028.

Social media buzz

At the same time, Lidl’s latest offer also highlights the importance of a strong deal. A £3.99 bar of Dubai-style chocolate is ideal for luring in shoppers. It’s a small purchase, it taps a viral trend and it’s highly visual. In other words, it’s social media gold.

Whether higher-priced, less trend-led items will sell at the same rate is another matter altogether. It’s a point made by Google ads partner Sandra Chapman, who believes the strategy will remain confined to a few limited-edition lines. Rather than a long term e-commerce plan, it’s “just a clever way to drive awareness and social engagement”, she wrote on LinkedIn.

Chapman also pointed to the 25% in-store discount offered on Lidl’s debut protein bundle, in a bid to drive footfall back to physical locations. “My take? It’s a smart way to generate buzz, test social commerce for the grocery sector, and bring online hype back into physical stores,” she said.

Her point chimes with Lidl’s strategic focus on stores. After all, online sales have never been a large part of its strategy. So if the discounter can generate buzz by selling hot-ticket items on TikTok – and gain a few incremental sales in the process – the venture will likely be hailed as a win.

Crucially, in this scenario, a few high-profile sales works far better than regular sales figures on more humdrum items, which risk killing off the excitement factor.

So the idea of an entire virtual supermarket sitting on TikTok Shop remains a far-flung idea for now. But can TikTok Shop still prove an important win for the likes of Lidl? The number of minutes it takes to sell out of Dubai-style chocolate may well provide an indication of that answer.

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