Kris Boger on TikTok’s mission to bring joy and grow sales on TikTok Shop

Last month, Lidl laid claim to being the first supermarket to sell through TikTok Shop, the social media platform’s direct purchase offering, where ‘buy buttons’ are added to posts and live streams to capture both the Gen Z zeitgeist and sales.

The discounter’s “insanely popular” stunt – Lidl’s limited 3,000 run of £5 high-protein product bundles sold out on the platform within 18 minutes – is unlikely to be the last for a major grocer, claims Kris Boger, UK general manager, global business solutions at TikTok. “There are discussions happening with other [supermarkets] and other national retailers as well” he says. “There’s definitely lots of appetite for social commerce.”

It’s little wonder. According to Kantar, 46% of users are open to trying TikTok Shop or have already bought through it. And TikTok’s figures from 2023 to 2024 show fmcg sales on TikTok Shop grew by 177% in the UK, and an fmcg product is sold every second on the platform, it says.

It’s “growing incredibly quickly” and “still early days”, Boger says. TikTok Shop was launched in the UK in 2021, allowing users to “transition from product discovery to purchase in just seconds”.

Fashion and beauty have been “the sweet spot historically” for TikTok Shop. Last year, Nivea launched one in the UK with an influencer-hosted live stream that drew more than 1.1 million impressions during launch week alone. L’Oréal Paris also hosted a 12-hour live stream shopping marathon, while Britvic, Huel, Trip, Warrior, Candy Kittens, Irn-Bru and Rubicon have seized the opportunity, too.

Until recently, driving sales hasn’t been the main TikTok Shop focus for many in the grocery sector; it’s been used to build brand awareness and reach a younger demographic. But simply being there isn’t enough. Avoiding being scrolled past has demanded a different approach from marketing teams.

The holy grail to success is ‘authenticity’

“The standard 60-second TV ad doesn’t work very well on TikTok. The short ‘product, key message, price point’ post doesn’t really work either,” Boger says. “Online marketing a few years ago was very disruption-based. It was: ‘I’m going to interrupt your experience, and then this ad appears that you’re not really going to like.’ It was the tax on the user experience. What works is having people telling stories and being entertaining.”

After all, according to TikTok, 70% of the platform’s 150 million users in Europe come to be entertained. “And creators are a massive part of that,” Boger says.

Those creators might be established influencers on the platform, with which brands and retailers can partner. TikTok has programmes to help them work with creators, “which we recognise can be a bit intimidating”, Boger says. Late last year, for example, Tesco tapped self-titled ‘Potato Queen’ Poppy O’Toole, aka Poppy Cooks, to launch its Fruit & Veg For Schools campaign. Boots is working with Emily English, aka emthenutritionist, who’s sharing product-packed morning supplement routines with her followers.

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But supermarkets and brands are also tapping as-yet undiscovered online celebs within their ranks. M&S and Waitrose have pioneered encouraging staff to create content. The former’s Romford store staff have even released Christmas songs off the back of their success, while the latter’s Rushden store staff member Brian is emerging as an unlikely star, sharing wine pairing tips and spirits buying guides.

“Store staff are the face of your brand on a day-to-day basis anyway,” Boger says. “Why would that not be the case digitally, too? That’s been the leap they’ve made.”

Crucially, the platform’s ‘For Me’ feed isn’t a passive affair for many users. According to TikTok supermarket research with AYTM last year, 49% of users take action after seeing grocery content on the platform, 36% try new recipes, 30% visit stores and 24% buy products. The research also found a third of users have purchased something in a supermarket after being inspired by TikTok and that 45% of the community are more likely to make impulse purchases than users on other platforms. It’s “sparking foodie conversations, starting new trends, influencing buying decisions and enabling purchases”, Boger says.

Growing trends

While the platform is clearly a “broadcast out channel for brands”, he adds, grocers are increasingly using TikTok to inform product development, range and merchandising. Take the ‘Crookie’ – a croissant-cookie hybrid that went viral on the platform and was soon made available in several Waitrose cafés. Or Lindt, which in December jumped on the viral ‘Dubai chocolate’ trend, launching its own pistachio and kadayif pastry-stuffed tablet into selected stores.

Tesco also introduced in-store ‘salad creations bays’ for shoppers, in response to what the supermarket said were “increasingly imaginative [salad] creations with a varied range of inclusions appearing on TikTok”. There’s also the TikTok-informed ‘Trending Now’ bays that have been popping up in Sainsbury’s stores.

While there are unique challenges to succeeding on the platform, the grocery sector is showing it believes they’re worth overcoming. Adding to the appeal of reaching younger demographics – although the Gen Z label is possibly inaccurate considering the average user is over 30 – is the fact that content on the platform is markedly less divisive, extreme or polarising than other social media. That’s not by accident.

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• Is Air Up’s ‘scented’ flavoured water bottle genius or gimmick?

“Our approach is to have safety by design,” says Boger, who spent nearly four years at Facebook before joining TikTok in 2019. “We’re fortunate that we’re a second-generation platform in many ways. We’ve been able to see what happened on other platforms and build out community standards that really protect our community and keeps TikTok a safe, positive environment.”

Go to write a mean comment on the platform and “it actually prompts you to reconsider”. That stance is positive for users, but also more attractive to advertisers – especially when other social media platforms are becoming ever more toxic environments. After all, many major supermarkets have as good as abandoned X, formerly Twitter.

“Brand safety is a huge focus for us. It’s about giving advertisers the confidence that they’ll have a positive experience on our platform,” Boger says. “Our company mission is to inspire creativity to bring joy. It’s a very positive mission.