- TikTok is hiring staffers to sell pre-owned luxury items like bags and collectibles like sneakers.
- It’s been on a hiring spree as it looks to boost activity for its e-commerce feature, TikTok Shop.
- Its investment in pre-owned goods shows how far the company’s “everything store” ambitions extend.
TikTok’s ambitions for social shopping are coming into focus — namely, the company seems interested in selling just about everything.
In addition to courting merchants with free shipping and other subsidies and offering influencers cash bonuses to shill products, the company recently began selling goods directly in the UK. It plans to roll out a similar offering in the US this month, per the Wall Street Journal.
Now TikTok appears to be building a dedicated team tasked with boosting sales of pre-owned luxury items like bags and collectibles such as sneakers, per a new set of job openings on its website.
It’s hiring a “Head of Pre-Owned Luxury” operation lead in Seattle to develop a go-to-market strategy and build a team of sellers focused on pre-owned luxury items. Other hires on the team will include a seller manager meant to “acquire and incubate pre-owned luxury bags brand principals, distributors and merchants,” as well as a seller manager focused on sneakers and other collectibles.
TikTok’s plan to invest more in pre-owned luxury sales arrives as some TikTok Shop merchants have already been testing selling pre-owned luxury goods like jewelry, watches, and Chanel handbags, The Fashion Law reported.
The company may be thinking about how to loop more influencers into the sales category, as well. It wants its future head of pre-owned luxury operation to have “strong commercial acumen to understand deeply how the TikTok platform and content- and creator-commerce work together with brands.”
TikTok influencers are earning thousands of dollars from TikTok Shop sales commissions by tagging basic products like skincare creams and beverage tumblers in videos. Luxury items, while trickier to sell, could offer creators more lucrative payouts if they have the know-how to hawk expensive goods to viewers.
TikTok’s investment in hiring experts to help sell pre-owned luxury goods shows just how broad the company wants its “everything store” offering to become. While some well-known brands have been slow to sign onto TikTok Shop in the US since it rolled out in November, popular beauty and fashion brands like Boohoo and L’Oréal have jumped on board in the UK where the platform has been live since 2021.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is pushing hard to make e-commerce work for the app, as TikTok’s sister platform in China, Douyin, has driven tens of billions of dollars in e-commerce sales, multiple outlets reported.
The market for pre-owned luxury items has exploded in China in the last few years, including on Douyin. TikTok may be looking to bring some of that success to its platform in other markets, going head-to-head with other pre-owned goods resellers like TheRealReal and StockX.
TikTok appears to be in the middle of a hiring blitz for its e-commerce team. The company currently lists on its jobs portal more than 200 roles for e-commerce operations alone.
TikTok did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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