TikTok Chases Amazon With Plans For US Fulfillment Centers (axios.com) 30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: TikTok is planning to build its own product fulfillment centers in the U.S., creating an e-commerce supply chain system that could directly challenge Amazon, as indicated by more than a dozen new job openings posted in the past two weeks to LinkedIn. The move signifies TikTok's commitment to e-commerce as its next major revenue stream, following the explosive growth of its ads business. "By providing warehousing, delivery, and customer service returns, our mission is to help sellers improve their operational capability and efficiency, provide buyers a satisfying shopping experience and ensure fast and sustainable growth of TikTok Shop," the company wrote in one job listing.
According to the job postings, TikTok is looking to build an "international e-commerce fulfillment system" that will include international warehousing, customs clearings and supply chain systems that support domestic e-commerce efforts in the U.S. and cross-border e-commerce efforts. The systems will eventually perform parcel consolidation, along with transporting goods from one stage to the next and managing free returns. One position, a logistics solutions manager for a global fulfillment center, is looking for a Seattle-based employee to plan and design fulfillment centers and e-commerce logistics solutions that include the transportation of goods, order prediction and inventory management.
Another Seattle-based role calls for the creation of a new fulfillment service center "from scratch." The center, the posting says, "is a global team responsible for developing and growing our logistics solution" and will include product fulfillment by TikTok Shop to its sellers by "providing warehousing, delivery, and customer service returns." While that role explicitly calls for the development of fulfillment services for TikTok's e-commerce logistics in the U.S., other roles reference a team that is responsible for a global logistics and warehousing network. For now, it does not appear that TikTok plans to build out its own transportation unit like Amazon. The job postings imply that TikTok would work with vendors to handle shipping, parcel consolidation and transportation. One job description for a fulfillment logistics manager implies that, like Amazon, TikTok is looking to develop a free return program.
According to the job postings, TikTok is looking to build an "international e-commerce fulfillment system" that will include international warehousing, customs clearings and supply chain systems that support domestic e-commerce efforts in the U.S. and cross-border e-commerce efforts. The systems will eventually perform parcel consolidation, along with transporting goods from one stage to the next and managing free returns. One position, a logistics solutions manager for a global fulfillment center, is looking for a Seattle-based employee to plan and design fulfillment centers and e-commerce logistics solutions that include the transportation of goods, order prediction and inventory management.
Another Seattle-based role calls for the creation of a new fulfillment service center "from scratch." The center, the posting says, "is a global team responsible for developing and growing our logistics solution" and will include product fulfillment by TikTok Shop to its sellers by "providing warehousing, delivery, and customer service returns." While that role explicitly calls for the development of fulfillment services for TikTok's e-commerce logistics in the U.S., other roles reference a team that is responsible for a global logistics and warehousing network. For now, it does not appear that TikTok plans to build out its own transportation unit like Amazon. The job postings imply that TikTok would work with vendors to handle shipping, parcel consolidation and transportation. One job description for a fulfillment logistics manager implies that, like Amazon, TikTok is looking to develop a free return program.
No (Score:3)
Just... No.
Re: (Score:3)
Heh. If you thought Amazon were shitty bosses, just wait until Tiktok wants you to work the 996. Hopefully the NLRB can keep that nonsense at bay
CCP attempts to cut out the middleman. (Score:4, Funny)
Taiwanese invasions are expensive.
Just when you were wondering (Score:4, Insightful)
Please do this. (Score:3)
Every dollar (yuan?) spent on this is not buying surveillance technology or enslaving Chinese minorities.
Weird (Score:4, Insightful)
"We've gotten really good at getting people to post dumb little videos on our web site. So now let's expand our business...into selling *everything*. We'll have to build a bunch of warehouses and ship goods everywhere, but our experience with videos will really help us get this new venture rolling. Oh, and we're going to skip the buildup of our business that took Amazon two decades to accomplish."
OK. Well, competition is a good thing, but I wish them luck.
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose it is like Amazon moving into video streaming or cloud hosting. Not really their core competency at the time, but they hired the right people and it became something that they did.
Given how well advertising works on Instagram, I think this move makes more sense than it does at first glance.
I can see this doing very well for them.
I also can imagine that a lot of people are hungry for an Amazon competitor that isn't Walmart, especially the youths...
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon's progression to the cloud actually makes a lot of sense. They were originally an online bookstore. In 2007, the demand for their products at Christmastime overwhelmed their servers, costing them real money in lost sales. There was no way Jeff Bezos was going to let that happen again, so they beefed up their data centers by orders of magnitude. They did not want any possible spike in demand, to prevent them from making sales.
This buildup had a side effect of creating a large number of servers being
Re: (Score:2)
The CCP knows how to run Alibaba this will just be an extension of the other big "A".
It's not like any large company in China is run fully independent.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think TikTok and Alibaba are in bed with each other.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotli... [nikkei.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Both are overseen and run by the CCP. Do you really think ByteDance could do that inside China?
I'm not sure they could do that outside China without the CCP's permission which would be smart considering just how little the outside world knows of how it runs it's economy.
Re: (Score:2)
The CCP has a lot of power, but it's not all-powerful, even in China. Within the CCP, there are differing points of view, different centers of power, different conflicting objectives. It's not by any means a singularity. It may constrain its politics, but there are politics just the same.
As an example of conflicting objectives, China has long wanted to become an economic superpower. But its "zero COVID" policies are working against that objective, causing it great economic harm.
China is not as monstrous and
Re: (Score:2)
So TikTok is planning to "out Junk" the junk crap sold by the likes of Amazon and Newegg? Should not be hard to do with China looking for more outlets to sell their junk.
I remember when the label "Made In China" used to mean something like "cheep but decent and usually works".
Now "Made In China" means "SUCKER!".
Re: (Score:2)
Yep pretty much. Especially when it's sold by XGMJUP and there is no seller history.
Are they competing with Amazon? (Score:5, Insightful)
So they're apparently trying to compete with Amazon Marketplace? Or are they actually selling some things themselves? That doesn't seem to be clear from the summary.
If they're not selling anything themselves, then aren't they more of an eBay or Craigslist competitor?
Re: (Score:2)
The differentiating point would be having their own logistics and supply channel (which is vertically integrated with some consumer service); once they have that, they're in the same ballpark business that Amazon is in. Whether or not they sell goods "themselves" through that logistics chain is a lesser detail.
eBay and Craigslist are basically just matchmaking services for buyers and sellers to then work things out themselves. Taking custody of goods, managing inventory, and transporting them efficiently is
Okay, I'll bite... (Score:2)
Serious questions:
What exactly does TikTok "sell" that I would want to buy?
What advantage would I supposedly get buying crap off of TikTok as opposed to any other store?
I'm not a TikTok user, so maybe someone can clue me in.
Re: (Score:1)
What would they want you to buy? Anything.
The idea is that if you see someone you like, like a celebrity, or a person you like, or random influencer, you will be more likely to buy that product. It's about integrating ads with a cut of the actual purchase.
It's nothing new, just the idea is to own the advertisement, the place the celebrity airs and has shows, and the store all in one spot.
Think if Google bought out eBay, then integrated it with YouTube.
Re: (Score:2)
The idea is that if you see someone you like, like a celebrity, or a person you like, or random influencer, you will be more likely to buy that product.
I had no idea celebrities and influencers were for sale. :-D
Re: (Score:2)
Whatever Alibaba needs to offload.
So this is why they pinged me (Score:1)
Re: So this is why they pinged me (Score:2)
Yeah, competing with Wish would be suicidally pointless.
The lifecycle of many Wish/Alibaba products is: manufactured for pennies, rebranded for pennies, sold by some company or influencer at a huge markup for retail which Wish gets none or very little of.
Rather than competing for an extra penny per 10,000 units or whatever, it makes more sense to try to grab a % of that markup.
The barrier used to be renting a real celebrity to flog up the price, but with the tiktok model you can just use a much cheaper infl
No. (Score:1)
Embargo.
WTF? (Score:2)
Re: What Product? (Score:2)
Maybe the CEO arrived to work drunk and slurred "We should start competing with Amazon :hik: you know? We'll show those bastards!". But the board membrrs didn't take it for the drunk talk it was.
Huh, WTF, Jesus fell off his bicycle? (Score:2)
I thought Tik Tok was a lowest common denominator (anti)social platform. And now they want to go up against Amazon in a business they are just starting to get into? Mission creep much?