From Amazon to Kate Spade, viral TikTok videos from Gen Z influencers are helping companies drive sales

US confectionery store chain It’Sugar sells fruit gummies that went viral on TikTok, and US bookseller Barnes & Noble promotes books as seen on #BookTok

The video website’s users are seen as more authentic than those on other social media. Brands are cashing in by posting ads and TikTok is making shopping easier

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Fruit gummies like those that went viral on TikTok, leading US confectionery chain It’Sugar to begin stocking them. Up to 10 per cent of its sales now come from viral TikTok videos. Photo: AP

Published: 3:15pm, 18 Oct 2021

Near the Twizzlers and Sour Patch Kids at a New York confectionery store are fruit-shaped soft jelly candies that earned a spot on the shelves because they went viral on TikTok.

A flood of videos last year showed people biting into the fruit gummies’ plastic casing, squirting artificially coloured jelly from their mouths. Staff at the US confectionery store chain It’Sugar urged it to stock up, and the gummies did so well that TikTok became part of the company’s sales strategy. The chain now has signs with the app’s logo in stores, and goods from TikTok make up five to 10 per cent of weekly sales.

“That’s an insane number,” says Chris Lindstedt, the assistant vice-president of merchandising at It’Sugar.

TikTok, an app best known for dancing videos with 1 billion users worldwide, has also become a shopping phenomenon. National chains in the United States, hoping to get TikTok’s mostly young users into its stores, are setting up TikTok sections, reminiscent of “As Seen On TV” stores that sold products hawked on advertisements.

A table displays books that have made it on the #BookTok list at Barnes & Noble. Photo: AP

At US bookseller Barnes & Noble, tables display signs with #BookTok, a book recommendation hashtag on TikTok that has pushed paperbacks up the bestseller list. Amazon has a section of its site it calls “Internet Famous”, with lists of products that anyone who has spent time on TikTok would recognise.