NEW YORK — Pacsun was early to leap on TikTok, fast accruing over 2 million followers on an app that has develop into a vital means for connecting with the brand’s target market of 16-to-24-year olds. Five years since joining the platform, the mall retailer continues to make TikTok a part of its marketing to Gen Z, and increasingly, a lever for sales, though the gold rush may soon be coming to an end.
Like many businesses, Pacsun is weighing what is going to occur if the video-sharing app, which is owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, gets banned within the U.S. on Jan. 19 over national security concerns. The possibility that TikTok could go dark in only just a few days time appears likely following a series of legal setbacks, setting the stage for a change that will shift around a major chunk of ad spending while upending a thriving creator ecosystem. TikTok’s global ad revenue was forecast by researcher WARC to top $23 billion in 2024, however the app’s real power is as a trendsetter that could make or break products virtually overnight.
At the National Retail Federation’s Big Show on Tuesday, Pacsun leadership sounded confident that the TikTok model of reaching consumers with addictive, authentic-feeling and shoppable videos might be replicated elsewhere, however the near-term pain to creators — which the platform has called its “lifeblood” — will probably be sharp.
“I’m not concerned about that way of engaging with the buyer going away,” said Pacsun CEO Brieane Olson during an NRF keynote talk with CNBC reporter Melissa Repko, adding that supporting the creator community is an element of the corporate’s values-based approach. “There is lots of concern for those creators in regards to the immediacy of what’s next instantly should [the ban] occur.”
Keeping an open platform
Privately-held Pacsun has began to see success getting people to buy products directly from social apps, a model that’s popular in other markets like Asia but has been slow to catch on within the U.S. Pacsun advised on the event of TikTok Shop on the back end and was among the many e-commerce marketplace’s earliest partners, a relationship that has paid off because the offering gains traction following its formal 2023 launch.
TikTok Shop generated greater than $100 million in single-day sales on Black Friday, tripling its take from the identical day the yr prior. In the past 18 months, Pacsun has sold nearly half 1,000,000 pairs of jeans through TikTok livestreaming alone, based on Olson.
“It’s a extremely significant number,” the manager said of the denim bonanza. “What’s more interesting, I believe, is the halo [effect] that we’ve created in our stores, on all of our other channels and in our community of people that wish to get the jeans that they saw on TikTok.”
Pacsun resonates on TikTok not only through close ties to the app itself but additionally through its approach to creator partnerships, Olson explained. Rather than counting on a small pool of high-profile influencers to hawk products, the retailer keeps what the CEO described as an “open platform,” letting on a regular basis users talk up apparel like jeans. One account that recently helped drive sales for a model of baggy denim had only about 5,000 followers, a drop within the bucket in comparison with the upper echelons of social media stardom, where a single sponsored post can include eye-popping price tags.
“There’s no approval process and you’ll be able to be an envoy for the denim and tell your story in whatever way, zero controls,” said Olson.
The ability to depend on TikTok creators for transacting might be fatally hamstrung within the weeks ahead, and lots of the app’s most ardent posters don’t appear to have much in the way in which of a contingency plan beyond pleading for his or her fans to follow them elsewhere. There isn’t any shortage of TikTok competitors to show to — Pacsun also works with rivals like YouTube Shopping and Pinterest, the latter of which played a central role in its latest fall campaign — but replicating the identical magic may take time as users mull where next to spend their hours scrolling algorithmically curated feeds.
Olson noted that Pacsun used to run livestreaming through its own website back in 2019 before experimenting with Meta Platforms and at last profiting from TikTok. Her hope was that somebody in a dorm room or indeed on the nearby NRF exhibitor floor was within the means of coming up with their very own tackle livestreaming social video.
“From a social commerce standpoint, that can proceed to be a spotlight, regardless of channel and what might occur,” said Olson.
Staying committed
Pacsun goals to maintain its finger on the cultural pulse amid these changes with a continued premium on social listening. Those capabilities have helped affirm the retailer’s larger positioning around purpose-driven marketing at a time when many other businesses are pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion commitments.
“Our market is Gen Z and our forthcoming market is Gen Alpha, they usually are a value-driven, purpose-driven generation,” said Olson. “They want us as a brand to rally around making a higher place for them on this planet, they usually’re going to ultimately vote for those brands after they make their purchases.”
Having a robust brand purpose could help Pacsun retain a loyal audience whether or not TikTok is banned. Olson pushed back against the perception that Gen Z isn’t particularly brand loyal, suggesting that marketers miss connecting with the generation on a values level and by failing to view its members as co-collaborators on marketing initiatives.
“It’s actually a extremely interesting time and an interesting opportunity for brands to take a step back and really ask the query of who’s on top of things, who has the ability in the connection?” the manager said.
Read the total article here
