Mastering TikTok Shop in 2025: Your Social Commerce Playbook

Social commerce isn’t just a buzzword, you know? It’s the front door for brands in 2025. With TikTok Shop, the lines between content and checkout blur, turning every video into a shop window. But getting started? It’s a steep climb. From learning curve hurdles to algorithm unpredictability and content saturation, many brands feel stuck between creating content and converting it.

Here’s the good news: social commerce on TikTok is already a powerhouse. TikTok Shop reported a remarkable $33.2 billion in global GMV in 2024—nearly tripling year-over-year growth. This boom isn’t confined to one market; it stretches from Southeast Asia to North America. So whether your brand is big or just starting out, TikTok Shop is a channel you can’t afford to ignore.

Here’s your playbook to cut through the noise and build social commerce success on TikTok:

1. Find Your Niche, Not Just View Counts

TikTok’s algorithm rewards resonance over reach. Instead of chasing broad virality, aim for niche communities like #BeautyTok, #PetParents, or #FashionTok where buyers genuinely engage.

As Sprout Social explains, TikTok’s strength lies in its personalized discovery feed, which makes it easier for brands to connect with micro-niche audiences. Brands featured in this 2025 guide from Stack Influence recommend targeting hyper-specific storefronts: think themed video series, creator-led tutorials, and affiliate-style content with clear product tags. And in our TikTok Shop Guide 2024, we break down how niche storytelling combined with social proof can drive better conversions than paid media alone.

2. Make Every Post Shop-Worthy

TikTok Shop isn’t a separate storefront because it’s integrated into the FYP, meaning every scroll can become a sale. But that doesn’t happen with just passive product shots. Storytelling is the real conversion tool.

The formula:

• Hook early: “Here’s why this changed my skin overnight...”

• Show it in use: lifestyle, demo, or reaction

• Tap to shop: use TikTok’s native product tagging or affiliate links
  

Live selling also made a comeback. Per FordeBaker, real-time livestreaming adds urgency, FOMO, and product education at scale. In our Gen Z growth blog, we shared how brands leaning into live formats saw better retention and higher cart values.

3. Test, Adapt, and Tap into Culture

The TikTok Shop landscape indeed moves fast. Algorithms shift. Audience tastes change. That’s why high-performing brands aren’t just posting, they’re testing.

Here’s some tips:

• Run A/B tests between short-form, long-form, and live demos

• Track key metrics: view-through, product clicks, add-to-cart

• Repurpose winning formats with different creators
  

Beyond formats, cultural fit also matters. TikTok is now the front door to Gen Z beauty, fashion, and lifestyle brands. Align with their values: sustainability, humor, inclusivity, and create content that feels like a part of the feed, not an interruption. In our Gen Z marketing insights, we found that relevance to local humor and trends consistently outperforms overproduced ads.

Key Takeaway

So what’s the catch? TikTok Shop in 2025 isn’t about going viral: it’s about being intentional. The most effective brands are:

1. Going niche: by targeting specific communities and partnering with creators who genuinely connect with those audiences
   

2. Creating shop-worthy stories: that embed product discovery naturally into TikTok-native content formats
   

3. Testing and evolving: content while staying culturally relevant and engaging on-platform trends
   

Do those well, and TikTok Shop stops being overwhelming. It starts becoming a growth engine.

Want to make marketing campaigns that actually convert? Download Near’s Social Media Trends Guide here.

We don’t interact with brands like we used to. Back then, marketing and advertising were heavily reliant on the huge following of celebrities to put more eyes on a brand. Today, however, we are seeing a greater focus on community and authenticity through intentional content creation.

Follower counts and impressions no longer paint an accurate picture of a campaign’s success. Now, engagement helps us understand if consumers gave more than a passing glance at a product. This noticeable shift from aspirational content into community-driven influence is why, as mentioned in our previous blog, micro-influencers are growing in prominence on social media.

Near Creative held our recent webinar entitled, “Level Up Your Brand Strategy: The Power of Community-Driven Influence” this February, with content creator (also midnight snacker and professional yapper) Alonzo “Cru” Cruel as our special guest. Here are our 4 key points to help you harness the power of community-driven influence:

4 Ways for Brands to Create Engaged Online Communities

1. Know your brand's value.

Every brand has a unique flavor. If your brand feels like it doesn’t have one, then it’s time to go back to basics and discover who your brand is.

On this, Cru suggests, “You need to understand your product and who exactly will benefit from your product.” These are great starting points in developing your brand identity because a clear and solid brand identity is the foundation for the community you will be building. After all, if you don’t have an identity, how will you discover who your audience is?

2. Foster authentic and relatable content.

Today, consumers are partial to brands that feel real—that is, brands with distinct personalities. So when you build your brand identity, the next step is to further flesh it out through content that tells people who your brand is in a way that only it can.

This also means daring to think outside the box with content that is original, but still rooted in a cultural reality that your audience will understand at its core. Think RC Cola’s viral 2020 ad. It was bizarre, but the humor was so Filipino that it clicked!

https://youtu.be/hXWj5BK7evM?feature=shared (embed)

3. Empower user-generated content.

Viktor Kapunan, senior brand manager at Near, says, “Your audience is your best advocate.”

In this era of personalization and community, audiences are just as interested in seeing content made by other “normal” people—that is, user-generated content (UGC). Brands can take cues from the likes of Cebu Pacific and how they share real travel moments through the hashtag #JuanForFun. This approach makes travel feel accessible to viewers because they are able to see themselves in the content and therefore find a personal connection with it.

4. Leverage storytelling to create emotional connections.

“People nowadays don’t just buy products; they buy into stories,” shares Viktor. Sure, people still take a look at popular brands endorsed by the hottest celebrities, but that’s hardly ever enough anymore to get people to truly care about what you’re selling. The people want a good story that reels them in and makes them feel something.

Jollibee is a great example of this. The brand has plenty of “Kwentong Jollibee” videos that showcase their expertise in storytelling. Jollibee’s videos blend strong narratives with Filipino culture and values that are emotionally affecting and inspiring for audiences.

https://youtu.be/2Gcx-QT9k0s?feature=shared (embed)

Bonus: partner with content creators who match your brand’s vibe.

Sometimes, although brands understand that they need to build a unique identity and reinforce it through UGC and great storytelling, they still make the mistake of just choosing the most well-known influencers to promote their brand without first considering who the influencer’s audience is and their style of content.

Cru has this to say, “You have to know [that a] creator is going to be someone who effectively communicates to the people you want to communicate with.” He adds, “Know exactly who these creators are entertaining. If your product aligns with those people, then go for [that content creator].”

Master the marketing trends of 2025. Watch a replay of our webinar here and download our trends guide here!

Here’s a blast from the past: remember the days when our social media feeds displayed content chronologically?

These days, whether you’re scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you will see a feed curated according to your interests and preferences. Personalization is the name of the social media game, and it has brought about a shift in the influencer space. We are seeing an increasingly even playing field for content creators, in which micro-influencers (10,000 to 99,000 followers) are growing in prominence.

But while we’ve established that micro-influencers have great potential in promoting brands this year, you may be wondering how to approach this shift for your 2025 campaigns. Well, Near’s got you.

3 tips for finding the right micro-influencers

1. Take notes from your audience.

No marketing campaign can be successful without an understanding of the audience you’re marketing to.

If you want to find the right micro-influencers, you can start with your audience. Who are they following? Whose content do they interact with? What kind of content do these creators have? Finding the answers to these questions will already give you an idea of the right micro-influencers to tap because the answers will tell you about their interests, their pain points, and the niches they belong in.

Tapping a micro-influencer your audience already follows is a simple way to ensure that your campaign is a match.

2. Gauge the influencer’s authenticity.

There are simple ways to check if a micro-influencer will be a reliable partner for your campaign even before you contact them.

Just go on their social media profile and take a look at the following:

• Content quality: Look at their posts. See if the content they create is well-made and executed, from the hooks and scripts to their filming and editing styles. They don’t need to have high production value, but they do need to be creative and offer something substantial to the viewer.

• Previous posts: Branded or otherwise, their posts will tell you more about their interests and the kinds of products they gravitate towards. This will also give you an idea of what their audiences care about. Their existing posts are a good way to gauge if your product is something that could resonate with their audience or address a pain point they are experiencing.

• Follower engagements: Micro-influencers tend to have more opportunities to interact with followers due to their smaller community and specific niche. You can tell if a micro-influencer has an engaged following if they respond to followers’ comments on their posts or if the followers themselves have discussions in the comments.

3. Make use of influencer discovery tools.

There is a wealth of influencer marketing platforms that can point you to different content creators in the Philippines. At Near Creative, in addition to our wide influencer database, we use these tools to enrich our influencer recommendations, as they are able to provide in-depth insights such as content niches, posting consistency and performance, average engagement rates, and even influencers in the same category. This way, we are able to refine our recommendations to ensure a brand fit for our campaigns.

These tools simplify and speed up the vetting process, while also ensuring the quality of content for the future.

Making memorable content with micro-influencers

Choosing the best micro-influencers is half the battle, but the other half is developing high-quality content that your target audience will watch.

• Collaborate. An influencer is a partner; not simply a doer. This means that the final output must be the result of collaboration with them; you can guide them on the brand’s identity, while they direct on what content works best for their platforms.

• Communicate. Be clear about what you need, when you need it, and how you need it. When everyone is on the same page, it will be a seamless experience from when you onboard an influencer to when they finally upload the content.

• Cultivate. Build and nurture a relationship with your influencer partners. Getting to know them leads you to understand them better, which will help you create even better content for your future collabs!

So remember, in 2025, micro-influencers are key to social media success! Understand your audience, get to know your influencers, and employ appropriate tools to find the best recommendations. From there, three Cs: collaborate and communicate with your micro-influencer partners, then cultivate a relationship with them to ensure you create more great content and campaigns together.

Want to build an influencer strategy that works? Sign up for our webinar today!