$35 Apple Watch Temptation On TikTok: Misleading Influencers Pose Existential Risk For E-Commerce Arm

TikTok’s latest venture into e-commerce is facing challenges due to misleading videos from influencers promoting counterfeit products.

Influencers such as Austin Tyler and @jennyselectionofficial have promoted knockoff Apple Watches on the TikTok Shop. These videos misrepresent non-Apple products as genuine, leading to potential customer deception, reported Business Insider.

Tyler promoted a $34.88 smartwatch, hailing it as his new Apple Watch Ultraa. He added that he bought it from a TikTok Shop merchant which did not represent the item as Apple-made.

The TikTok Shop affiliate program offers influencers a commission on sales generated from their videos, incentivizing the promotion of products, regardless of authenticity. This practice has led to confusion among consumers and other influencers about the authenticity of products on the platform.

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Brett Hollenbeck, an associate professor of marketing at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, warns that this could pose an existential risk for the e-commerce platform. Misleading content and counterfeit products could damage consumer trust in influencer recommendations and the platform’s overall credibility.

While TikTok maintains strict policies against product misrepresentation, policing over 100,000 sellers and 200,000 merchants presents a considerable challenge. The company stated it uses a combination of technology and manual moderation to enforce its policies.

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