TikTok might not seem like the most natural space for high-price purchases, but right now, jewelry brands are thriving there.
It's because younger TikTok users—namely Gen Z—who actively scroll through their feeds love to hop onto fashion trends like wearing chunky gold necklaces, minimalist accessorizing, to even layering chokers and chain necklaces.
As TikTok’s user base balloons, with the company crossing over 1 billion active users in 2021, jewelry brands are racing to stand out on the app.
Some are testing TikTok’s new in-app shopping integration, while others are finding success through clever posts and partnerships. Even small companies that gain traction on the app are seeing their sales double.
Here are some ways jewelry brands can use TikTok effectively:
Influencers are a core part of any luxury brand’s TikTok strategy. People tend to buy trendy fashion products when they see others they admire wearing them.
On TikTok, jewelry brands can always connect with TikTok influencers through the TikTok Creator Marketplace, which offers a database of TikTok influencers searchable by topic, follower counts, and engagement rate.
But another, more organic way to court influencers is to mail out gift boxes related to your product.
Last year, the hoop brand Bijoux De Mimi was reaching out to 500 TikTokers a month to see if they wanted any gift merchandise, then mailing them an inexpensive sampling of products if they said yes.
The strategy worked. When one high-profile influencer, the user @Lozeak, posted a video of the Bijoux De Mimi hoop earrings she had received in the mail, the company’s month-to-month sales doubled.
If your brand can tap into star power, even better than gifting products to influencers is leveraging any celebrity clients you might have.
The Atlanta-based company Jewelry Unlimited has built up a following of half a million people largely by posting videos with its most famous clients, including the rapper Young Thug.
These celebrity clients can be seen sporting different pieces from the brand's jewelry collection—which can range from Jewelry Unlimited's gold chains to their gemstone-laden pendant necklaces.
Capitalizing on the latest trend is good, but is it relevant to your brand? Make sure you find out how your brand is being used on TikTok organically. Who is mentioning your product or service, and what communities are they part of?
In September 2021, after University of Alabama college students began describing the process of “rushing” sororities, their chronicles took off on TikTok.
The jewelry brand Kendra Scott noticed that some of the most prominent #BamaRush TikTokers were wearing its jewelry, so it decided to get involved.
It began posting its own videos under the hashtag, including a video demonstrating how TikTokers who wanted to emulate the rushers could “choose your own #BamaRush jewelry look.”
The company’s eponymous founder also began commenting under some of the popular sorority videos on TikTok. The push worked. Kendra Scott told Refinery24 that it saw a significant increase in traffic among users aged 18 to 24.
Beauty products in particular lend themselves well to unboxing videos, a format in which influencers unpack products they have recently purchased. It’s essentially a way to dramatize the process of receiving a new product.
Powered by unboxing videos, necklaces designed by Vivienne Westwood have undergone a renaissance on TikTok. TikTokers have drawn millions of views filming themselves opening up one of her pearl necklaces and trying them on for the first time.
Vivienne Westwood has gained so much traction that even huge celebrities like Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid have been spotted sporting the brand's pearl choker necklace—which is also called the "TikTok necklace".
You always have to be ready for the flood of comments that will arrive if your video happens to go viral. And many of them are sales opportunities - like a customer asking where they can go purchase a product.
If you don’t have the time to reply to all social comments, Chatdesk can do it for you starting at $99/month. Brands who work with Chatdesk typically see a 15% higher conversion rate on social. Schedule a demo to learn more or start your free trial here.
TikTokers are drawn to products that solve a need in a surprising way, and highlighting the less-conventional aspects of your product or your founding story is the perfect way to garner interest on such an otherwise busy social media platform.
That seems especially true for jewelry brands. One of the most popular jewelry companies on TikTok is the tech startup Evermée, which has taken an unlikely approach to the old-school photo locket.
Evermée sells digital lockets that let people display a rotating cast of photos of their loved ones, versus the typical one or two photos.
That new approach has drawn a lot of buzz on the app. One of the company’s first videos amassed 2.1 million views, and it now has 25k followers on TikTok.
