TikTok Joins Merchants’ Summer Discounting Dash for Paycheck-to-Paycheck Shoppers

As retailers and marketplaces look to summer sales to win the spending of budget-strapped consumers, TikTok Shop is joining the mix with its own discounting event.

TikTok announced Thursday (June 27) its “Deals For You Days,” with discounts on “thousands of products” from brands ranging from L’Oréal Paris to Zwilling beginning July 9. During the discounting event, creators are encouraged via content challenges to make live shopping videos, and the sales event aims to highlight such livestreamed, product-focused content.

“Today, TikTok Shop is announcing Deals For You Days in the US, a huge sale offering discounts across thousands of trending products this July,” the company stated. “With everything from trending fashion and beauty products, backyard entertainment essentials and decor, summer reading bestsellers and more, TikTok Shop’s Deals For You Days has everything you need to get into the swing of summer.”

The move comes as merchants increasingly announce their own summer deals events, running several days before Amazon’s Prime Day, which runs July 16 and 17, to capture consumers’ spending before they have tapped out their budgets with the eCommerce giant.

Major Amazon competitor Walmart, for instance, announced last week an event, Walmart Deals, that will run July 8-11, promising to be the retailer’s “largest savings event ever.”

Similarly, Target shared Tuesday (June 25) that its Target Circle Week, open to all members of its free loyalty program, will run July 7-13. Plus, DoorDash announced the return of its seasonal members-only sales event Summer of DashPass (June 20 to July 24), and major electronics retailer Best Buy is in the middle of its Member Deals Days (ending July 10).

Consumers look for these kinds of sales. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Summer Deal Days 2023: How Amazon Still Dominates,” which analyzed data last year from a survey of over 5,500 Amazon Prime members and Walmart shoppers, found that 40% of consumers made purchases during Amazon’s Prime Day event last summer. Plus, 20% did so during Walmart+ Week. Plus, these events are growing in adoption — those figures were up from 36% and 11%, respectively, in 2022.

Adoption will likely only continue to rise, with financial instability greater than it was at this time last year. PYMNTS Intelligence research from the latest installment of the “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report” series found that 65% of the U.S. population now live paycheck to paycheck, the highest it has been in two years. Plus, the May survey of more than 2,400 U.S. consumers revealed that 21% of consumers do so with difficulties paying their bills, up from 15% a year prior.

Consequently, shoppers are looking for more affordable options. The February/March installment of the New Reality Check series revealed that half of consumers have traded down to less expensive merchants in response to inflation.

“Consumers take no solace in the month-over-month decline in [consumer price index] and the flat showing in June,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster observed in a June 21 feature. “Regardless of income, all consumers feel caught in the struggle between persistently high prices and moderating wage growth.”

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