Bentonville's Walmart teams up with TikTok to sell merchandise while livestreaming

• Financial

Walmart Inc., the Bentonville, Arkansas-headquartered world’s No. 1 brick-and-mortar and online retailer, which had been in an advanced staged talk with TikTok to purchase its US operation back in October this year, said on Thursday that it would team up with the Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance-owned small video sharing app TikTok in a bid to sell products seen on a livestream featuring the retailer’s fashion merchandises on TikTok’s Walmart profile page, pointing towards a sharp U-turn from a takeover deal for TikTok’s US businesses following a landmark triumph of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in the November 3 US Presidential election.

Aside from that, Walmart Inc. had been quoted saying on its statement that the livestream featuring fashion items from popular creators, would take place on Friday in Walmart Inc.’s profile page on the Chinese small-video sharing app, which claims to have more than 100 million US users, while the American viewers of Friday’s livestreaming on TikTok would be able to purchase the products without leaving the platform as beforementioned.

Walmart partners up with TikTok, but US-China row to stand in the way

On top of that, the Bentonville-based American multinational retailer had also added that its Friday’s livestream would feature heavy-weight American brands likes of Champion, Jordache, Kendell Kylie alongside some of the popular private brands likes of Sofia Jeans, Free Assembly and Scoop.

Apart from that, voicing a through and through optimism over the American retailer’s latest move to tie-up with the Chinese small-video sharing platform, Walmart Inc.’s US Chief Marketing Officer, William White wrote in a blog post following the announcement, “It gives us a new way to engage with users and reach potential new customers”.

Nonetheless, although top executives from both Walmart Inc. and TikTok had expressed sheer prospect over the tie-up that would help supercharge their battle for market share against Amazon.com Inc., an already escalated political tension between the US and China would likely to stand in the way of the deal.

Neither Walmart Inc. nor ByteDance-owned TikTok had unveiled the financial terms of the tie-up.