The proliferation of new media channels is resulting in a sustained attrition of attention among consumers and putting growing pressure on marketing budgets for retailers trying to reach them. Aref Yehia, Head of Business Partnerships for Retail and E-Commerce at TikTok MENA, discussed how engaging consumers on platform that they visit for entertainment can drive conversion and brand loyalty.

The question “What is the future of retail?” is highly nuanced, depending both on the specific interests of the person asking the question and the definition and timeframe of ‘future’. Is it about the mall experience, the online experience, the personalized experience? There’s no single answer.

But the common denominator is the consumer. Essentially, the future of retail is not decided by the retailers, it is decided by the customer and how the customer is engaging with and purchasing from brands. For retailers, the job is to follow the consumer, not to lead them.

Today’s consumer is heavily engaged in viewing and sharing online content. Not only in a social media context, where they are logging on to see what the people they care about are doing, but in the context of entertainment, where they are logging on to be engaged and have fun. In fact, consumers today are spending up to 4.5 hours per day on digital entertainment.

This creates an enormous opportunity for retail. On TikTok, users spend most of their time in the For You space, where they are served hyper-personalized short video entertainment content from real, authentic creators. And this is content that engages. Reactions to comments on a video can exceed the number of likes for the video itself because people are engaged within a community of people that resonate with the same type of content.

When viewing digital shopping content on the platform, 54% of TikTok users take active steps toward consideration on the platform itself. Two out of three users immediately buy something that they have discovered on the platform, based on search engine data. The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has 42.4 billion views. This is word of mouth marketing in action but trackable and measurable. It is entertainment that converts, entertainment that translates into empty shelves in real life.

So, the answer to “What is the future of retail?” is, at least in part, entertainment. It is entertainment that connects, entertainment that drives brand love, and most importantly, entertainment that converts.