ERP transformation
The TikTok Shop has been driven by Clorox’s approximately $580 million investment in digital transformation, including a move to SAP S/4 HANA. Technology moves so quickly that it’s important to invest in the foundation, Harker says. Otherwise, things will fall apart over time and your technology architecture footprint will no longer reflect what your business and processes need. Then people start creating workarounds, silos, and things that break, slowing down the workflow.
“If you just talk, you lose your agility,” he says. “So this was a major investment to harden the foundation layer and improve connectivity and speed, but mostly it was an opportunity to reinvent processes.”
Opening the social door to commerce
The next step was to ensure the consumer experience on TikTok, allowing them to not only browse but also buy. “The front door of these new societies is opening,” Harker said, and Clorox officials questioned whether they could connect them to what’s already in place to gain synergy, efficiency and speed, rather than trying to build something in a silo.
Brands could ship their inventory to TikTok and TikTok would handle the commercial process, but that would be “costlier and more complex,” he said. The company chose to build an API to pass, ingest, and process orders from its TikTok shop to its unified commerce backend, Adobe Commerce Cloud.
appear sincerely
The challenge for brands is to reach different groups of people across generations who have grown up with different experiences and expectations. Additionally, Harker said, “The purchase funnel is collapsing,” and that consumers are more likely to buy something when they hear someone they trust telling the truth about it.
“If you don’t present yourself authentically, it’s doubtful you’ll even be able to reach young consumers around the world,” he says. But at the same time, “it’s very clear.” [an influencer] I work in a paid relationship with brands to speak on their behalf,” Harker added.
Related: Clorox aims to spend 50% of media spend on 1:1 personalization by 2030
“This is a hard line to walk with influencers. If you can give influencers as much creative control and voice as possible, they can often bring your brand to life in an authentic way.”
The look and feel of social-first communities is one of the biggest issues brands need to address, he says, and the content that brings value can be anything from how-to tips to humorous things.
If a brand is working through social influencers, Harker says: [the message] It’s about making it resonate and relevant, rather than just forcing it. ”
The goal is to find “the magical intersection of what young generations are looking for and how brands can meet it.” he says. “This is the art of brand management: transforming a brand, its promise, and its products into what modern consumers want.”
