How TikTok is impacting the home and garden industry

TikTok has stormed onto the social scene in the last few years (despite not being brand new - it was formerly the app for singing and dancing called Musical.ly). Its appeal during the pandemic was hard to ignore and now it’s set for an even bigger future.

TikTok is increasingly acting like a search engine, where users explore, research hashtags and engage with communities to follow trends and inform their purchase decisions.

According to Kantar Furniture Consumer Journey Study 2022, 73% of furniture shoppers discover related brands or products online. Plus, with UK TikTok expected to reach almost 15 million users in 2025, if you’re a home and garden brand, it’s time to make sure your TikTok strategy is ship shape.

What do we mean by Home & Garden on TikTok?

Home and garden categories are big on TikTok, but what do we mean when we use that label? Generally, we’re referring to the side of TikTok that engages with and is interested in home, garden, interiors and advice or inspiration on any of those topics.

There are lots of complementary communities that crossover with these types of content, such as ‘architecture-tok’ or those following estate agents, cleaning content creators and more. For the purposes of this blog, we’re specifically looking at home and interior design.

Who is using #HomeTikTok?

So, what do we know about the consumers using the #HomeDecor hashtag? Based on this data from TikTok of people who watch videos that include the #HomeDecor hashtag in the last 120 days - 24/08/22 to 26/04/22), we know that:

• 65% are aged 18-24, 32% aged 25-34 and 3% are 35+

• Users are often people living in Australia, United States, Iceland, Canada, United Kingdom

As well as understanding the ages and geographical locations of these consumers, it’s important to recognise their other interests and how they crossover with other ‘sides’ of TikTok. For instance, people with an interest in #HomeDecor also watch videos with #interiordesign #decor #homedesign #interior #decoration hashtags in the caption.

Their top related interests include life hacks, home and garden, health and wellbeing, travel and family. Understanding this picture of the end user helps home and garden brands to tailor their content appropriately and maximise their output.

So, we understand that this category is significant, we also understand how it overlaps with other interests, but let’s take a look at how this corner of the internet is impacting the home industry sales and consumer behaviour.

How is TikTok impacting the home industry?

TikTok has shaken this industry in the sense that it has taken the ‘inspiration model’ and brought it to life. Historically, people seeking inspo for their homes would take to visual platforms such as Pinterest or Instagram, but both of these channels are still predominantly static in nature, despite a shift to accommodate video.

In Instagram’s case, the exception is Reels, but even these are often cross-posts of TikToks or inspired by TikTok in their style - meaning TikTok is leading the space for video, not following.

On TikTok, users can not only show their home or garden but how they’ve achieved it. This makes it a hub of inspiration for every design interest or subset. Not only this, but TikTok moves fast and is very much a swift and easy way to get a handle on the sentiment of the audience in any niche.

For example, we’ve previously discussed ‘TikTok made by buy it’ in the fashion industry, but the same applies to home and garden. As soon as the heatwave in Britain ended, feeds were flooded with autumn and Halloween content. Users were rushing to Homesense and Anthropologie for the perfect pumpkin-shaped mug because savvy content creators and brands were anticipating the shift.

Not only that, but TikTok is almost single-handedly inspiring DIY. Much like TV shows such as Changing Rooms and Ground Force inspired their parents, Gen Z and Millenials are learning from others and getting stuck into DIY projects. Often content on this channel shows how they can still achieve their desired style on a budget by doing it themselves. They’re even getting inspiration from their childhood TV favourites like Dominic Wood. Another great example of this was the DIY panelling craze that swept through the app in lockdown and 2021.

How can your brand use TikTok to drive purchases?

There are lots of ways to hack into the power of TikTok for your brand and campaigns. It is important to pay attention to the related audience interests we mentioned earlier and to follow suit with the types of content your audiences engage with. Not to say you cannot be original, but inform your content with what is working elsewhere.

Create TikToks that inspire, rather than sell too heavily

It is important that you need to invest (not necessarily monetarily) in creating content that gives your audiences a reason to watch. The nature of TikTok means your content doesn’t have to be high quality/polished, instead you can focus more on the story you’re trying to tell.

To do this, think about utilising/including the following ‘hooks’ in your home and garden content:

• Before and after transformations

• What I ordered vs how I styled it

• Budget buys vs items worth the money

• Home Hacks

• House tour

• Inspiration by trend, e.g. Maximalism, Scandi Chic, 1970s inspired, small homes, Biophilic

Work with creators

A great way to do this, and one we’ve had some great success with, is to use TikTok’s creator marketplace to find and contact creators in your region and industry. You can do this quickly and easily by manually searching the top creators based on keywords and hashtags relating to your relevant trends, styles or products. This makes it super simple to identify creators who are already busy creating relevant, engaging content.

You can, of course, also look at partner platforms, such as TRIBE to help find relevant influencers and content creators. TRIBE was announced at Cannes Lions International Festival as TikTok’s official marketing partner - so it is worth checking out!

Disclaimer: We’ve only ever used TRIBE for Instagram campaigns so you would need to explore this and ensure it was relevant to your aims and objectives.

Use the top trending home & garden sounds

Trending sounds are a really useful tool in reaching a large, relevant audience. To use trending sounds you’ll need a creator account, as opposed to a business account. Sounds are a huge part of TikTok’s appeal and it has the power to stratospherically launch songs and sounds into the public psyche - it cannot hurt to have your brand associated with well-chosen trends!

Reply to questions and comments (with a video)

Either from comments you receive on the app, or just your general business FAQs, generate ‘reply’ videos which help showcase your product and inform your customers on their path to purchase. Use the videos to bring to life the FAQs you have on your site, or that you have received in the past. Use these short form videos to ‘show’ not just tell your audiences about the applications for your products. Make sure you show them all the ways they might not have thought to use/benefit from your products!

What brands are using TikTok well?

From Farrow & Ball’s top-notch UGC to Howdens tapping into the ‘organisation’ trend and Lick’s excellent use of trending sounds, there are lots of great examples of brands utilising the key sales-driving TikTok techniques we mentioned earlier.

Farrow & Ball

The famed and much-loved paint experts focus their efforts on user-generated content (UCG), taking advantage of real-life projects to inspire their customers and through this authenticity, build loyalty. They also bring Patrick O’Donnell, Colour Consultant and Brand Ambassador, front and centre with ‘explainer’ videos that provide an in-depth look at their products and their applications.

Lick

Although a relatively new-kid-on-the-block, Lick has quickly made a name for itself in the home and interiors market, leveraging its ‘youth’ to capitalise on TikTok’s adoration for inspiration and home trends.

You can see their approach through their younger TOV and the fact they very comfortably tap into trending sounds and video styles.

Made

Made have a solid social strategacross a broad range of platforms. Rather than operating one strategy for all, they tailor their content to each platform. What this does is make sure that their videos feel at home in your feed, just as much as a non-brand account. Importantly, they’re not afraid of hopping on a trend or posting content that isn’t salesy.

Howdens

Being a trade kitchen supplier, Howdens don’t always have the glossy showrooms of other kitchen brands, but that doesn’t stop their TikTok account from having all the inspiration their potential customers might need. Their content also taps into another TikTok niche: those who love to organise. Who knew a cupboard could be so exciting?! They’re not afraid to hop on a trending sound either.

Home & garden brands that (we think) are behind the curve when it comes to TikTok…

Despite the evidence supporting how tailor-made this platform is for home and interiors brands, there are many major players out there resisting the call and in doing so, missing out on customers.

Take Wilko for example; the popular household store has 29.8M hashtag views on TikTok and we know 26% of active TikTok users who love DIY and home improvements have bought from Wilko in the past 3 months* and yet…they have no owned brand presence on the platform - madness!

Another surprising absence from TikTok is IKEA. Boy, are they missing out by not posting on their profile! #IkeaTok has 451.8m video views and #Ikea has 5.1 BILLION views, with customers sharing their Ikea finds, hauls and hacks. Everything you need for affordable inspiration for your home.

What have we learned? Well, in short, TikTok is not showing signs of slowing, so you should be factoring it into your marketing strategy. Video is clearly the new frontrunner in home inspiration, so if you’re working in the home, interiors or garden industries, it’s time to tackle short-form video content to engage, inspire and nurture your customers old and new.

We know from researching the modern day path to purchase that customers in this industry often spend a lot of time doing product research for their home projects - so help them find the answers they need, and your products, through your TikTok content.

Looking to make your home & garden brand at home on TikTok?

We're ready to help - we offer a range of TikTok marketing services to help you reach new audiences!

Drop the team a message by clicking the ‘get in touch’ button below. You can also reach us through our contact page, by emailing [email protected] or by phoning 01423 396959.