How to create a Douyin brand account and Douyin store

How to create a Douyin brand account and Douyin store

Douyin (Chinese domestic version of TikTok), being wildly popular with Chinese youths, is a short-video-based social networking app owned by ByteDance. Nowadays, integration with e-commerce has become a common practice among the most prevalent social platforms such as Little Red Book and WeChat. Douyin has caught up with this trend and transformed itself into one of the most important marketing channels for e-commerce players. This article will introduce how to create a Douyin brand account and store step by step.

1. Key facts about Douyin - How people are fascinated by Douyin

Douyin (Chinese domestic version of TikTok), being wildly popular with Chinese youths, is a short-video-based social networking app owned by ByteDance. Nowadays, integration with e-commerce has become a common practice among the most prevalent social platforms such as Little Red Book and WeChat. Douyin has caught up with this trend and transformed itself into one of the most important marketing channels for e-commerce players. This article will introduce how to create a Douyin brand account and store step by step.

So how does Douyin perform? LatePosts revealed that Douyin e-commerce had achieved GMV of 500 billion in 2020, and Douyin Store had directly generated around 100 billion. Although Douyin set foot in the industry when the giants such as Taobao had already taken their share, its remarkable performance had proved its huge growth potential for e-commerce players.

2. Create a Douyin brand account – the first step to start your business on Douyin

2.1 What is a Douyin brand account?

Douyin offers four types of official certification: 

  • Individual certification: KOLs, experts…
  • Musicians certification: Original musicians…
  • Company certification: Walmart, Perfect Diary…
  • Organization certification: TV, state agencies…

for which the account owner may have exclusive rights from the general account after passing the verification. 

A brand account is precisely the account with a company certification. The number of registered brand accounts have exceeded 5 million in 2020. A brand account can help companies to:

  • Establish brand image and enhance the brand awareness
  • Attract and gather customers
  • Promote products
  • Boost sales via live-streaming and campaign

2.2 How to create a brand account?

Opening a Douyin brand account is quite simple, with only a few steps. Below is our step-by-step guidance leading you through the registration process either on PC or Douyin app. 

PC certification:

  1. Visit the Douyin brand account website douyin.com
  2. Click the button “start immediate certification” and enter the PC certification process
  3. Scan the QR code on your Douyin app to log in to your account
  4. Fill in the form and pay for service fees (600 RMB), and wait for validation
  5. After validation, you could start to manage your brand account

Mobile app certification:

Unlike PC certification, your company could experience four progressive states of brand account identity on the Douyin app. The brand considering to enter Douyin e-commerce are recommended to choose the state of identity according to their size, development stage, business model, and paying ability:

  • Stage 1 Free trial:
  1. Open the Douyin app, click “Me” at the bottom bar
  2. Unfold the side column and click “Creator Service Center”
  3. Click “Free trial to brand account” and an on-trial brand account will be opened immediately without any requirements 
  4. Try out brand account for 60 days with limited functions
  • Stage 2 Activation: 
  1. Open the Douyin app, click “Me” at the bottom bar
  2. Unfold the side column and click “Company Service Center” after opening a free trial account
  3. Click “upload” to provide a business license
  4. Unlock some limited functions after activation, with a validity period of one year
  • Stage 3 Verification:
  1. Click “to verify” to provide more information and complete the identification process
  2. Unlock more limited functions than activated brand account, with a validity period of one year
  • Stage 4 Certification (same as PC certification)
  1. Click “to certificate” to provide more information and pay certification fees
  2. Unlock all the limited rights after approval, with a validity period of one year

3. Create a Douyin store - to sell your products on Douyin

3.1 How to sell products on Douyin?

Douyin provides multiple channels for selling products:

  • Open shop windows with links to other brand accounts’ products

It is how KOLs earn commission fees by leveraging their popularity to sell products targeting fans precisely.

  • Open shop windows with links to products on third-party platforms such as Taobao, Tmall…
  • Open your Douyin store and sell your products directly to customers

Some e-commerce players choose to open an in-built Douyin store. For customers, it saves the trouble of transferring to a third-party platform. For merchants, Douyin has assured all-rounded support, benefiting them to make their business more successful.

3.2 How to create a Douyin store?

The process of opening a Douyin store is also not complicated:

  1. Visit Douyin store website on PC for registration https://fxg.jinritemai.com
  2. Login your account 
  3. Select correct entity type and fill in the store information
  4. Wait for verification and complete identification afterward
  5. Pay earnest money and finish the registration process
  6. Open the management page and click “channel management” or “official account” to associate your multi-channel brand account or Douyin brand account and add your products

The Douyin store provides comprehensive tools for you to operate your business. Functions covering campaigns & promotion, customer service, data analysis, and product management brings efficiency and convenience to your business operation.

3.3 Douyin store functions

4. Why start a business on Douyin?

4.1 Successful brand account cases

Numerous young entrepreneurs built their business on Douyin and gained unexpected success. For instance, an architect built his B&B brand on Douyin by recording and live-streaming his process of reconstructing the cottages. Besides, he also shared knowledge about architecture and village life. His operation of Douyin account had brought him 620 thousand fans and around 300 thousand RMB income within half a year. 

International brands also achieved remarkable performance in Douyin. Cosmetics brand MakeUpForever had collaborated with Douyin and made revenue of 4.3 million RMB by live-streaming and precisely promoting its star products to customers in private traffic.

With its massive traffic with high loyalty, Douyin has provided brands with a high conversion rate and helped brands sell better in China.

4.2 Comprehensive support service from Douyin

Even if you are ignorant about how to operate your business on social media, there is no need to worry since Douyin has provided you with comprehensive support:

  • Qiming College (https://school.oceanengine.com/college/home/2 ) is a one-stop training platform for the brand account. It offers a system of lectures on how to start and operate your business.
  • Brand account assistant will offer the latest policies and campaigns for companies to understand the market trend better.
  • The Company service center is a back-stage management page for your company to operate your account more efficiently.

Please note that all the above-mentioned websites and processes are of course in Chinese. In case you need support of setting up a Douyin account and store, please feel free to contact us.

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