In the view of Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho, a specialist in marketplaces and online sales growth, TikTok Shop is no longer an experimental bet but a channel that pet retail needs to take seriously. The tool is the store built into TikTok, where users buy a product without leaving the video they are watching. According to a survey by Opinion Box, it is already known by 45% of Brazilian users, and 31% say they have made a purchase through the app.
Pet products rank among the best-selling categories on the platform, alongside beauty, fashion, and home goods. The change, however, goes beyond a new place to advertise: TikTok Shop alters the way pet owners discover what they buy and requires stores to have an operation ready for sudden spikes in demand. For those who sell pet products and have not yet decided whether to enter this channel, the points below help weigh the decision.
From active search to discovery while scrolling
On traditional marketplaces, a purchase begins with a search. The pet owner types in what they need, compares prices, and chooses a listing. On TikTok Shop, the logic is reversed, and the product finds the buyer while they are watching videos with no initial intention of buying anything. Hugo Galvao sees this reversal as the channel’s main difference, because the listing no longer responds to a stated need and instead sparks a desire the owner did not have before.
In the pet segment, this mechanism finds fertile ground. A video showing a cat fascinated by a new toy or a dog that finally eats slowly from an interactive feeder is more convincing than any technical description, because the animal’s reaction serves as a demonstration of the product. The challenge for sellers is that this storefront requires a constant flow of content, made to entertain before it sells, a different skill from the one behind a good marketplace listing.
Not every pet product benefits from video
The format favors items that explain themselves when shown in use: interactive toys, pet hair removers, cat water fountains, slow feeders, and accessories with visual appeal. These are affordably priced products, suited to a quick decision, whose results fit into a few seconds of video. Replenishment products, such as pet food and cat litter, depend more on price and brand trust, and rarely generate the same impulse to buy.
This difference calls for careful selection of the catalog that goes to the channel. Bringing every product to TikTok Shop, Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho points out, spreads effort and content investment across items that do not benefit from the format. It makes more sense to start with a few products with strong visual appeal, test different videos, and expand the selection based on what actually sells, not on what seems promising in theory.
Reach requires a prepared operation
A video that goes viral can multiply orders for a product within a few hours, and this is where many stores stumble. The platform places heavy weight on shipping speed, and repeated delays reduce product visibility, an effect that takes time to reverse. In other words, a store without the inventory or shipping capacity to keep up with the spike loses the sale of the moment and also undermines the reach of its next videos.
Competition is also likely to grow. Since May, TikTok Shop has accepted registrations from individual microentrepreneurs, which is likely to increase the number of sellers on the platform. Hugo Galvao emphasizes that, in this scenario, the advantage will lie less in getting there first and more in sustaining the operation on the new channel: inventory integrated with other channels, delivery times met, and fast customer service, the same fundamentals that already define a store’s reputation on traditional marketplaces.
From impulse buyer to recurring customer
An impulse purchase secures the first sale, but the pet market thrives on recurrence. A pet owner who discovered the store through a toy seen while scrolling through videos can become a frequent buyer of pet food, treats, and hygiene products, as long as they find the same brand, with the same quality of service, on other channels. This is where the company’s own online store, such as www.enjoypets.com.br, and traditional marketplaces complete the work that began with the video.
To make this happen, a presence on TikTok Shop needs to align with the rest of the business. Product names, photos, descriptions, and return policies that are consistent across channels help pet owners recognize the store when they look for it elsewhere. In the interpretation of Hugo Galvao de Franca Filho, the channel works better as a gateway than as a final destination: the video introduces the store, and the relationship built afterward is what turns a viewer into a customer.
