BUUT sounds the alarm: TikTok Shop makes it even more tempting for teenagers to shop
- Products and services
Bank for young people launches campaign to alert parents and teenagers to the increasingly fine line between scrolling and shopping
Watch, like, want, buy. The arrival of TikTok Shop in the Netherlands has made that chain even shorter for young people. You can pay for products that appear in videos and livestreams in TikTok without ever leaving the app. BUUT, the bank for young people, is warning of the downside: an environment already designed to capture and hold young people’s attention has now also become a shop.
From scrolling to buying
“Ordering via TikTok Shop is extremely easy. You see something pop up in your feed, click on ‘buy now’ and check out there and then. Once your address and payment details have been saved, it only takes a few clicks to make the next purchase. That’s precisely what makes TikTok Shop so tempting. And although TikTok Shop is officially for over-18s, it’s easy to bypass that restriction, which means younger teenagers are also likely to be exposed to it,” says Sanne van Kuijk of BUUT.
BUUT’s concern goes beyond just TikTok Shop. Young people are growing up in an online environment where entertainment, social influence, advertising and shopping are becoming increasingly intertwined. The arrival of TikTok Shop makes that trend even more visible.
Financial educator Annelou van Noort: “Young people are particularly sensitive to impulses, rewards and social influence. If the space of time between seeing something, wanting it and actually paying for it keeps shrinking, there is less chance to stop and think: do I really want this?”
A parcel you won’t be expecting
To get the conversation about this started at home, BUUT is launching Pakketje Bezorgd (‘Parcel Delivered’). Parents can request a parcel for their teenager through BUUT. It looks like an order that could have come straight from a social media feed. But when you open it, there are no skincare products, gadgets or other impulse buys inside. Instead, recipients discover a surprising audio message that unpacks online temptation.
The parcel is the conversation starter for a broader approach in which BUUT, together with content creators, parents, young people and experts, is drawing attention to the influence of social media on purchasing behaviour. Through social content, advertising and practical information, BUUT aims to help young people recognise when their desire to buy is being fuelled, as well as to help parents have this conversation with them at home.
The aim is not to get young people to stop buying things, but to ask one simple question: am I buying this because I genuinely want it, or because it appeared at exactly the right moment?
Being financially strong also means being able to resist temptation
BUUT’s mission is to help build the financially strongest generation ever. The bank for young people says this does not just mean teaching young people how to save, budget and make payments. In a world where commercial temptation is becoming ever more personalised and harder to recognise, it also means helping young people understand how their purchasing behaviour is being influenced.
Van Kuijk: “We don’t want to tell young people what they should or shouldn’t buy. But financial independence also means staying in control of your decision to buy something. If platforms do everything they can to speed up that decision as much as possible, we need to help young people press the pause button from time to time. By creating a TikTok Shop spending pot in BUUT with a pre-set amount that they choose themselves, they decide in advance the maximum amount they want to spend. In addition, parents can set a daily limit in the parent app on how much their child can spend via iDEAL.”
More information: www.buut.com
About BUUT
BUUT is the new bank for teenagers from the creators of Tikkie. Like Tikkie, BUUT is part of ABN AMRO. With BUUT, young people can use handy pots to save up money and make payments easily. The app is designed specially for a new generation: simple, visual, user-friendly and interactive. BUUT is covered by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme and combines the reliability of a large bank with the innovative power of Tikkie.
* TikTok Shop is an integrated store within TikTok. Users can view and buy products they come across in videos and livestreams without leaving the app. This means a product that appears while they are scrolling can be paid for and delivered in just a few clicks.