TikTok Teams With Real Authentication for Handbag Verification

TikTok is offering authentication services for pre-owned handbags on its American eCommerce marketplace.

TikTok Shop teamed up with luxury goods authentication provider Real Authentication to offer this service, the two companies announced Monday (Nov. 6) press release.

“As the demand for resale luxury increases, it is imperative that buyers and retailers have confidence that merchandise they are purchasing and selling is genuine,” Anastacia Black, co-founder of Real Authentication and an expert authenticator herself, said in the release.

Sellers who want to find a buyer for their handbags can visit the Real Authentication website, become an approved seller and get an authenticity certificate, the release said.

From there, the company’s experts will analyze “every aspect” of the item and run it through Real Authentication’s proprietary Smart Database Scan tool, which cross-checks a variety of data points to search for potential counterfeits, according to the release.

If and when the bag is approved by Real Authentication, the seller can create a listing and upload the certificate for approval by TikTok, per the release.

Jenna Padilla, Real Authentication’s co-founder and expert authenticator, said in the release that the difference between her company’s collaboration with TikTok is that items are authenticated before they are listed, not after they are sold.

PYMNTS looked at the opportunities available in the luxury reselling space earlier this year in a conversation with Jelena Zec, director of venture investing at Citi Ventures.

She told PYMNTS that some of the leading luxury brands are poised to enter the space more fully as buying secondhand goods becomes more commonplace.

“There’s a big opportunity for brands to win in this commerce space,” said Zec.

These opportunities include strategies such as working with managed marketplaces or taking a “ReCommerce-as-a-Service” approach, where they offer secondhand sales or rentals directly.

Meanwhile, joint research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Amazon Web Services (AWS) found that 43% of consumers are using social media to find goods and services.

“Notably, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have the highest conversion rates, with users frequently purchasing products they discover on these platforms,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

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