Juozas Kaziukėnas, CEO of e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, said TikTok Shop's new app store seems most similar to Amazon's app store in that its services enable functions like data syncing and order shipping without changing the way a store functions or looks.
"Those apps help you manage the business," which he said is "especially key for sellers that sell across many channels." He said highlighting third-party software partners could be a way to entice sellers to start using TikTok Shop.
"When you build a marketplace like TikTok did, you need partners that will be a source of sellers because sellers joining marketplaces that don't integrate with apps they already use is a big roadblock," he said. "It also saves marketplaces from building a lot of tech in its own seller dashboard because it can instead stream that data to third-party apps that have built it already."