440In TikTok’s short videos, there are always some seemingly inconspicuous niche products that go viral instantly due to their uniqueness. From humidifiers to stationery, even a little “clever twist” added to a conventional category can ignite the enthusiasm of netizens worldwide.
TikTok is becoming the showcase window for these products, and more and more Chinese brands are gradually entering the international market through this platform, allowing “niche” products to usher in their own “spring” overseas.
Humidifiers attract the attention of many overseas netizens. Image source: TikTok
01
Humidifier Goes Viral Overnight
Take the floating water droplet humidifier that went viral this autumn as an example. A blogger shared an unboxing video on TikTok, showcasing this unique product.
Unlike ordinary humidifiers, it creates a visually novel effect through its floating water droplet design. In just a few seconds of the unboxing video, countless netizens exclaimed “amazing,”the video views surpassed 30 million in a short period, and the comment section was flooded.
While netizens marveled, “Who gets it? This is so cool!” this niche humidifier started to become a hot search keyword, driving traffic to other platforms as well.
Soon after, more and more bloggers followed suit with unboxing videos, directly boosting product sales.
In fact, humidifiers are not uncommon overseas, and seasonal changes themselves bring sales peaks to this category.
But what makes an otherwise ordinary small appliance stand out is TikTok’s powerful “planting grass” (recommendation) ability.
Bloggers share various humidifiers. Image source: TikTok
02
Small Stationery Supports “Big Business”
Not only small appliances, but small items like stationery also have a loyal following in the global market.Tombowhas won the favor of consumers in Southeast Asia and Europe and America with its appearance and practicality.
During back-to-school season, Tombow’s colored gel pens and folders sparked a trend of showing off stationery on social media. Students and young white-collar workers joined the #Stationery topic on TikTok, showing off their favorite “treasure stationery,” bringing Tombow a double harvest of exposure and sales.
Image source: TikTok
As consumables with a high repurchase rate, the global demand for stationery products continues to grow. Data shows thatthe stationery market size was about $151.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to exceed $213.1 billion by 2030.
Facing this vast market, Tombow promotes its products through TikTok and other social platforms, successfully capturing overseas markets with high-value and diversified product designs, paving the way for the internationalization of its stationery business.
Image source: TikTok
03
Content Marketing Opens Up the “Niche” Market
To make niche products go viral, precise content marketing is indispensable. The short video format on TikTok allows products to be showcased in all aspects; even a small appliance or stationery item can gain high exposure through carefully produced videos.
Just like the floating water droplet humidifier mentioned above, many bloggers did not use complicated promotion methods, but simply used unboxing and reviews to showcase it, capturing the audience’s curiosity.
Whether it’s novel design or personalized functions, these all give products “topic appeal,” leading to spontaneous dissemination on social platforms.
And such examples are not uncommon on TikTok.
Recently, the popular automatic cat litter box has also made it to the hot search as a “lazy person’s magic tool.” Cat bloggers on TikTok have showcased the convenience of this litter box, especially its automatic cleaning function, which directly solves the pain points of cat owners and attracts the attention and purchases of many pet owners.
With just a few simple steps, this litter box can efficiently clean, helping busy cat owners save time. Coupled with the cute reactions of the cats, these videos quickly gained a large number of likes and shares, directly boosting the product’s sales in multiple national markets.
04
The Bandwagon Effect Stimulates the Potential of “Niche” Products
The “bandwagon effect” on platforms like TikTok and Instagram is another key factor driving niche products to go viral. Once some unpopular products arouse netizens’ “curiosity,” they often quickly attract more users’ attention.
A fully automatic curling iron has become a popular review product among major bloggers due to its “lazy-friendly” design. Especially in multi-scenario, easy-operation demonstrations, this curling iron is shown to be very flexible and convenient, attracting a large number of users to purchase.
In addition, a brand’s “cat paw cup” has gone viral online due to its unique shape. Initially just a Japanese-style creative small product, the “cat paw cup” was shared by some TikTok users and attracted young people to buy it in droves.
This super cute design has given the “cat paw cup” a large fan base in the global market, becoming a sensation overnight on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms, and becoming a “traffic star” in the cup market.
Even so, although niche products are full of opportunities in the global market, brands still need to face multiple challenges in the process of going overseas.
For example, consumers in different countries have differences in consumption habits and product needs, and logistics costs and compliance requirements also set higher thresholds for brands going overseas. Especially for small appliances such as humidifiers, competition is quite fierce in markets such as Japan, Europe, and the United States. Relying solely on design and marketing is not enough to gain a lasting advantage in the market.
Just like the floating water droplet humidifier and cat paw cup mentioned earlier, although these products quickly became popular on platforms like TikTok, to maintain sustained sales growth, brands also need to pay attention to the details of consumer experience, continuously enhance the differentiated value of their products, and use local social media, word-of-mouth publicity, and localized promotional activities to integrate their products into the consumption habits of the target market.
From TikTok to Instagram, the wide coverage and user engagement of these social platforms have created unprecedented display opportunities for niche products,enabling creative small appliances, specialty stationery, and other products to “turn stone into gold” on social platforms.
In the future, as global consumers’ demand for personalized products increases, the overseas market for niche products will further expand. In the process of going overseas, brands will surely usher in more opportunities and development space through differentiated product design and localized content marketing.
