TikTok’s In-Stream Shopping Sees Impressive Growth

TikTok continues to actively expand its e-commerce offerings within the platform. Over the past year, in-app shopping through interactive videos and live streams has gained notable popularity among U.S. users. While the results have not yet reached the level of the Chinese market — where TikTok’s local version, Douyin, is already a top e-commerce player — the current growth trend signals the potential emergence of a new online shopping model in Western markets.

According to TikTok’s latest data, TikTok Shop sales in the U.S. grew 120% in the first half of 2025, with both business participation and audience engagement steadily increasing.

Top Product Categories

Currently, TikTok Shop offers more than 70 million products across 750 categories.
The most popular categories in the U.S. include:

• Women’s apparel
• Beauty & personal care
• Health
• Sports & outdoor
• Electronics

According to research from GlobalData and TikTok Shop:

• 83% of shoppers discovered new products on TikTok
• 70% discovered new brands

Livestreaming Drives Sales

Live shopping remains a key growth driver for TikTok Shop:

• More than 8 million hours of live shopping sessions have been broadcast in the U.S.
• 76% of users who engaged with TikTok Shop made a purchase via livestream in the past year
• Sales for small U.S. businesses have grown 70% year-over-year
• More than 171,000 local and small businesses now operate TikTok Shops

New Tools for Sellers

To further fuel growth, TikTok is rolling out new tools in the Seller Center, including:

• Personalized assortment recommendations
• Content optimization tools
• Advanced analytics capabilities

In July, TikTok will also launch its Deals for You Days promotional campaign (July 7–19), featuring a LIVE Price Match Guaranteed program. This will allow customers watching select livestreams to receive cashback if they find a lower price on another platform.

Why the West Still Trails China

Despite the positive momentum, TikTok Shop in the U.S. still lags behind its Chinese counterpart, Douyin:

• In 2024, Douyin generated $490 billion in GMV, making it China’s third-largest e-commerce platform
• By comparison, TikTok generated around $6 billion in in-app sales in 2024 — still a 15% increase year-over-year

Meanwhile, Douyin users in China already use the app for food delivery, ride-hailing, and other services — which helps foster greater trust in financial transactions on the platform.

Regulatory Uncertainty in the U.S.

Challenges also remain on the regulatory front:

• The Biden administration is currently working on a potential sell-off deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations
• In 2024, TikTok had to restructure its U.S. commerce team after missing growth targets

While the current growth rates are promising, the platform has yet to meet the ambitious goals it set for itself a few years ago.

Should Businesses Invest in TikTok Shop?

Demand for in-stream shopping on TikTok is gradually increasing in the U.S. and Europe. However, to reach China’s level, the platform still needs to overcome consumer trust and user experience hurdles.

For Ukrainian and European brands, it’s important to monitor this trend — TikTok users are already changing their shopping behaviors on social media. TikTok Shop can now be a promising channel for small businesses and niche brands looking for new ways to attract customers.

If you’d like to test this channel or launch your first campaigns — our team can help you set up TikTok ads, choose the right formats, and effectively integrate TikTok Shop into your marketing strategy.

This article available in Ukrainian.