TikTok Shop booming amid possible ban

TikTok Shop, launched in September 2023, has become an e-commerce behemoth as its platform edges toward leaving the U.S. On Black Friday, TikTok Shop tripled its sales from the previous year, bringing in more than $100 million in just one day. 

But a new law requires the app’s parent company to sell it or be banned in the U.S., which TikTok says could happen by Jan. 19. The Chinese-based app hasn’t had much luck so far convincing the courts to let it remain in the U.S. On Monday, it asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. 

TikTok, which has 170 million American users, says its departure could result in a loss of more than $1 billion in revenue for small businesses and as much as $300 million in earnings in one month for creators. A survey in March showed that most users would move to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels if TikTok leaves.

Additionally, TikTok operations contributed $8.5 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023. The platform’s advertising, marketing and organic reach contributed much more to the GDP, adding $24.2 billion. GDP is often used as a measure of economic output and activity. 

What’s selling on TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop items are as diverse as its sellers. However, certain product categories are far more popular than others. 

According to Statista research, beauty and personal care items took the top spot in the volume of products sold worldwide in 2023, clocking in at 370 million. Womenswear and underwear came in second, selling close to 285 million products. 

Food and beverage products came in third, selling 138 million items. Home supplies on TikTok Shop sold about 137.5 million items. Rounding out the top five, fashion accessories on TikTok Shop sold about 98 million items in 2023. 

In 2024, sales continue booming. “January 1 through the end of November, there’s already been 6.1 billion in sales in just the U.S. in TikTok Shop, which is insane. Think about how many years it took for Amazon to get to that kind of scale. The fact that they’ve done it in year one is just mind-blowing,” said Alex Nisenzon, CEO at Charm.io, a brand discovery and analysis platform that tracks and analyzes about 4 million direct-to-consumer brands across things like social media following and engagement, reseller distribution and more. The company recently released its second data set, which tracks daily sales of every product sold on TikTok Shop.

Beauty and personal care, womenswear and underwear continue to make up the majority of sales on TikTok Shop. “The top category by far is beauty and personal care. There’s been about 1.27 or just under 1.3 billion in sales in beauty and personal care, and in womenswear and underwear,” Nisenzon said.

More categories are rising in popularity in 2024: health, sports and outdoor and phones and electronics were right behind the others, according to Nisenzon.

Top items on TikTok Shop 

The best-selling items on TikTok Shop can vary, depending on the category. 

Here’s a look into some of the top items being sold on the platform, with thousands of sales each:

1. Homeika Cordless Vacuum. It’s not just small or cheap items that are selling well on TikTok Shop. The Homeika Cordless Vacuum Cleaner has sold over 196,000 items. 

2. DrBiocare Collagen. You might not expect supplements to be one of the hottest buys on TikTok Shop, but DrBiocare Collagen has sold more than 154,000 items. 

3. Light Up Acrylic Message Board. As a novelty purchase, the Light Up Acrylic Message Board is finding success on TikTok Shop, selling over 127,0000 items. 

4. Oregano Oil. Another supplement is finding popularity. Micro Ingredients Oregano Oil with Black Seed Oil sold over 116,000 items. 

5. All Season Blanket. Cozy vibes are popular year-round as evidenced by the All Season Blanket selling more than 108,000 items. 

6. Honeypot Lip Mask. Keeping with the trend of beauty and personal care as top sellers on TikTok Shop, the honeypot lip mask looks straight out of Winnie the Pooh and has sold more than 91,000 items.  

How TikTok Shop changed e-commerce 

TikTok Shop allows sellers to promote directly to their audience and they have a number of ways to do that. Whether using in-feed videos, live streams or the Showcase tab, brands can build a following, enhancing the “know, like, trust” factor” and making it more seamless to sell. 

“We’ve seen this massive trend happening in social overall, where consumers are really interested in what influencers or what they call now ‘creators’ are doing,” Nisenzon said. “And now it’s translated to a direct shopping experience that’s really taken off in a material way and kind of influencing what people are buying based on it. I think that it’s really flipped on its head how new brands go to market. I think it’s really demonstrated a willingness of consumers to find new products in ways that they weren’t really discovering them before.”

This coincides with Gen Z moving away from Google as a primary search engine in favor of using TikTok and YouTube. 

“In the discovery phase, consumers are eschewing traditional search engines in favor of platforms like TikTok Shop that offer more personalized recommendations,” said Olivia McNaughten, senior director of product marketing and partnerships at GRIN, a creator management platform. “When considering a purchase, influencer testimonials serve as an elevated ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing, allowing consumers to see the product in action while hearing from creators they trust.”

When you search using TikTok, you’re training the algorithm to know what you like or are interested in and get curated videos based on what you’re looking for.  

Through a simple search, you are recommended videos in the “Top” tab. From there, you can go to the “Shop” tab to find related products. For example, you can search “cats” and find a parade of cute and silly videos featuring felines. Heading over to the “Shop” tab you can see cat toys, a cat scratching board, cat pin and other products ranging from the practical — a cat bed — to the ridiculous, like a cat crystal ball.

Given the algorithm and highly curated feeds, you can discover products you didn’t even know you wanted until you saw them. 

TikTok Shop has its critics

TikTok Shop has proven to be a massive growth vehicle for online creators and sellers. Some brands are connecting with a new, younger audience there. While there are tons of success stories, at the end of the day TikTok Shop is still a third-party platform. 

In other words, you’re not in control of everything. That’s especially true with the question mark regarding TikTok’s future. What might start as something beneficial can turn sour, some users said.

“When TikTok Shop first launched last year, it presented a fantastic opportunity for our Liddle Speaker, driving strong sales through live shows and boosting our brand visibility. However, the landscape has shifted,” said Dan Cass, inventor of the Liddle Speaker, a portable Bluetooth speaker with a high-fidelity microphone for voice and zoom video calls.

“TikTok has negatively impacted our business by fostering an economic imbalance that favors companies based in China,” Cass said. “The platform has become a hub for copycat products, leveraging American influencers and content creators to drive their economic growth.”

What’s next?

TikTok Shop has proven to be a major competitor in the e-commerce space, pulling in a staggering amount of money in just a short time. As boundaries between creators and followers start to blur, the opportunity to become a seller comes into focus. Now it’s easier than ever to search and shop on a platform you might already be spending a lot of time on. 

But the appeals court that ruled against it cited national concerns raised by members of Congress who backed the law that could lead to its ban. Some have speculated that the Supreme Court could do the same. 

Until we know an answer, TikTok Shop will continue to rake in the cash.