Online shopping changed how we buy things — and social media platforms are reshaping shopping again. TikTok Shop, the company’s in-app shopping feature, is quickly becoming a key retailer for the beauty industry, according to a report by Dash Hudson and NielsenIQ.
TikTok Shop is now the ninth-largest online beauty and wellness retailer in the US and the second-largest in the UK, the report found. TikTok Shop’s footprint in the industry has been steadily growing over the past several months, according to prior research. AdWeek reports TikTok Shop has blown past competitors like major department stores, small beauty specialty stores, and direct-to-consumer brands.
TikTok Shop has been available in the US for less than a year and allows brands and influencers to directly sell products in the app by linking them within videos. TikTok also added a dedicated Shop tab to its homescreen, where everything from makeup and shoes to food items is for sale, sometimes at deep discounts.
Since the launch of TikTok Shop last year, users’ feeds have steadily been taken over by e-commerce content: creators earning a commission for every purchase they drive shill products in video after video, and the platform itself has worked to push viewers into the shopping section of the app through buttons and prompts. Though TikTok started as a shortform video entertainment platform, it’s increasingly become a shopping destination, competing with mega-retailers like Amazon to get users to watch a video and buy something.
Beauty content is one of the most popular types of videos on TikTok, with some creators making a living by sharing tips or testing out products. TikTok obviously wants a cut of every purchase people make after seeing a product in a video.
For brands going viral on TikTok, the sudden influx of attention — and orders — isn’t always a blessing. As Business Insider detailed, small businesses getting inundated with new customers might have trouble keeping up with demand. A short burst of virality also doesn’t necessarily translate to a business that’s sustainable in the long term. And then, of course, there’s TikTok’s uncertain future in the US, where it faces a ban if owner ByteDance fails to divest from the company.
