TikTok tripled its US shopping sales to more than $100 million on Black Friday, a sign of the app’s growing popularity despite a looming ban.
TikTok Shop, the app’s e-commerce feature, also drew a 165 percent annual increase in shoppers for the two days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the company said. More than 7 billion posts included the hashtags #tiktokshopblackfriday or #tiktokshopcybermonday.
The boost in sales comes as the app faces a potential shutdown in January under a new law signed by President Joe Biden. Lawmakers worry that TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., poses a national security threat to American users.
But the holiday sales spike also shows that intense regulatory scrutiny has done little to dampen user interest—TikTok is used by more than 170 million Americans—or push away sellers who continue to see value in marketing their products on the app.
TikTok launched its in-app shopping hub in the US in September 2023, so it comes as little surprise that TikTok Shop had significantly more traction one year later. But the threefold increase in sales is also the result of a concerted effort by TikTok to boost its e-commerce presence in the US.
ByteDance set out to increase TikTok’s US e-commerce arm 10-fold this year, to as much as $17.5 billion, Bloomberg reported in January. After Biden signed a law in April that will force ByteDance to sell its US TikTok business to an American firm or face a nationwide ban, the company intensified its efforts in the US. It halted expansion of TikTok Shop in Europe to focus squarely on expanding its US footprint and further entrenched itself in the American economy. That strategy hasn’t always been smooth. Some merchants on the platform saw their Shop sales tumble in the aftermath of the law’s passage.
Some of those initial concerns subsided over the summer, though, as public opinion started to change. Support for a TikTok ban declined among US adults, with half of adults doubting it would even happen, according to Pew Research Center data from July and August. Leading American brands like Amazon.com Inc. and the NFL also announced new or extended partnerships with TikTok, a signal to others that they believed TikTok was a safe bet and that the ban was unlikely to go through.
A top court in Washington is expected to rule this week on the divest-or-ban law. Today, Shop remains a big bet and growth driver for TikTok. It’s one of the fastest-growing parts of the company, and continues to receive significant investment.
While a third of user purchases on Shop between Nov. 13 and Dec. 2 were from small- and medium-sized businesses, household names like Crocs, Fenty Beauty and Estee Lauder were among the top-selling brands, TikTok said.
Shopping via live video streams, which has been wildly successful in China but hasn’t gained the same traction in the US, was a key focus, with some creators and celebrities hosting real-time shopping sessions on TikTok Live that drove millions in sales, according to the company.
By Alexandra S. Levine
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The ByteDance-owned app’s e-commerce play has been met with mixed response from users. Still, sales keep ticking up.
