TikTok Shop Marks 500,000+ Merchants in the US

TikTok saw its U.S. eCommerce merchant base more than double at the end of 2023.

The social media platform says TikTok Shop had more than 500,000 merchants selling to American users at the close of last year, according to a Tuesday (April 30) report by Bloomberg News, citing the company’s first TikTok Shop Safety Report.

Overall, TikTok Shop had more than 15 million sellers worldwide in December, adding more than 6 million in the latter half of the year. The Bloomberg report notes that TikTok views eCommerce — which it brought to the U.S. last year — as its next major potential revenue driver.

“While your traditional model might be scrolling through a list of products on a web page, we’re aiming to create an experience where it’s something more entertaining and engaging than that,” Mary Hubbard, head of governance and experience for TikTok Shop Americas, told Bloomberg.

“We want people to feel that their shopping experience is tailored and relevant to them, in the same way that they feel their ‘For You Feed’ is. Our focus is making sure the experience is a positive one, whichever way they do it.”

Beyond just promoting the company’s growth, the report — as the name implies — also focuses on TikTok’s safety efforts. TikTok says it blocked 2 million sellers from the app for failing to meet its policy regulations and removed 1 million for violating those rules.

The news comes as TikTok is facing a ban — one it intends to fight — in the U.S. if China-based owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform within a year.

But as PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, the threat of the ban isn’t keeping brands from using TikTok to attract customers.

For example, E.l.f. Beauty and skincare brand COSRX both launched campaigns on the platform in March, while Coca-Cola in February announced its first product sold exclusively on TikTok Shop, a drink dubbed Happy Tears Zero Sugar.

And there’s an opportunity on social platforms, according to data from the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Monetizing Social Media,” created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services. The study found that 43% of consumers search social media to find goods and services.

“However, only 14% ultimately purchase those goods and services via social media,” PYMNTS wrote. “Among the 39 million consumers browsing products and reviews via TikTok, the findings showed, 17% purchased what they found.”