TikTok Shop Is Now the Size of eBay
Despite the endless Despite the drama around whether the app will be banned, President Donald Trump’s volatile pricing regime, and management shakeups, TikTok’s e-commerce division is still seeing massive growth.
TikTok does not disclose overall sales figures, but the price and sales volume of individual products are visible on the app. Based on this data, analytics firm EchoTik estimates that TikTok Shop sold $19 billion worth of products globally between July and September of this year. The United States, its largest market, accounted for between $4 billion and $4.5 billion in sales, an increase of about 125% from the second quarter of 2025.
To put these numbers in perspective, consider that TikTok Shop is now on the same scale as eBay, which had a total revenue of $20.1 billion during the last quarter. TikTok Shop only launched in the United States in September 2023, while eBay has been around for over 30 years. This speed of growth is remarkable.
“We mainly focused on TikTok from the perspective of the TikTok ban, and we almost forgot that TikTok Shop’s share of US e-commerce continues to grow slowly,” says Juozas Kaziukėnas, an independent e-commerce analyst.
What you see is what you get
TikTok Shop broke into the extremely saturated U.S. e-commerce landscape by excelling at an old platitude: show, don’t tell. Creators post short videos on TikTok trying on clothes or using household gadgets and include links to purchase the products on the same platform. This creates a much simpler experience for consumers, who can see real people testing products instead of having to wade through written reviews on traditional e-commerce sites.
Ivy Yang, founder of Wavelet Strategy, a strategic public relations consultancy, says she recently purchased a dust mite vacuum on Amazon shortly before browsing a TikTok store video featuring a similar product. She quickly realized that the TikTok Shop version had more features, so she ordered it, tried it, and returned the Amazon one. For her, it’s the appeal of shopping on TikTok. “I need to see how this works in action,” says Yang.
In theory, this is what makes livestream shopping even more popular, at least in China, because now influencers can tout products on camera in real time, and there’s little editing involved that could hide potential product flaws. In recent years, livestream shopping has completely reshaped the way people buy things in China and has become one of ByteDance’s main revenue pillars. But despite TikTok’s best efforts, it simply hasn’t been able to replicate this success in the United States. Kaziukėnas says TikTok Shop’s performance is likely still below ByteDance’s expectations, especially when it comes to live purchases.
