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TikTok Shop seems to be clicking with consumers.
U.S. consumers have become more enamored with the offerings on TikTok Shop than on fast-fashion platform Shein, according to a consumer trends report from Coefficient Capital and Dan Frommer of The New Consumer.
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In Q3 2024, their spending on TikTok Shop has outpaced dollars being forked over to Shein, data from Earnest Analytics shows.
Among consumers who said they’ve purchased items from TikTok Shop, fashion and apparel are a favorite. Forty-five percent of those consumers have purchased clothing or accessories from the platform. That figure is followed closely by beauty and personal care, with 44 percent of TikTok Shop buyers noting they purchased an item from that category.
The average value of a TikTok Shop order came in at $35 between November 2023 and November 2024, with customers making an average of 5.3 transactions on the platform within that time period.
Having repeat purchases can be a boon for platforms hawking low-cost goods, and TikTok Shop has made consumers want more. Nine in 10 consumers who have purchased from TikTok Shop said they would do so again in the future.
Already, nearly half of TikTok shoppers have re-bought an item that they initially purchased from TikTok Shop, and three in four consumers are repeating their purchase on the ByteDance-owned app. But half of those consumers are also repurchasing from Amazon, and 30 percent are repurchasing the same product from PDD Holdings’ Temu.
And as TikTok Shop supersedes Shein in many consumers’ minds, per the data, so has Temu. Data included in the report shows that as of October, indexed monthly spending among U.S. Shein shoppers had shifted; Temu and TikTok Shop were nearly at parity, and Shein led only by single-digit percentage points.
TikTok Shop’s path to growth has been swift since it launched last fall, but it has some serious roadblocks to overcome if it wants to see that growth continue. The company is in a race against time as the U.S. threatens to ban the video platform.
Experts have said it’s unlikely that TikTok actually sees a ban, but the clock is ticking away after a D.C. appeals court said it would not pause its ruling upholding the legality of the government’s law stipulating as much.
That leaves the China-owned platform with few options left and a short window to see any resolution from the Supreme Court. And, given that the ban would take effect on Jan. 19, the last day of the Biden-Harris administration, President-elect Donald Trump may not be able to save the platform, as some have proposed he might.