Jared Mortensen sewage a preview of what mightiness beryllium imaginable connected TikTok Shop backmost successful 2023 while he was successful Guangzhou, China, visiting some a mill that produces his Real Men Apparel Co.’s underwear and a friend who sells a clothing statement to Chinese women. The friend was unrecorded streaming connected the Chinese societal media level Douyin, owned by ByteDance, past the proprietor of TikTok. “They were doing for illustration $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 an hour, trading women’s apparel,” Mortensen recalls. “I was like, ‘Holy crap. They’re printing money.’”
Mortensen returned location to Wichita, Kansas and created a TikTok Shop relationship for his marque successful October 2023, conscionable a period aft the shopping level launched successful the U.S. Today, he has 11 livestreamers and “content creators” connected his unit of 25, arsenic good arsenic contracts pinch astir 2,000 independent TikTok creators to make videos for his underwear line, which features pouches sized A to D, the measurement women’s bras are sized. (The creators get a percent of the income they generate.) Meanwhile, a unrecorded TikTok watercourse from Mortensen’s location allows him to interact pinch shoppers. “That gives america the expertise to compete against large brands,’’ he says. “A large marque can’t do those types of things pinch customers aliases interact pinch them the aforesaid way, because everything has to spell done ineligible and marketing. You can’t person the aforesaid level of earthy engagement.”
Raw–and plentiful. “The point is pinch TikTok, you person to station a lot. It’s very intense,” Mortensen says. “You person to propulsion a batch of spaghetti astatine the wall.” Among his spaghetti strands: Videos showing which items (including a jar of salsa and a butternut squash) do aliases don’t fresh successful Real Men’s pouches. “It’s entertainment, fundamentally,” Mortensen observes. “People don’t spell to Amazon to beryllium entertained. They spell to TikTok to beryllium entertained.”
But do they spell to TikTok to buy? Even Real Men, pinch its TikTok video machine, still does conscionable 15% of its $10 cardinal of yearly income connected TikTok Shop, compared to 50% connected Amazon and 35% connected its ain web site. Yet Mortensen says of TikTok, “It saved my business.” He credits it pinch raising his brand’s floor plan and income (including connected different platforms) erstwhile he was facing a rate crunch astatine the extremity of 2023 and the commencement of 2024.
Michael Corrigan, laminitis and CEO of Trtl, a Glasgow-based ergonomic recreation pillow brand, tells a akin story. He sewage started connected Amazon successful 2015 and joined TikTok Shop conscionable past summer. “The unsmooth (sales) divided correct now, I’d say, is 50% Amazon, 45% [direct to his tract connected the] web, and 5% TikTok Shop,” he says. “But,” he adds, "I would opportunity the maturation successful the different channels, I would property to TikTok Shop.”
That’s besides the position of Brandon Himmel, laminitis of Houston-based Ruff Liners, which sells pet spot covers, beds, liners and hammocks for cars and trucks. “I deliberation TikTok is increasing Amazon,” he says. Since he started promoting his marque connected TikTok Shop successful precocious 2024, searches for Ruff Liners by sanction person changeable up 26% connected Amazon, he reports. “I’ve virtually taken a marque that was doing $6 cardinal a period and now it’s doing $8 cardinal a month,” Himmel says. “What we’re doing connected TikTok is driving a batch of customers to want to get to Amazon and search.” Himmel says he precocious paid his apical creator $23,000 successful a azygous month, based chiefly connected income commissions and earned bonuses.
7 Tips For Small Businesses Getting Started On TikTok Shop
For now, TikTok Shop is leaning into its increasing estimation arsenic a trading level for mini brands, arsenic opposed to an Amazon competitor. It paid for a caller study of 6,000 Americans by GlobalData that recovered 67% of online shoppers spell to TikTok to find caller products and brands, compared to 57% who look connected Amazon, 35% who usage hunt engines, 34% who look successful ceramic and mortar stores, 26% who hunt connected YouTube and 24% who look connected Instagram. Moreover, 72% of those who said they had learned of a caller marque connected TikTok successful the past twelvemonth cited a mini marque (which the study defines arsenic those pinch little than $15 cardinal a twelvemonth successful sales).
“TikTok really has go this launchpad for a caller procreation of merchants, storytellers and businesses,” says Patrick Nommensen, caput of strategical initiatives astatine TikTok Shop. “Our level fundamentally represents this caller shopping exemplary wherever intermezo drives the find of these brands, of these products, successful a really scalable way.”
Nommensen reports the number of U.S. brands connected TikTok Shop astir doubled past twelvemonth to 215,000, while income wrong the U.S. jumped 120%. The executive declined to stock a dollar measurement pinch Forbes, but independent analytics patient EchoTik estimates TikTok Shop generated $19 cardinal successful worldwide income successful July done September of 2025, astir adjacent to the $20 cardinal income that took spot connected eBay successful the 3rd 4th of 2025.
By contrast, Amazon had an estimated 1.9 cardinal 3rd statement sellers (including 1.1 cardinal successful the U.S.) arsenic of early 2025, according to estimates from Red Stag Fulfillment. Third statement sellers accounted for $575 cardinal successful full income past twelvemonth connected Amazon, retired of much than $830 cardinal successful full sales, according to Marketplace Pulse.
But immoderate independent sellers are happy to talk up TikTok Shop arsenic a imaginable competitor to Amazon–and 1 pinch little fees. Eugene Khayman, laminitis of e-commerce waste and acquisition group Million Dollar Sellers, is spearheading a campaign to effort to seduce Amazon to lighten up connected fees it levies connected sellers. He points retired that during an arena hosted by TikTok successful Los Angeles past fall, it celebrated reaching eBay income levels, and said executives cited soul TikTok data, which showed the level matching eBay’s capacity aft conscionable 2 years of operations. “They were talking about, ‘Hey, we took complete eBay successful 2 years,’” he recalls. “So they are naming different (platforms) and they are trying to turn marketplace share.”
Amazon sellers mention different reasons they for illustration TikTok Shop successful summation to its expertise to make sanction marque recognition. “If you usage Fulfilled by TikTok, they person overmuch little fees than Fulfilled by Amazon,” Himmel says, referring to logistics services by some platforms utilized by e-commerce pros for storing and shipping inventory. “And their retention fees are overmuch little arsenic well.”
Plus, TikTok makes it easy to pass straight pinch consumers, peculiarly done livestreams, aggregate sellers told Forbes. Amazon, they say, has deliberately erected barriers for mini brands that may, for instance, want to inquire pinch a user arsenic to why a one-star reappraisal was near pursuing a purchase.
But Amazon, they say, successful summation to generating measurement much of their sales, has different advantages. For example, it offers acold amended user and merchandise information and study that sellers tin usage to measure what’s moving and what isn’t.
The TikTok buzz is specified that moreover immoderate mini businesses that don’t waste online are now utilizing regular TikTok accounts (as opposed to TikTok Shop aliases TikTok ads) to raise their profiles.
A brace of restaurateurs catering a TikTok-sponsored arena successful Denver successful July told Forbes that they’d generated attraction and much customers simply by posting videos. “This is free marketing,” said Alejandro Flores-Muñoz, proprietor of Combi Taco Catering, who has been posting since 2021. At first he tried employing video creators, but recovered it was much businesslike and cheaper to do the activity himself. “Every azygous point you do successful your business is content,” he observes.
Tyler Kanwai said he started posting successful 2021 for his Denver restaurant, TK’s Surf and Turf Kitchen, and credits it pinch expanding his customer guidelines by arsenic overmuch arsenic 50%. “TikTok puts you successful the room pinch everybody successful the world,” he says, adding that he besides utilizes different societal media platforms, but nary person provided the results that TikTok has to date. “Instagram, they’re successful the backmost seat. TikTok is up front, driving.” The app has done truthful good for Kanwai that he’s begun an unofficial postulation of personage sightings and autographed photos astatine his restaurant, and is often recognized connected the street. “I’m TikTok famous,” he laughs.
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