David Bridges
The in-stream sales initiative of TikTok is making progress, but the pace is not sufficient, prompting the platform to announce another round of layoffs within its U.S. eCommerce division.
According to a report by Bloomberg, TikTok has commenced its third wave of layoffs in the Shop department, following the platform’s inability to achieve its performance targets for 2024.
This indicates that the challenges faced must have been substantial.
Despite these setbacks, TikTok has consistently reported an increase in U.S. sales, boasting a remarkable threefold increase in sales during Black Friday last year. For the entire year of 2024, TikTok reportedly achieved approximately $30 billion in total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), marking a significant rise compared to 2023.
However, this growth is clearly insufficient for TikTok. The platform’s parent company, ByteDance, is actively pushing for a global expansion of its eCommerce features as it aims to replicate the success it has experienced with in-stream shopping in its home market. To this end, it has established ambitious sales targets, reflecting its past achievements.
In China, the local variant of TikTok, known as Douyin, has emerged as a dominant force in the shopping landscape, playing a crucial role in the nation’s ongoing shift towards online sales.
In fact, Douyin generated an astounding $490 billion in GMV in 2024, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 30%, with live-stream sales being the primary catalyst for the surge in in-stream shopping engagement.
Understanding this success, TikTok is eager to adopt a similar strategy, fully aware of the immense potential that lies ahead if it can execute its plans effectively. With hundreds of billions at stake, it is clear why TikTok is committed to enhancing its in-stream shopping capabilities, even as consumers in the West show a lukewarm response to the shopping features.
In pursuit of this goal, TikTok continues to introduce a variety of in-app sales tools and is expanding its Shop offerings to additional regions.
Recently, Japan has become the latest market to access TikTok Shop, making it the 17th region to do so. Given that Asian markets have demonstrated a greater willingness to embrace such innovations, Japan is likely to experience an uptick in the usage of TikTok’s in-stream shopping tools. In contrast, Western countries continue to exhibit hesitancy or a lack of interest in purchasing products directly through live-streams.
One possible explanation for this disparity is that Western consumers tend to prefer specialized functionalities within distinct applications. For instance, they may choose to shop on Amazon, connect with friends on Facebook, and enjoy videos on TikTok. This cultural divide seems to reflect a broader trend, wherein consumers in Asia are more receptive to integrating multiple functionalities into a single platform.
While the reasons for this consumer behavior remain unclear, no platform has yet successfully merged diverse functionalities on the scale that TikTok aspires to achieve with its shopping initiative.
Nonetheless, TikTok is undeterred. Just this week, it announced a series of upcoming shopping events tailored for U.S. consumers, including initiatives like “Shop Locally Made” and “Deals for You.”
Using the impressive consumer figures from China as a benchmark, it is evident why TikTok remains driven to push forward. It will be fascinating to observe how it navigates its expansion plans for shopping features to align with these ambitious objectives.
However, this expansion will now occur with a reduced workforce, although TikTok may seek to recruit experts from Douyin to support its promotional efforts.
Cameron Steel
Maya Kensington
