April 29, 2026
Americans are increasingly turning to TikTok Shop to buy shampoo, jewelry and apparel. Retailers have noticed, pushing onto the platform with their own virtual stores.
Ralph Lauren and Olaplex Holdings moved onto the platform late last year, while Ulta Beauty launched its store in March. They follow early adopters like Crocs, Revolve Group and L’Oréal in the race to capture scrolling shoppers. “You want to be where the consumer is, and increasingly, that’s obviously on social media and online,” said Olivia Tong, a managing director at Raymond James.
Executives also hope that getting in front of more shoppers through the popular app can help boost sales as higher prices for everything from gas to groceries have led some consumers to pull back on spending.
For Olaplex, TikTok was originally a place for hair care and beauty tutorials, but Chief Financial Officer Catherine Dunleavy said the brand is now adding to the educational content. By launching a dedicated storefront, the health and beauty company removes the friction of converting that interest into sales because shoppers don’t have to exit the platform, she said.
“Instead of having to leave TikTok Shop and go to our [website] or someplace else, they are able to purchase immediately,” said Dunleavy, who also serves as the company’s chief operating officer.
Since its U.S. debut in late 2023, TikTok Shop has surged in popularity. Consumers’ spending on the platform was up 46% in the first three months of this year compared with the previous year, according to data provider Consumer Edge. Retailers see TikTok Shop as a way to reach younger shoppers in particular, but older demographics were the fastest-growing segments early this year, with spending growth by those 45 and older outpacing younger cohorts, the data show.
The broader appeal has helped the platform drive $4.9 billion in U.S. sales during the first quarter, nearly doubling its volume from a year ago, according to e-commerce data provider Charm.io.
Still, TikTok Shop represented only about 1% of overall retail sales and 3% of e-commerce expenditures in the six months ended March 22, according to Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser at market-research firm Circana. But the footprint is expanding at a clip that could quadruple its total retail market share in a year and reach 10% in 2028, he said. “The consumer clearly has adopted TikTok as one of the few spaces of discovery and brand association,” Cohen said.
ThredUp has seen the willingness of consumers to spend on the platform. In January, the online thrift retailer began selling its “Clean Out Kits” on TikTok Shop. Typically, the company provides these bags, used to mail in items for potential sale, and deducts any fees from a user’s eventual payout.
On TikTok, the company opted for a different approach, charging an upfront $2.99 for the kits. The company sold over 100,000 in around two weeks, said Chief Financial Officer Sean Sobers. Of those who ordered the bags, which tend to fit up to 30 items, 98% were new to ThredUp. Executives hope they will now become ThredUp shoppers.
“What does it cost us to acquire a customer? It’s more than $3,” Sobers said.
Now, ThredUp executives are exploring whether to do a full-scale launch on TikTok Shop, though the platform poses a hurdle, Sobers said. Unlike traditional retailers, ThredUp’s inventory tends to include one-off items rather than stacks of identical products, making it more challenging to list goods in a live-selling environment.
Olaplex is expanding its reach as the company has grappled with declining sales and growing competition. Though net sales have been down for 10 of the last 12 quarters, they were up 4.3% in the three months ended Dec. 31. The company, which last month announced plans to be acquired by German consumer goods and chemical company Henkel, views this new shopping channel as a way to potentially boost sales in the long term.
“My expectation is that over time, it will be an incremental revenue driver,” Dunleavy said.
Despite its popularity, TikTok Shop still faces obstacles. While the platform’s future in the U.S. was secured earlier this year with an agreement that the app will be operated by a new U.S. entity, privacy concerns linger. Some shoppers remain wary of sharing payment data with an app that maintains ties to TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance.
Profitability is another sticking point. Analysts wonder whether TikTok’s culture of impulse buying might require heavy discounting to convert scrollers into customers. Constant promotion could also eat into retailers’ margins more than sales from traditional web storefronts, they said.
Revolve unveiled its TikTok storefront shortly after the feature launched in 2023. Since then, the platform has evolved into an important tool for brand discovery and a meaningful contributor to the company’s revenue, said Revolve co-founder and co-CEO Mike Karanikolas.
While the marketplace accounts for a fraction of Revolve’s $1.23 billion 2025 sales, Karanikolas views the volume as significant. “It’s still meaningful in the sense that, you know, it’s not nothing,” he said, declining to share specific figures on TikTok Shop sales.
Retailers that aren’t already selling on TikTok Shop are looking to figure out how it could work for them. Academy Sports & Outdoors is one of them. The sporting goods chain is developing a digital storefront that it plans to launch later this year, CFO Carl Ford said.
Ford views the platform as good for both brand discovery and revenue growth. By showcasing athletics gear and outdoor equipment directly on TikTok Shop, Academy aims to capture shoppers who might never visit a bricks-and-mortar location.
“I think there’s incrementality to it,” Ford said.