The news: TikTok commerce traffic has trended down throughout 2025 amid uncertainty about the app’s future in the US, per Industry KPI data from MikMak.

In January, TikTok held 12.5% of the average monthly US commerce traffic share. It dipped slightly to 11.5% in February before peaking at 14.8% in March. Since then, its share has fallen steadily, reaching 10.6% in June, the lowest level so far this year.

Tightening the screws: TikTok faces tough scrutiny from parent company ByteDance after TikTok Shop failed to meet its goals last year. Business Insider reported that the company is laying off staff, imposing travel restrictions, and tightening return-to-office rules.

Like its China ecommerce peers Temu and Shein, TikTok has already felt a hit from tariffs. TikTok Shop also enforced new requirements for payments and supporting documentation for products shipped to the US. Its US sales fell sharply, from $290.8 million in the last week of March 2025 to $197.4 million in the second week of April, per data from tracking platform EchoTik cited by the South China Morning Post.

TikTok did get some good news this month: President Donald Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell the short-form video service to a US buyer by another 90 days so that the app can keep operating in the US.

Our take: Though Trump’s extension gives TikTok more time to reach a deal, it does little to ease the internal disruption from ByteDance’s austerity measures. Wider economic pressures, including new tariffs and the elimination of the de minimis exemption, could hinder TikTok Shop’s success given the company’s reliance on low-cost imported goods.

With operational and trade-related challenges piling up, the popular app could face an uphill battle turning its US commerce business performance around.

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