The insight: TikTok Shop’s efforts to promote livestream shopping on its platform are beginning to deliver results for some brands.

• QVC gained over 100,000 customers in Q2 from TikTok Shop, the company said, validating efforts to reinvent itself as a “live social shopping company.”
• Roughly 85% of Pop Mart’s TikTok Shop sales in June originated from livestreams, per Modern Retail.
• Skincare company goPure’s 483 hours of TikTok Live content have generated $1 million in revenues and 64 million impressions, the brand told Glossy.
• Other brands, including Crocs and Pacsun, have also successfully used Lives to drive sales.

Consumers get used to livestream shopping: Though slow to take off, live shopping is now gaining traction thanks to TikTok Shop and specialized platforms like Whatnot and TalkShopLive, along with retailers’ efforts to promote live shopping.

• Brands and creators hosted over 8 million hours of livestream shopping sessions in the US in 2024, according to TikTok.
• That flood of content helped normalize the idea of live commerce: Three-quarters of consumers who engaged with TikTok Shop made a purchase from a livestream in the past year, per a GlobalData survey conducted for the social platform.
• While typically appealing to younger audiences like Gen Z, live shopping is becoming more popular among older consumers. QVC has seen healthy engagement on TikTok from women ages 45 and older, QVC Group president and chief growth officer Alex Wellen said at the VaynerX Live Shopping Summit in New York City. “I think we’re being foolish if we think they’re not buying at a significant rate on these different platforms,” he said.

Zoom out: The enthusiasm for live shopping is spreading beyond TikTok.

• Whatnot expects sales on its platform to exceed $6 billion this year, double its 2024 total, the company told the US Chamber of Commerce.
• Palmstreet, a live shopping app that specializes in rare plants, home décor, and other unique items, has sold 3 million orders in two years.
• eBay has “seen some great success” with its recently launched eBay Live format, CEO Jamie Iannone said in September, noting that it helps sellers build deeper connections with would-be buyers and increase interest in collectible categories.

The big picture: Live shopping continues to gain momentum, but the format is likely to remain a small share of social commerce sales for the foreseeable future.

• Despite its efforts, TikTok has been unable to get livestreaming to account for more than 30% of TikTok Shop revenues, according to Charm.io data shared with Modern Retail. The platform’s livestreaming share of sales reached 26% in July 2024; as of July 2025, that was down to 18%.
• More broadly, just 11% of creator-driven shoppers report having made a purchase from a creator’s livestream, according to our Global Creator Shopping Survey conducted with impact.com.

The expense and effort required to put on livestreams means that, for now, they are most effective as tools to boost awareness and build community, rather than as an outright sales driver. Brands that start incorporating livestreaming in their commerce plans will be poised to benefit as the format matures.