Though TikTok Shop faces the dual challenges of economic instability and a tenuous presence on US app stores, marketers are still taking advantage of its positioning as both a social platform and ecommerce engine.

“There isn't an exact replica for a TikTok shop,” said our analyst Jasmine Enberg in a “Behind the Numbers” episode. “It has this really unique blend of technology, media, and community. The way it has been able to drive sales would be really difficult for any platform to replicate.”

Meanwhile, sales growth hasn’t shielded TikTok Shop from the challenges facing other discount retailers. The marketplace reported 120% year-over-year sales growth in June, but US commerce traffic share attributed to TikTok dipped from 13.1% in May to 10.6% in June, per MikMak.

• TikTok Shop faced several ecommerce division cuts earlier this year after not meeting all of its sales targets, as reported by Business Insider.
• President Donald Trump gave the platform a 90-day sales extension in June.

Marrying discounts with creator-led commerce

TikTok Shop has established a reputation as a discount retailer, and the retailer is conducting its own version of Amazon’s Prime Day event with “Deals for You Days,” discounting all items by 50% from July 7 - 19.

• 52% of TikTok Shop customers cited deals as the top reason for making a purchase on the platform, per a May YouGov survey.

Tying discount shopping to direct creator-driven commerce has proved to be a promising formula for brands.

• Within the last month, Mammoth Brands’ Harry’s and Flamingo have posted to Linkedin that they are hiring a director of TikTok Shop.
• 56% of creator-driven shoppers have purchased a product directly from the platform’s shopping feature, per a March EMARKETER and impact.com survey.

Reframing TikTok for product discovery

Instead of treating TikTok Shop as a standalone sales channel, some brands are positioning it as a discovery engine within a broader, multi-platform commerce strategy. This approach lets marketers capitalize on TikTok’s influence without overcommitting to a platform facing regulatory headwinds.

CJ, Publicis Groupe’s affiliate marketing agency, just announced a first-party integration with TikTok Shop that now integrates the platform’s performance data with other affiliate channels like Amazon and DTC sites, according to a press release.

• Some 50% of US consumers take product recommendation suggestions from influencers on TikTok Shop, according to February 2024 data from PartnerCentric.

“[The integration is] supporting this wider industry shift that is rooted in data, and not necessarily making bets on channels,” Santi Pierini, CEO at CJ. “We’re able to get the halo effect of the discovery that’s happening on TikTok, and it just makes sense to try and optimize across all these channels.”

While brands are confident that creator partnerships drive sales, measuring performance is the top roadblock that marketers are facing when it comes to influencer marketing, per an August 2024 CreatorIQ survey.

Instead of pushing TikTok Shop as a necessary sales engine, CJ is instead pushing the importance of measurement across multiple platforms when understanding the consumer journey.

“We’re not saying that everyone needs to launch a TikTok shop,” said Kelly Harman, global VP at CJ influence, “but having this understanding of how all these different commerce elements work together is what we’re now able to bring to the table.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.