The news: TikTok Shop is looking to get more ad and commerce dollars from its sellers, according to a report by The Information.

• The platform is mandating that sellers buy ads using its new tool, GMV Max, in order to participate in Black Friday and other holiday promotions.
• At the same time, it is making it harder for sellers to drive sales to platforms outside its system. The company is limiting merchants’ ability to advertise videos linking to their websites and other outside sources.

The challenge: While the stricter policies are meant to boost ad spending on TikTok’s platform, they risk alienating sellers who view the channel as useful but nonessential.

• TikTok limits the amount of shopper data it shares with merchants, making it difficult for sellers to follow up with customers and build deeper, more profitable relationships.
• And sellers aren’t convinced by GMV Max. One told The Information that the tool is less effective at driving sales than previous ad tools because it only promotes select creator videos and takes too long to identify trending content that could be repurposed as ads.
• While TikTok is attempting to make GMV Max more appealing by guaranteeing a certain level of return on ads, that has led some sellers to spend more than anticipated in order to meet the minimum requirement.

Our take: TikTok’s attempts to tie sellers to its platform make sense given parent ByteDance’s ambitious US ecommerce goals—but such efforts will only be successful if TikTok can prove its importance as a sales channel.

• For the time being, TikTok is more important for brand-building than direct sales, while the company’s hold on customer data gives sellers less incentive to prioritize TikTok Shop storefronts.
• While nearly half of TikTok’s US users (45.5%) will make at least one purchase on the platform this year, growth is slowing significantly: We expect TikTok social buyer growth to slip below 10% this year and continue slowing into 2028.
• Rather than adding more hurdles for sellers, TikTok should seek ways to make its shopping platform more appealing—and stickier—to buyers.