A TikTok Shop-sponsored survey indicates it stands as the foremost avenue for shoppers to uncover new products. However, e-commerce merchants deeply embedded in the platform note that consumers frequently complete their purchases elsewhere. Jared Mortensen leveraged TikTok Shop to forge a connection with customers of his underwear brand, Real Men Apparel.
As early as 2023, Jared Mortensen witnessed TikTok Shop's potential firsthand in Guangzhou, China. While touring factories producing underwear for Real Men Apparel, he visited a friend selling women's clothing to Chinese customers. This friend was livestreaming on Douyin, the social platform under ByteDance, which was TikTok's parent company at the time. "They were moving $60,000 to $70,000, even $80,000 an hour in women's apparel," Mortensen recalled. "I thought, 'Wow, this is like printing money.'"
After returning to his home in Wichita, Kansas, Mortensen launched a TikTok Shop account for his brand in October 2023, just a month after the shopping platform debuted in the United States. Today, his 25-person team includes 11 streamers and content creators, and he has partnered with roughly 2,000 independent TikTok influencers to produce promotional videos for his line of underwear. The brand's underwear features a support pouch with sizing from A to D, similar to women's bra sizing, and influencers earn a commission based on the sales they drive. Concurrently, Mortensen hosts livestreams from his home, engaging directly with consumers through TikTok.
"This allows us to compete with big brands," he said. "They can't interact with customers this way or achieve this level of engagement. All their content has to pass legal and marketing reviews, so they can't have this kind of pure, authentic interaction."
The interaction needs to be both authentic and substantial. "With TikTok, you have to post a lot of content, at a very fast pace," Mortensen noted. "You have to cast a wide net, experiment, and see which content takes off." His experiments have been diverse, including videos testing what items the Real Men pouch can hold, such as a jar of salsa or a butternut squash. "It's essentially entertainment content," Mortensen admitted. "No one browses Amazon for fun, but people scroll TikTok for entertainment."
But do people actually make purchases on TikTok? Even with Real Men's sophisticated TikTok content operation, only 15% of its $10 million in annual sales comes from TikTok Shop. Amazon accounts for 50%, and the brand's website contributes 35%. Still, Mortensen praises TikTok, saying, "It saved my business." He noted that during a cash flow crisis in late 2023 and early 2024, TikTok boosted brand awareness, driving sales growth across all channels.
Michael Corrigan, founder and CEO of Trtl, a Glasgow-based ergonomic travel pillow brand with about 60% of sales in the U.S., shared a similar experience. He joined Amazon in 2015 and added TikTok Shop last summer, projecting $40 million in sales this year. "Current sales breakdown is roughly: Amazon 50%, our website 45%, and TikTok Shop 5%," he said. "But I attribute growth in other channels to TikTok Shop."
Brandon Himmel, founder of Ruff Liners, a Houston-based pet products brand specializing in car and truck seat covers, pet beds, protective pads, and hammocks, agrees. "I think TikTok is actually driving incremental sales to Amazon," he said. Since promoting the brand on TikTok Shop in late 2024, searches for "Ruff Liners" on Amazon have surged 26%. "The brand was doing $6 million a month; now it's $8 million," Himmel stated. "The content we create on TikTok drives a large number of consumers to search for our products on Amazon." Himmel mentioned that his top influencers can earn up to $23,000 per month, primarily from sales commissions and performance bonuses.
TikTok Shop is currently reinforcing its role as a marketing hub for small brands, rather than positioning itself as an Amazon rival. A recent survey commissioned by TikTok Shop and conducted by research firm GlobalData, involving 6,000 Americans, found that 67% of online shoppers discover new products and brands through TikTok. In comparison, 57% use Amazon, 35% use search engines, 34% visit physical stores, 26% use YouTube, and 24% use Instagram. Additionally, among respondents who discovered new brands on TikTok in the past year, 72% said they found small brands, defined as those with annual sales under $15 million.
"TikTok has truly become a launchpad for a new generation of merchants, content creators, and startups," said Patrick Nommensen, head of strategic initiatives at TikTok Shop. "Our platform represents a new shopping model: entertainment-driven brand and product discovery with immense scalability." Nommensen revealed that the number of U.S. brands joining TikTok Shop nearly doubled last year to 215,000, with domestic U.S. sales surging 120% year-over-year. He declined to disclose specific sales figures, but independent analytics firm EchoTik estimates TikTok Shop generated $19 billion in global sales from July to September 2025, roughly on par with eBay's $20 billion during the same period. In contrast, fulfillment service provider Red Stag Fulfillment estimates Amazon had about 1.9 million third-party sellers as of early 2025, including 1.1 million U.S.-based sellers. Marketplace Pulse data shows Amazon's total sales exceeded $830 billion last year, with third-party sellers contributing $575 billion.
Many independent sellers, however, are happy to view TikTok Shop as a potential competitor to Amazon, particularly highlighting the former's lower platform fees. Eugene Khayman, founder of the e-commerce industry group Million Dollar Sellers, is leading an initiative urging Amazon to reduce seller fees. He recalled a TikTok event in Los Angeles last fall celebrating the platform's sales matching eBay, where TikTok executives cited internal data showing the platform reached eBay's level in just two years of operation. "Their message was, 'Look, we caught up to eBay in just two years,'" Khayman recalled. "They're clearly benchmarking against other platforms and aggressively pursuing market share."
Beyond brand awareness, several Amazon sellers note TikTok Shop offers other appealing advantages. Himmel said, "Using TikTok's Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT), the fees are much lower than Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), and storage costs are significantly cheaper." FBT and FBA refer to the warehousing and delivery services provided by the two platforms for e-commerce sellers. Additionally, multiple sellers mentioned that TikTok makes it easy for brands to communicate directly with consumers, with livestream interactions being particularly effective. Amazon, by contrast, creates barriers for small brands; for instance, contacting a consumer to ask about a one-star review is nearly impossible within Amazon's system.
Sellers also acknowledge Amazon's other advantages beyond its dominant sales contribution, such as more robust consumer data, product metrics, and analytics, which help sellers clearly assess their operational strategies. Attracted by TikTok's massive traffic, even some small businesses that don't sell online are using regular TikTok accounts, without opening shops or running ads, to boost brand exposure. In July, two restaurant owners who hosted a TikTok-sponsored event in Denver told Forbes that posting short videos alone generated significant attention and increased foot traffic. "It's free marketing," said Alejandro Flores-Muñoz, owner of Combi Taco Catering. He started his TikTok account in 2021, initially hiring content creators but later finding it more efficient and cost-effective to do it himself. "Any detail of your business can become content," he summarized.
Tyler Kanwai also began posting in 2021, showcasing his Denver restaurant TK's Surf and Turf Kitchen. He said TikTok has driven up to 50% of his restaurant's customer growth. "TikTok lets you connect directly with people around the world," he said. He runs other social platforms, but none match TikTok's effectiveness. "Instagram is just a bystander; TikTok is the real driver." Thanks to TikTok's popularity, Kanwai's restaurant has amassed an informal collection of celebrity visits and autographs, and he's often recognized on the street. "I'm somewhat of an influencer on TikTok now," he laughed.
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