TikTok is reporting that TikTok Shop’s U.S. sales have increased 120 percent in 2025 compared to the same period last year. However, this announcement was made as reports surfaced that TikTok owner ByteDance is disappointed that the U.S. performance of TikTok Shop is falling far short of its original tenfold growth goal to $17.5 billion in 2025. The company reportedly moved to “drastically lower that objective” prior to touting its performance this month. Meanwhile, President Trump recently extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok, pushing the cutoff to September 17.

ByteDance seems to be showing no signs of concern about TikTok facing a U.S. app store ban if the company does not sell its majority interest within the timeframe set by the U.S. government, as Bloomberg reports China-based ByteDance is replacing U.S. staffers based in Washington — home to corporate headquarters of online shopping giant Amazon — with managers tied to Beijing in hopes they can duplicate the social platform’s e-commerce success in Asia.

TikTok’s U.S. e-retail meetings previously transacted in English “are now often conducted in Mandarin and managers increasingly write in Chinese when communicating on Feishu, ByteDance’s internal Slack-like app, with English-speaking staff forced to rely on the built-in translation function,” Bloomberg writes.

TikTok is emphasizing the division’s achievements, claiming that in the past year TikTok Shop sellers have offered more than 70 million products across 750 categories.

“Today, millions of people are discovering products they love on TikTok through shoppable videos and live streams from sellers and creators who demonstrate how the products actually work and answer all your questions in real time,” TikTok explained in a news post.

But a YouGov study reported on in Retail Dive found that “celebrity and influencer recommendations are on their way out for TikTok Shop consumers,” who are now motivated more by discounts than social clout. The YouGov survey of over 1,000 U.S. adults found that “most transactions on TikTok Shop are smaller impulse buys,” with two in three purchasers spending under $50 in categories led by “apparel followed by electronics, home goods and food,” according to Retail Dive.

Social Media Today notes TikTok claims “brands and creators have hosted over 8 million hours of TikTok Live shopping sessions in the U.S.” with 76 percent of consumers “who’ve engaged with TikTok Shop” saying they bought something from a live stream in the past year.

Related:
Lionsgate Lets You Buy Movie Tickets to ‘Ballerina’ in the TikTok Shop, IndieWire, 5/22/25
QVC First with Live 24/7 Branded Shopping Stream on TikTok, ETCentric, 4/7/25
How TikTok Shop Is Beating Amazon and Temu in the Social Shopping Space, CNBC, 3/30/25
TikTok Shop Job Cuts Loom Amid Ban and Tariff Uncertainty, Pymnts, 5/21/25