TikTok continues its drive to make the app a shopping destination with the addition of more brands to its Shop initiative. The platform allows companies to sell their goods directly through the app with a full checkout experience. TikTok started testing Shop in the U.S. this past November, and we now know a few more brands that are part of the initial testing phase.

According to a report from Ad Age, this shopping experiment now accounts for several companies; among them are the apparel brands: PacSun, Revolve and Willow Boutique and beauty brand KimChi Chic. Users will have to tap the shopping bag icon seen on top of the brand's profile to see their catalogs and complete the checkout process all without leaving the TikTok app.

The company confirmed to TechCrunch that TikTok Shop in the United States is still in the testing phase, as it has since November, but didn't provide any information about a timeline for a wider launch.

Users have been able to purchase products from ads on TikTok for a while now, but they have always been sent to an in-app browser to complete the purchase. With the new TikTok Shop, however, customers are sent to check out within the app itself, making it feel more native and fluid. This is the same mechanism through which Instagram Shop operates.

Outside the U.S., TikTok Shop has been live in a handful of markets - including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore - for nearly a year. Earlier reports claimed that TikTok had canceled plans to launch Shop in the U.S. and further portions of Europe amid reports that the business wasn't quite taking off in the U.K. Still, TikTok must believe there is a business for Shop in the U.S. because it continues to test.

Beyond TikTok Shop, the company's also been investing in other shopping features. In March, the app teamed up with Instacart to allow food creators to create shoppable lists linked to recipe videos. Later in June, it started testing a dedicated shopping feed-a hub for products being sold in TikTok Shop-in select markets. It tested live shopping in various markets, including the U.K. and several Southeast Asia countries.

However, as TikTok begins to scale up its shopping features, competitors dial back a little on some of these efforts. Instagram, for instance, killed off its shop tab last January and has already dumped the live shopping attempts in its latest announcement this month. Facebook already ended live shopping back in August 2022. Meanwhile, Amazon also dabbled with live shopping through various markets. YouTube launched new features for this, which include two creators that can now simulcast live streams in shopping in early May.

Yet, so far, there is little evidence that these experiments are driving significant amounts of online commerce in Western markets, as they have in Asia. According to reports, social commerce accounts for just 5% of e-commerce sales in the U.S.

That might be because of cultural differences in how apps are used between markets. But it is also tough to track all the shopping conversions that come from the urge to buy a product in a social space. Actually, some of those e-commerce transactions may not be executed immediately through a direct link that a brand or creator has shared. However, the video content or the brand's ad might work to push a sale sometime down the line when the consumer is exposed to more digital ads or is searching for the product on Google or Amazon or indeed by visiting the retailer's website.

However, the phrase "TikTok made me buy it," has taken a life of its own to define the video app's propensity for driving impulse sales. In fact, the term has 7.4 billion views on TikTok, while the hashtag itself has racked up 42.6 billion. In-app shopping features could drive more of those sales, but also track them for brands and businesses, as well.