TikTok is reportedly looking to launch its in-app shopping tools in Spain and Ireland as it continues to push its in-stream shopping, in hopes of extracting more revenue from the app.
As reported by Bloomberg, TikTok is trying to re-kickstart its EU shopping push after a failed acceleration last 2022, as it begins a bigger push into these two markets.
According to Bloomberg:

"TikTok" informed partners such as merchants and creator agencies in recent weeks to get ready for a TikTok Shop debut in the two countries, according to people familiar with the matter. The rollout will be smaller than originally envisioned, though preparations are underway to roll the portal out to other parts of Europe next year.

As mentioned above, TikTok had attempted to make a fuller eCommerce play in Europe from its U.K. base last year, but was forced to row back that launch due to internal conflict.

This had led to reports suggesting that the hardcore working conditions, modeled after its Chinese operations, had not been well received among U.K. staff, which eventually led to a replacement of local management. That then derailed its broader eCommerce push, though lack of consumer interest was also a factor in its decision to scale back.

But now, with in-app spending on the rise, TikTok sees a new opportunity to connect with EU shoppers.

TikTok recently announced that there are now 15 million sellers on the app, across a wide range of markets, while in the UK specifically, it has now become the second-largest online beauty and wellness retailer.

Opportunity, therefore, exists there, if TikTok gets it right; and it is now looking to streamline the processes while building on in-app spending habits to expand on its steadily increasing market share.

Although it's growing at a pace that's far slower than its Chinese cousin TikTok did when it launched in China .

According to reports, the parent company of Douyin reported sales of over $US300 billion in 2023 alone. In comparison, the global version, TikTok, raked in $US3.8 billion in the same period.

Douyin is still seeing an increase in volume and will do so for some time to come.
Douyin had only managed to generate $US5.8 billion in sales in 2019, but it has already reached $387 billion just four years later. And when you consider that TikTok's currently at $US3.8 billion, you can see why parent company ByteDance sees more extended opportunity but at the same time, Western audiences, in general, remain resistant to social media commerce, and haven't shown the same interest in buying in-stream that Asian users have.
That's also reflected on TikTok itself: Users in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are increasingly embracing the shop-related initiatives offered on the app. Still, in non-Asian markets, it does seem a harder sell.

Why that is nobody knows, but many Western consumers seem to be less enamored with buying through social apps and more aligned with heading to dedicated shopping portals, like Amazon, for shopping activity.

Example: TikTok recently launched its first "Deals For You" event to compete with Amazon's "Prime Day". Yet it failed to take off.

ModernRetail said:

For third-party sellers outside Amazon, gross merchandise volume rose 3% year over year during the two-day period of Amazon's Prime Day sale in the United States, while gross merchandise growth was down 6% during the TikTok Deals for You Days event of July 9-17.

In the U.S., of course, there will even be some backlash and concerns from consumers due to its potential links to the CCP, which the latter has even been subjected to a mandatory sell-off bill by the U.S. Government as regards the app.

That probably made many users hesitant to upload their payment information, although this will also apply to other Western regions where the data sharing and usage activities of TikTok have been in question.

So, it never seems to get anywhere near an eCommerce powerhouse on the same par as Douyin. But it's going to try certainly, and even though I cannot envision this potentially being a turning point, the evidence does prove that TikTok could potentially become a larger retail presence, and at least within specific sectors, a bigger brand consideration.

Will this new shopping push by the EU bring in big results? Probably not, but take-up of this kind can be meaningful even on a small scale.