Although in-stream shopping push from TikTok hasn't gained the popularity it anticipated quickly, TikTok shopping continues to grow rapidly with more prospects for both the platform and merchants.

In fact, TikTok claims that "millions of items have been purchased from nearly half a million merchants and brands" in the app over the last year. And ahead of the holiday shove, TikTok's just rolled out new "Fall Deals For You" promotion to encourage even more shopping.
Throughout October, TikTok will provide various discounts on several thousands of trending products from many big brands.

According to TikTok:

From today onward, brands like Phillips, Dyson, Keurig, e.l.f. Cosmetics, NYX cosmetics, Tarte Cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and Pacsun are offering fantastic deals on TikTok Shop. TikTok has streamed various live shopping events, including the launch of Glamlite's exclusive Michael Myers Collection and DJ-turned-hobby-influencer Steve Aoki sharing trading card deals.

This will again help TikTok build more momentum behind its push for in-app shopping, a thrust that remains a key focus for the platform in building on its revenue opportunities.
This is because it's already done it in China, where in-stream sales are now by far the most significant driver of revenues in the Chinese version of the app.

Douyin, TikTok for Chinese users, raked in more than $374 billion in sales from its product last year. However, that is likely to grow up close to 50% this year to around $548 million, underlining the massive momentum that Douyin has tapped into for in-app sales.

Compared to this, reportedly total spending in the app was $3.8 billion across 2023. That's "billion" with a "b", so it's still an enormous number, but comparatively, there's a chasmic gap between the two platforms.

One of the more significant drivers to Douyin's in-stream shopping growth has been the incredibly popular activity of live-stream influencers selling directly in real-time, and increasingly more of these are actually AI characters that can stream in the app 24/7.
TikTok has attempted to tread in the same footsteps by introducing more and more in-stream purchasing opportunities in a bid to repeat the same success. However, so far, Western users are still very skeptical about buying products within social apps and it does not seem likely that the AI influencers, which TikTok is now also testing with some brands, will achieve the same impact.

So why do these trends take off in China and flop elsewhere?

I don't really know, but some might view the Chinese Government's increased scrutiny of local companies as providing a degree of comfort to such processes. Anyway, Chinese consumers have always been far more eager to embrace technological advances while the commodities sold through Douyin clearly have an attraction for locals here.

Online shopping acceptance just hasn't been quite as easily embraced elsewhere in the world.
It was supposed to be at least; following COVID forced many more into e-commerce, and experts had warned that this would further accelerate the trend in digital shopping. It didn't. Once the physical stores were open again, most people returned to business as usual. And while adoption is increasing year-over-year, the momentum with which Chinese shoppers have jumped on board is nowhere close.

Which doesn't bode well for TikTok's success in this regard, but again, with such high sales and revenue numbers in China, you can see why TikTok is keen to keep pushing this element.

Maybe there'll be a tipping point at some stage, and things will shift, and over time, more and more younger users are growing more accustomed to online buying.

But it sure looks like it will take a while. And with TikTok being at risk of an outright ban in the United States, it may not be in the position of waiting.