TikTok Tests Live-Stream Shopping With Pacsun And Other U.S. Brands

While Instagram recently announced the end of its “Live Shopping” feature, TikTok continues to push on, activating the Shop tab on profiles of select U.S. retailers including Pacsun, Revolve, Three Little Mingos, KimChi Chic, and Willow Boutique.

Unlike the typical TikTok shopping process, which sends users to retailer websites, the platform's in-stream shopping experience happens in-app and includes a shop overview and purchase option.

TikTok Shop originally began testing in the U.S. this past November. However, the feature previously hit select markets, including Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore, as well as across Europe where it was relatively unpopular, especially in the U.K.

Livestream shopping continues to provide major revenue for TikTok's Chinese version, Douyin, but western audiences have been more skeptical. Some social apps have scaled back their in-stream shopping offerings in the West, with Instagram being the most recent to announce a rollback, which will be complete on March 16.

Still, Amazon continues to experiment with live shopping, and YouTube introduced new live shopping features in May that invite multiple creators to stream together.

<>While Coresight Research predicts revenue for livestream shopping in the U.S. will grow to $57 billion in 2025, up from $6 billion in 2020, (China's live streaming market is over $400 billion), the population remains unconvinced. Morning Consult's study from December found that almost 80% of Americans still had not participated in a live shopping event, with less than half saying they would consider doing so in the future.

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