• by Colin Kirkland , December 5, 2024

On Black Friday, TikTok’s in-app ecommerce platform garnered over $100 million in sales -- reflecting a 3x increase year-over-year and a notable shift in the way consumers from the West are now approaching live shopping.

“Fueled by both familiar and new creators within TikTok’s extensive community, there were over 4 billion #tiktokshopblackfriday views and 3.5 billion #tiktokshopcybermonday across the platform,” the company says.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, TikTok Shop saw a 165% increase in shoppers year-over-year, with a third of all purchases made during the company's three-week-long holiday shopping campaign going to small and medium-sized businesses.

According to the ByteDance-owned company, the top-selling brands this year mostly belonged in the makeup, skincare, and apparel categories, including Crocs, Rhina USA, Fenty Beauty, Medicube, Liquid I.V., Comfrt, Estee Lauder, and The Ordinary.

TikTok says fragrances, menswear, indoor furniture, kitchen appliances, fitness items and sporting equipment were also popular shopping categories on the platform.

In terms of Live shopping -- an ecommerce format that is particularly popular in certain Asian regions -- TikTok says that brands and creators hosted half a million Live shopping session, totaling over 660k hours.

Per the holiday campaign, which promised to offer exclusive live shopping deals, rapper/singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj had the highest-viewed Live in history, with over 172 million viewers tuning in during the course of her “Pink Friday Nails Live.” The livestream garnered over 115 million likes.

Other major sellers included first-time live-streamer @kaansanity, who made over $102K in sales in 10 hours, and CEO and founder of Canvas Beauty Brand Stormi Steele, who surpassed $2 million in sales during her Black Friday Live, setting a record for the highest sales during a single livestream.

For years, TikTok has been trying to translate its sister company Douyin's live shopping successes in China but has struggled to interest a significant number of users from Europe and the U.S. in the initiative. Last year, for example, Douyin generated over $500 billion in product sales, while TikTok generated less than $4 billion.

However, this year's holiday shopping campaign highlights a notable shift in consumer shopping methods.

Live shopping, in particular, may become a more significant area of focus for more Western brands.