TikTok’s revised shopping push in Europe has now been activated, with the platform launching TikTok Shop in Spain as the first step of its broader eCommerce expansion.
Spanish retailers will now be able to host shopping live-streams in the app, while also getting access to product showcase features, affiliate programs, shop ads, and more.
TikTok views in-stream shopping as a key path to expanded monetization, based on the growth of its sister platform in China, though thus far, Western users have been less enthusiastic about shopping in-stream.
Though that is changing over time, and now, TikTok’s looking to make a bigger push to get more European users buying products, which could help to counter losses if it ends up being kicked out of the U.S.
The platform’s revised EU push comes after a failed attempt at the same back in 2022.
TikTok had originally planned to use the U.K. as the base for its European shopping push, but was forced to scale back that roll-out due to internal conflicts. Reports suggested that TikTok’s tough working conditions, modeled on its Chinese operations, had not been well received among U.K. staff, which eventually led to the replacement of local management.
That effectively derailed its broader eCommerce push, though lack of consumer interest was also a factor in its decision to scale back.
But now, with interest in in-stream shopping on a steady rise, TikTok is kicking off a bigger push from Spain, which it hopes will eventually see the app become a key player in the broader online shopping space.
As noted, TikTok’s hoping to follow the same roadmap that it did with the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, which now generates the majority of its income from in-stream shopping. In 2023, Douyin generated $US300 billion in sales. By comparison TikTok brought in $US3.8 billion in the same period.
More recently, however, TikTok reported a 3x increase in sales on Black Friday, which suggests that TikTok users are increasingly being enticed by in-stream offers. Not at the levels that they have been in China, but maybe, over time, as younger users continue to age up into more lucrative spending brackets, TikTok could still become a key online shopping destination, and maximize its revenue intake.
A ban in the U.S., however, would impact that. Which is another reason why TikTok needs this renewed EU push to work, because if it loses access to 170 million Americans, it’ll be reliant on Europe to make up the shortfall in lost revenue potential.
As such, you can expect to see TikTok put more emphasis on its EU shopping expansion in 2025, while it also waits on word in regards to its future in the U.S.
