TikTok Shop Small Business Sales Jumped 66% in 2025 as the Platform Outpaces Amazon for Product Discovery
TikTok Shop reported that U.S. small business sales on its platform grew 66% in 2025 compared to the prior year, with more than 215,000 small businesses now actively selling on the platform. The figures come alongside a new GlobalData report commissioned by TikTok Shop, based on a survey of 6,000 U.S. consumers ages 16 and older conducted in April and May 2026. For small and independent sellers watching where to invest their time and resources, the data makes a case worth examining closely.
The Numbers Behind the Growth
TikTok Shop defines small businesses as sellers with less than $15 million in annual revenue. The platform now has more than 215,000 such businesses actively selling in the U.S., up 25% year over year. Wikipedia
The figures update what TikTok Shop disclosed a year earlier, when the platform posted 70% small-seller sales growth and 171,000 active small-business sellers on the U.S. marketplace. The seller base has expanded by roughly 44,000 small businesses in the year since. CBIZ
The broader platform numbers reinforce the trend. According to e-commerce analytics firm Charm.io, TikTok Shop generated roughly $6.75 billion in U.S. sales from January through April 2026, nearly doubling its sales during the same period a year earlier. TikTok Shop exceeded $14 billion in U.S. sales in 2025, making it larger than Wayfair, Etsy, and eBay by that measure.
Discovery Is the Platform's Biggest Edge
The GlobalData report makes a pointed argument about where TikTok Shop stands relative to Amazon when it comes to how consumers find new products. The study found that 67% of consumers go to TikTok Shop when they want to discover new products and brands, ahead of Amazon at 57%. It also found that 66% of TikTok Shop users discovered a new brand on the platform during the past year. TariffsTool
Small businesses captured most of that discovery activity. About 72% of the brands discovered by TikTok Shop users over the past 12 months were small businesses pulling in less than $15 million in annual revenue. About 58% of respondents who discovered a small business on TikTok Shop later bought from that company on the platform. More than half made a purchase within days of discovery, while roughly one in five bought something the same day they found the brand. TariffsTool
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told Modern Retail that TikTok Shop still operates differently from traditional online marketplaces because shopping is built directly into the app's endless stream of short videos and livestreams. “The platform is sticky because I think it fuses retail with entertainment,” Saunders said.
Creators Remain the Engine
Creator recommendations continue to drive a significant share of purchasing activity on the platform. The GlobalData report found that 70% of TikTok Shop consumers have purchased a product recommended by a creator, and 88% of shoppers who buy through creator recommendations did so within the past year.
Saunders noted that smaller brands often perform well because founders appear in their own videos and speak directly to their audiences. “One of the things that really helps the smaller brands on TikTok Shop is authenticity,” he said. “What a lot of the users want and what better algorithms surface is great storytelling, great narratives, really authentic content that resonates.”
Real Sellers, Real Numbers
The growth figures are not abstract for the sellers behind them. Megan Reep, founder of Mavwicks Fragrances, said TikTok Shop transformed her business. Before joining the platform, her fragrance company generated roughly $300,000 to $400,000 in annual sales. “The first year we were on TikTok Shop, we jumped to $32 million in sales,” she said.
Connecticut-based BumpaBuilt started selling 3D-printed toys on TikTok Shop in 2023. Founder Adam Rivard said the business grew from one printer to 70 printers within months after several videos took off. The company now sells products through more than 250 independent retailers, as well as its own brick-and-mortar storefront. Mississippi Candle Company saw similar momentum, growing more than 600% year over year after one candle video went viral. The business now employs more than 20 people and is building a 20,000-square-foot warehouse.
New Selling Formats Expanding Opportunity
TikTok Shop is also rolling out formats that give sellers more ways to drive sales beyond standard video posts. Patrick Nommensen, head of strategic initiatives at TikTok Shop, pointed to countdown bidding and shoppable photos as two areas of active investment. Countdown bidding, which lets sellers auction products during livestreams using a timer, recently expanded beyond collectibles and pre-owned luxury goods into more categories, putting TikTok Shop in more direct competition with live-shopping platforms like Whatnot. Shoppable photos allow users to purchase products directly from image posts without watching a video.
The results are already notable. Dani Morgan's Boutique, a Western-inspired brand specializing in handcrafted cowhide handbags, generated $100,000 in sales from a single 15-hour live session using countdown bidding.
What This Means for E-Commerce Sellers
The data presents a clear argument for small sellers who have not yet tested TikTok Shop: the platform is generating real sales for businesses that look nothing like the beauty and apparel brands that dominated its early years. Beauty and personal care still accounts for roughly 19% of TikTok Shop's U.S. sales, with womenswear at around 12.5%, but breakout sellers now include hobby brands, home goods, candles, fragrances, and 3D-printed toys.
The discovery advantage over Amazon is also worth noting directly. If 67% of consumers turn to TikTok Shop first when looking for new products, and 72% of the brands they find are small businesses, then the platform is functioning as an organic acquisition channel in a way that paid search alone cannot replicate. That does not mean abandoning other channels. It does mean that a well-executed TikTok Shop presence, built around authentic video content and consistent live selling, now represents one of the more measurable growth levers available to independent sellers in 2026.
