To buy or not to buy? TikTok Shop might just be the perfect answer to that age-old question.
An answer that, according to The Influencer Marketing Factory, goes like this: ‘a user watching a live TikTok stream showcasing a new skincare product can add the item to their cart in real-time, complete their purchase during the stream, and continue watching without interruption.’
In short, TikTok Shop is every salesperson’s dream – once a customer buys, they don’t disappear. They stay engaged, so you can keep selling to them.
As consumer expert Kate Hardcastle told The Daily Telegraph, ‘TikTok is offering a blend of entertainment and e-commerce that we have not seen before. It is the gamification of shopping, and it is shaking up the industry completely.’
The numbers back her up. In 2025, approximately 24.8 million UK users, aged 18 and above, use TikTok. According to UKOM, the UK’s online measuring body, an astonishing 54% of the UK population now uses the platform every month. And there are over 200,000 active businesses on TikTok Shop. That’s a whole lot of customers. And a whole lot of shops. Over 6,000 TikTok Shop ‘Lives’ are hosted in the UK every single day. (QVC-style online retail events.)
Intriguingly, Jan Wilk, Head of TikTok Shop UK, sees the platform as taking retail back to the future, ‘Shoppable videos and LIVE shopping reignite personal connections and real-time interactions once core to traditional shopping,’ are ‘making it easy for sellers to engage with thousands or even millions of customers.’
Not so much one-to-one selling, then. More one to a million. But – and this is key – within each transaction, the buyer still senses and feels that priceless personal connection with the seller. The kind that, in the old bricks and mortar world, brought people back, time after time, to high street stores.
This face-to-face immediacy taps into the psychology of impulse buying, making it easier for users to act on their interests the moment inspiration strikes. Even better, there are no barriers to purchase. No awkward user journey involving clicking on other links, or lonely products left unsold in digital carts.
“The main thing is the convenience,” one TikTok Shop superfan told The Telegraph, “With TikTok, it’s such a simple and easy way to buy stuff. It’s just a tap of the finger.”
Influencer Marketing Factory again, ‘At the core of TikTok Shop’s success is its ability to capitalize on TikTok’s unique algorithm and user behaviour. Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms that rely on search-driven interactions….users naturally encounter products through entertaining and relatable videos.’
Historically, many companies have succeeded in creating lively online communities of fans around their brands, what TikTok Shop does is turn those fans into customers. To buy or not to buy? Buy, of course. When you’re having so much fun, why wouldn’t you?