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TikTok officially began its e-commerce efforts in the United States with the launch of TikTok Shop.
The short-form video platform launched an in-app shopping experience in the U.S. on Tuesday, the result of months of testing, according to the company's blog post. TikTok Shop allows users to find and directly purchase products used in live videos, or tagged content on their algorithm-driven "For You" page, pinned to brand profile pages, or marketed in a new "Shopping" tab.
For creators, this feature can generate new revenue streams by connecting them with brands and enabling commission-based marketing partnerships. TikTok also offers a program called "done by TikTok," which handles all of the seller's logistics, including storage, packaging, and shipping.
"With community-driven trends like #TikTok making me pay and inspiring people to discover and share products they love, TikTok is creating a new culture of shopping," the company wrote. "With TikTok Shop, we give people a place to experience the joy of discovering and buying new products without having to leave the app."
TikTok plans to quadruple its merchandise sales to $20 billion by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg.
The app's push for real-time e-commerce comes at a time when other platforms are having trouble shopping online.
Instagram, owned by Meta, removed live product tags and shopping features in March, as well as shopping tags in the app's navigation bar. Facebook also removed live shopping in October. YouTube, meanwhile, partnered with Shopify in 2022 to help creators sell products.
Since 2019, Amazon has been offering Amazon Live, a live streaming hub for selling goods through live video. Amazon Storefront, launched in 2018, also allows creators to create pages that bring together content and product recommendations to sell to followers for commissions.
TikTok Shop is already available in parts of Asia and the UK. Southeast Asia is one of the largest markets for TikTok users, with 630 million people, half of whom are under 30, with more than 325 million monthly visits, according to Reuters.
However, the platform has yet to translate its large user base into a major source of e-commerce revenue in the region, as it faces stiff competition from larger rivals such as Sea's Shopee, Alibaba's Lazada and GoTo's Tokopedia.
Last year, e-commerce transactions in the region reached nearly $100 billion, with Indonesia alone accounting for $52 billion, according to consulting firm Momentum Works.
Last year, TikTok brokered $4.4 billion in deals in Southeast Asia, up from $600 million in 2021 but still far behind Shopee's $48 billion in regional merchandise sales in 2022, Momentum Works told Reuters in June.
Making a breakthrough in the United States has proven more difficult. TikTok Shop has been in beta since last November.
The platform has previously abandoned its push for e-commerce. TikTok partnered with Shopify to experiment with a shopping experience in 2021, but it was unsuccessful, and in 2022 it was reported that TikTok completely abandoned live shopping in the US and Europe because it struggled to connect with consumers.
The renewed attempt to revive e-tailing in the U.S. comes at a time when the app is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers. Some critics and a growing number of U.S. lawmakers from both parties see TikTok as a national security threat because it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Some U.S. officials are concerned that the Chinese government may spy on U.S. data through TikTok, though so far there is no evidence that the Chinese government has ever accessed the personal information of U.S.-based TikTok users.