This Black Friday, TikTok Shop will be one of the most important storefronts for retailers.
By mid-October, your Black Friday plan has probably already been signed off: hero products selected, discounts agreed and creative ready to go. But does TikTok Shop feature in that plan? If not, you could be overlooking one of the most important commerce channels of 2026.
Social commerce is growing around five times faster than traditional commerce in the UK, with TikTok Shop accounting for 53% of UK social commerce of UK social commerce spending in 2025.
The opportunity is much bigger than any other product discovery channel. TikTok Shop is becoming an entire high street, and like traditional commerce, the busiest period is just weeks away.
Shoppers have stopped searching, instead they’re scrolling.
For the last twenty years, ecommerce has run on intent. The shopper knows what they want, type it into the search bar, and brands fight over search result rankings. This model still works, but it isn’t where the growth is.
Today, 71% of TikTok users say they discover new brands on TikTok “all the time” or frequently”. Social media is now tied with physical stores as the top place for people to discover holiday gifts and the old funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase has transformed into a single moment: a 30-second video, one tap, and done.
There is an even bigger shift... trust. Gen Z is twice as likely to trust a creator, with 2 in 5 stating that TikTok Creators introduce them to new products and 39% more likely to purchase from a brand when a creator uses it. These promotions aren’t necessarily slicker, but they are more authentic. A slightly shaky video of someone using your product in their own bathroom feels far more honest than the campaign you spent six figures on.
This means that the brands winning on TikTok Shop aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets, they win by being the name that real creators are happy to vouch for, and by running a shop that never lets a customer down.
Two engines to win BFCM: creators and LIVE
TikTok shop isn’t as complex as it sounds, strip away all the noise and it runs largely on two engines.
Engine one: an army of affiliates
Most of the revenue isn’t actually coming from your own account or ads on TikTok Shop, affiliate creators are one of the top drivers and affiliate programmes can drive up to 75% of TikTok Shop GMV. Creator management should be treated as a serious sales operation.
Here are some tips for building this engine:
- Build a commission ladder and raise rates as creators hit sales milestones, reward your best performers and give them incentives to continue pushing your products.
- Be flexible: the biggest creators will want a base fee plus commission, if the numbers stack up, pay it.
- Add time-limited bonuses during cyber week to create urgency on the creator side, not just for shoppers.
Beauty of Joseon: A THG Commerce Case Study
When the K-Beauty brand launched on TikTok Shop UK, it didn’t wait for creators to find it. The team made more than 11,500 creator outreaches in just 28 days.
The result: £100k GMV in the first month, with 68% of revenue driven by affiliates. That’s what a creator-first launch looks like when it’s done properly.
Engine two: TikTok LIVE
If affiliates bring reach, LIVE brings conversion. BFCM 2025 really proved TikTok LIVE as a major conversion driver with brands using the platform experiencing 84% sales growth. Over the period, shoppers tuned into over 760K livestream sessions hosted by sellers and their favourite creators, generating over 1.6 billion views.
But why does it work?
It taps into how people actually make decisions, viewers see real-time comments, viewer counts and “someone just bought this” alerts. It is live social proof on a scale no product page could match, and limited stock. Flash offers actively trigger the feeling of FOMO and a host who has built rapport for an hour (or 10) becomes someone that viewers trust, as demonstrated by P.Louise, who generated £2 million in GMV during a record-breaking 14-hour LIVE held at our very own THG Studios.
One lesson that many brands miss however: TikTok LIVE isn’t just for Christmas. It's a series, not a one-off show, and one big stream on Black Friday with no build up is a gamble. It's important to build a cadence of weekly streams in the lead up, training the algorithm, building a returning audience by gaining their trust and loyalty.
St Tropez: A THG Commerce Case Study
A strong brand identity matters on TikTok Shop just as much as it does on any other platform, it helps brands stand out in a crowded market and build an audience that genuinely connects with them.
St. Tropez shows how a heritage brand can earn its place in the feed. Self-tan is naturally suited to short-form video, where the transformation is the story, but by putting creators and product demonstrations at the centre of its TikTok Shop strategy, rather than simply repurposing polished brand advertising, St. Tropez has shown that an established name can feel native to the platform.
By staying true to its identity, the brand has created a TikTok Shop presence that reflects the look, feel and lifestyle customers already associate with St. Tropez, but in a new form. Its live shopping experience becomes a natural extension of the brand, taking both loyal and new customers from discovery and education through to purchase.
The feed is now the shop floor
TikTok Shop isn’t a channel brands can test from the sidelines, if you aren’t using it already, then you’re behind. During black Friday 2025, sales on TikTok Shop UK were 50% higher than the previous year, with 27 products sold every second at the platform’s peak. LIVE shopping sales also increased by 68%, while the number of creators generating sales grew by 55%.
It isn’t enough to simply upload your product catalogue and wait for sales, you need to build your creator network, develop a consistent LIVE presence and make sure every part of the experience works once demand arrives.
The feed is now the shop floor; the question is whether your brand is ready to open.
This Black Friday, TikTok Shop will be one of the most important storefronts for retailers.
By mid-October, your Black Friday plan has probably already been signed off: hero products selected, discounts agreed and creative ready to go. But does TikTok Shop feature in that plan? If not, you could be overlooking one of the most important commerce channels of 2026.
Social commerce is growing around five times faster than traditional commerce in the UK, with TikTok Shop accounting for 53% of UK social commerce of UK social commerce spending in 2025.
The opportunity is much bigger than any other product discovery channel. TikTok Shop is becoming an entire high street, and like traditional commerce, the busiest period is just weeks away.
Shoppers have stopped searching, instead they’re scrolling.
For the last twenty years, ecommerce has run on intent. The shopper knows what they want, type it into the search bar, and brands fight over search result rankings. This model still works, but it isn’t where the growth is.
Today, 71% of TikTok users say they discover new brands on TikTok “all the time” or frequently”. Social media is now tied with physical stores as the top place for people to discover holiday gifts and the old funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase has transformed into a single moment: a 30-second video, one tap, and done.
There is an even bigger shift... trust. Gen Z is twice as likely to trust a creator, with 2 in 5 stating that TikTok Creators introduce them to new products and 39% more likely to purchase from a brand when a creator uses it. These promotions aren’t necessarily slicker, but they are more authentic. A slightly shaky video of someone using your product in their own bathroom feels far more honest than the campaign you spent six figures on.
This means that the brands winning on TikTok Shop aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets, they win by being the name that real creators are happy to vouch for, and by running a shop that never lets a customer down.
Two engines to win BFCM: creators and LIVE
TikTok shop isn’t as complex as it sounds, strip away all the noise and it runs largely on two engines.
Engine one: an army of affiliates
Most of the revenue isn’t actually coming from your own account or ads on TikTok Shop, affiliate creators are one of the top drivers and affiliate programmes can drive up to 75% of TikTok Shop GMV. Creator management should be treated as a serious sales operation.
Here are some tips for building this engine:
Beauty of Joseon: A THG Commerce Case Study
When the K-Beauty brand launched on TikTok Shop UK, it didn’t wait for creators to find it. The team made more than 11,500 creator outreaches in just 28 days.
The result: £100k GMV in the first month, with 68% of revenue driven by affiliates. That’s what a creator-first launch looks like when it’s done properly.
Engine two: TikTok LIVE
If affiliates bring reach, LIVE brings conversion. BFCM 2025 really proved TikTok LIVE as a major conversion driver with brands using the platform experiencing 84% sales growth. Over the period, shoppers tuned into over 760K livestream sessions hosted by sellers and their favourite creators, generating over 1.6 billion views.
But why does it work?
It taps into how people actually make decisions, viewers see real-time comments, viewer counts and “someone just bought this” alerts. It is live social proof on a scale no product page could match, and limited stock. Flash offers actively trigger the feeling of FOMO and a host who has built rapport for an hour (or 10) becomes someone that viewers trust, as demonstrated by P.Louise, who generated £2 million in GMV during a record-breaking 14-hour LIVE held at our very own THG Studios.
One lesson that many brands miss however: TikTok LIVE isn’t just for Christmas. It's a series, not a one-off show, and one big stream on Black Friday with no build up is a gamble. It's important to build a cadence of weekly streams in the lead up, training the algorithm, building a returning audience by gaining their trust and loyalty.
St Tropez: A THG Commerce Case Study
A strong brand identity matters on TikTok Shop just as much as it does on any other platform, it helps brands stand out in a crowded market and build an audience that genuinely connects with them.
St. Tropez shows how a heritage brand can earn its place in the feed. Self-tan is naturally suited to short-form video, where the transformation is the story, but by putting creators and product demonstrations at the centre of its TikTok Shop strategy, rather than simply repurposing polished brand advertising, St. Tropez has shown that an established name can feel native to the platform.
By staying true to its identity, the brand has created a TikTok Shop presence that reflects the look, feel and lifestyle customers already associate with St. Tropez, but in a new form. Its live shopping experience becomes a natural extension of the brand, taking both loyal and new customers from discovery and education through to purchase.
The feed is now the shop floor
TikTok Shop isn’t a channel brands can test from the sidelines, if you aren’t using it already, then you’re behind. During black Friday 2025, sales on TikTok Shop UK were 50% higher than the previous year, with 27 products sold every second at the platform’s peak. LIVE shopping sales also increased by 68%, while the number of creators generating sales grew by 55%.
It isn’t enough to simply upload your product catalogue and wait for sales, you need to build your creator network, develop a consistent LIVE presence and make sure every part of the experience works once demand arrives.
The feed is now the shop floor; the question is whether your brand is ready to open.
Need help setting your brand up on TikTok Shop?