The Rise of TikTok Shop

In 2024, most of the world was preoccupied with the unprecedented growth of Temu and Shein, which were both predicted to surpass the world's #1 fast fashion retailer Zara (part of Inditex) by 2025.

During that time, however, TikTok has quietly growing and launching TikTok Shop globally. Now only towards the end of 2025 is it really clear just how tremendous TikTok Shops' impact on eCommerce is.

From $33.2B GMV last year, it will exceed $60B in GMV this year, with $20B of that in the United States alone.

From the chart above, we can see that it's growth rate just might be the fastest in history. Of course it's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison since TikTok Shop is a marketplace, but then again most retailers are nowadays operating like a semi marketplace anyway with dropshipment, consignment, or sales-and-return policies with their vendors.

With regards to Ecommerce Logistics, TikTok Shop also has an interesting model. Sellers can utilize their own logistics resources, or they can utilize TikTok's appointed vendors under a Fulfillment-By-TikTok model where TikTok owns the relationships with the vendors.

AfterShip supports TikTok Shop through it's AfterShip Feed product which has over 10,000 installs on the TikTok App Store.

About the Author

Eric Pong (aka The Ecommerce Logistician) is Logistics Partnership Director at AfterShip, managing relationships with 1,200 integration logistics partners globally. Eric also represents AfterShip on the Management Committee of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Consultative Committee.