TikTok Shop adds big names like Best Buy in push to become a mainstream marketplace

In the last few months, TikTok Shop has made some significant changes to prioritize shopping. One has been to get big names onboard to sell on its platform, and another to monetize shopping the way Amazon does.

In July, TikTok Shop rolled out a paid membership program called TikTok Shop Plus that’s similar to Amazon Prime, with price tiers ranging from $6–$15 a month. The service offers paid members perks like free shipping, member discounts, and other coupons.

This week, TikTok Shop started selling items from retailer Best Buy.

“Social media isn’t just influencing what people buy anymore,” Jonathan Greer, VP of e-commerce at Best Buy, said in a statement. “It’s shaping how they discover products, with creators playing an increasingly important role in what people notice, consider, and want to try.”

Best Buy’s addition comes after Sephora joined TikTok Shop earlier in the month. Meanwhile, Ulta started selling via TikTok Shop in March. TikTok first started courting established brands as part of Project Horizon, The Information reported in January. Under Project Horizon, TikTok offered e-commerce agencies incentives to go after established brands that are doing a steady business of $10 million in annual sales on rival platforms.

Ultimately, TikTok Shop is pivoting from being a heavily discounted social commerce channel to a mainstream marketplace. One expert said TikTok wants to be Amazon for the younger generation.

“They’re trying to position themselves more toward a mainstream channel like an Amazon versus how people consider Temu,” Katya Constantine, CEO of agency Digishopgirl Media, told Retail Brew.

Big fish: TikTok opened TikTok Shop in September 2023. Some 70% of US social commerce shoppers made a purchase on TikTok in the past year, the highest share of any social platform, according to an April survey from Bazaarvoice and eMarketer. TikTok Shop is estimated to reach $23.41 billion in US retail e-commerce sales in 2026, per eMarketer.

“You’re seeing TikTok recognizing the opportunity behind TikTok Shop marketplace and really helping brands to be more successful on it,” Constantine said.

Among Constantine’s clients, TikTok is now a marketplace channel that, in some scenarios, is almost “as big as” the dot-com business of the brand, she said.

With TikTok Shop Plus, Sky Canaves, eMarketer retail and e-commerce analyst told Retail Brew, the program could give TikTok a way to offer shipping perks similar to Amazon, while also adding other member benefits over time. She pointed to Amazon Prime, which has expanded beyond free shipping to include perks like Prime Video and other benefits that make the membership feel worthwhile, as a model.

“They’ve been pretty convincing in showing that having a TikTok Shop presence in addition to advertising on TikTok on its own provides a bigger lift than just the advertising on TikTok,” Canaves said. “We’ve been seeing over the last year or so—I mean, it’s been gradual but steady—the willingness of larger brands to join TikTok Shop.”

Going viral: Not surprisingly, larger brands are turning to TikTok not just for more shoppers, but also to recruit influencers that can pitch their products to their followers.

Shoppers trust TikTok content creators with large audiences more than a polished ad, according to Andy Szanger, director of strategy at CDW, a company that manages tech stacks for retailers. There’s an authenticity factor that resonates differently compared to traditional advertising, he added.

TikTok also gives buyers real-time social proof. People can see what other viewers are saying in the comments right in the feed, Szanger said. That validation, he added, is powerful and immediate in a way traditional shopping cannot achieve.

Ultimately, Canaves said, TikTok Shop stands out among its rivals because it’s a socially driven platform where people come for entertainment and then get inspired to buy a product.

“It relies so much more on word of mouth and discovery rather than a traditional marketplace like an Amazon or eBay,” she said, “where people tend to go when they have an idea of what they want, and they search it and they buy it and they leave.”