Live shopping, selling in a live broadcast where viewers can buy while the stream is running, is often described as the next big step for e-commerce. The numbers paint a more mixed picture: big in China, smaller in the US and Europe, where most TikTok Shop sales come through short videos and the in-app store.

As of 8 November 2026. For every figure we say whether it comes from the company itself, an authority, a media report or an analyst firm’s estimate. How TikTok Shop works is explained in What is TikTok Shop?, and how to do live selling in practice in Live selling: why everyday products sell in the feed too.

How big is live shopping in 2026?

Biggest in China, smaller and more mixed in the US and Europe:

  • China: over 5 trillion yuan in 2025, almost a third of online retail (white paper from the research centre of China’s market regulator, via Xinhua).
  • US: nearly 20 billion dollars in 2026, about 35 per cent more than in 2025 (eMarketer’s estimate, via CNBC).
  • TikTok Shop in the US: LIVE accounted for 8.2 per cent of sales in the first half of 2026 (Momentum Works’ estimate).
  • Europe: LIVE accounted for 17.2 per cent and video for 63.8 per cent of TikTok Shop sales in Germany, France, Spain and Italy in the period 11 April to 9 July 2026 (Kalodata’s estimate, via the e-commerce service Lengow).
  • Sweden: no TikTok Shop and no date that we have found. 84 per cent of online shoppers had not bought anything through social media in the past month (PostNord).

Our assessment is that live shopping is growing in China, the US and the UK, but that within TikTok Shop in the US, LIVE has lost share to the in-app store.

China: about a third of online retail

Gross merchandise value (GMV) exceeded 5 trillion yuan in 2025, almost a third of online retail, according to a white paper from the market regulator’s research centre and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Xinhua, 4 February 2026). In 2024, according to the white paper, livestream commerce accounted for 80 per cent of e-commerce growth. The share is approximate, since GMV and online retail sales are measured differently.

The Ministry of Commerce’s official figures for 2025: online retail sales reached 15.97 trillion yuan, up 8.6 per cent, and livestream transaction value grew 11.3 per cent (People’s Daily, 1 March 2026). The analyst firm eMarketer measures livestream social commerce instead and estimates it at almost 540 billion dollars in 2025 and almost 700 billion dollars in 2027 (Bloomberg, 16 December 2025). The measures cannot be compared directly.

At Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, shelf-based sales, meaning store and search pages, grew 49 per cent from August 2024 to July 2025, against 34 per cent in total, according to KrASIA. Our reading is that streams and videos get people to discover a product, while the purchase increasingly happens on the store side.

US: more streams, but a smaller share

According to estimates from the analyst firm Momentum Works and the data company Tabcut, TikTok Shop sold 15.1 billion dollars in the US in 2025, up 68 per cent on 2024, and 11.8 billion dollars in the first half of 2026, up 103 per cent on the same period a year earlier. The split between formats has changed:

  • 2025: LIVE 14 per cent (up from 10 per cent), video 50 per cent and the Shop tab 36 per cent.
  • First half of 2026: LIVE 8.2 per cent, video 40.4 per cent and Shop 51.4 per cent.

The summary for 2025 does not explicitly say that the split refers to the US, but the half-year report on the US compares against the same 36 per cent.

TikTok tells a different story. The company told CNBC that its LIVE sales more than doubled in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, and that the number of LIVE sessions grew by more than 60 per cent (1 September 2026, in an article about the US). In November 2025, TikTok said, according to Bloomberg, that brands and sellers that went LIVE over Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased their sales by 84 per cent on the previous year.

If the total roughly doubled and LIVE more than doubled, LIVE’s share should have held steady or risen. Our reading is that the figures measure different things: Momentum Works compares the full year 2025, including Black Friday and the holiday season, with a half year, and TikTok gives a growth rate without amounts or method. We cannot tell which picture is closer.

The live shopping app Whatnot says it had 8 billion dollars in global sales in 2025, and it has been valued at 20 billion dollars (CNBC). TikTok is counting on 77 billion dollars worldwide from TikTok LIVE by 2027, according to earlier Bloomberg reporting, which does not say whether the figure includes gifts to creators.

The TV shopping company QVC, which started streaming around the clock on TikTok in 2025 (Bloomberg), filed for Chapter 11 on 16 April 2026. Its CEO said at the time that the company had become a top seller on TikTok Shop US (Digital Commerce 360). By September 2026, according to CNBC, QVC had emerged from bankruptcy.

Europe: how is TikTok LIVE doing country by country?

LIVE accounts for roughly one euro in six in TikTok Shop in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and video for almost two thirds. The figures are estimates from the analytics tool Kalodata, which models sales from public TikTok data using AI. Lengow, which publishes them, points out that they are not TikTok’s figures and that they work for direction and comparison, not exact amounts.

CountryMillion eurosLIVEVideoProduct cards
Germany174.712.6%69.8%17.7%
France132.820.2%61.6%18.2%
Spain104.719.2%58.7%22.0%
Italy86.619.7%61.4%18.9%
Total498.817.2%63.8%18.9%

Estimated TikTok Shop sales from 11 April to 9 July 2026 (90 days) and share by format. Source: Kalodata via Lengow (updated 27 October 2026).

Stacked bar chart of how TikTok Shop sales split by format from 11 April to 9 July 2026, according to Kalodata estimates. Germany: LIVE 12.6 percent, video 69.8, product cards 17.7. France: 20.2, 61.6 and 18.2. Spain: 19.2, 58.7 and 22.0. Italy: 19.7, 61.4 and 18.9. All four: 17.2, 63.8 and 18.9.
Video accounts for roughly two thirds of sales in all four countries, and LIVE for a fifth or less. Kalodata estimates via Lengow, not TikTok’s own figures.

Germany sells the most of the four but has the lowest LIVE share. The analyst firm ECDB reports similar shares, 13 per cent LIVE in Germany and around 20 per cent in the other three (14 October 2026), but does not name its data source.

According to Lengow, about 70 per cent of sales go through creators who sell other brands’ products for a commission (affiliates). Individual sellers can rely heavily on LIVE: the French electronics chain Darty got an estimated 54.9 per cent of its TikTok Shop sales from streams in the 30 days to 9 July 2026.

The UK is TikTok Shop’s biggest market in Europe. According to ECDB, it accounted for 65 per cent of the 4.07 billion euros in European TikTok Shop GMV in 2025, ahead of Spain (14 per cent), France and Germany (9 per cent each) and Italy (4 per cent). ECDB projects European sales to nearly double in 2026. The period differs from Kalodata’s, so the figures cannot be compared directly.

TikTok’s own figures for the UK (4 August 2026): TikTok Shop LIVE has grown 55 per cent year on year, without the company saying which measure that refers to, and more than 6,000 LIVE sessions take place every day. Collectables grew 84 per cent from June 2025 to June 2026, and LIVE auctions accounted for 40 per cent of the category’s sales.

What it takes to sell in a Shop country from Sweden is covered in Selling on TikTok Shop in Germany from Sweden.

Why is it slower in the West?

Our assessment is that there are three reasons. The first is the role of stores: Chinese consumers still like stores but use livestreams for entertainment and inspiration, a role that stores have traditionally filled in the US, Neil Saunders of the analyst firm GlobalData told CNBC. The second is platform choices: Instagram stopped product tagging in live streams on 16 March 2023 and focused on ads instead (TechCrunch), and Douyin has pushed its store side with subsidies (KrASIA). The third is effort: a video can keep selling long after it is posted, while a stream only sells while it is running, as ECDB points out.

What speaks against this: LIVE is growing in the UK according to TikTok, and for collectables and auctions the stream is the whole point.

Which rules apply to live shopping?

We have not found any EU rules specific to live shopping, but several new rules affect the feed where streams are seen and the goods being sold.

The DSA and the For You feed (6 November 2026). The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok breaches the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately assess and mitigate the risk of its For You feed leading users into “rabbit holes” of similar content. The Commission considers that the feed needs to change, for example by TikTok relying more on what users say they want to see and no longer using viewing time as a signal. If the findings are confirmed, the fine could reach 6 per cent of worldwide annual turnover. Our assessment is that a change could affect the reach of both videos and streams. We have not found any DSA action aimed specifically at TikTok Shop or LIVE.

China: AI hosts must be labelled (1 February 2026). China’s new livestream commerce rules, issued in December 2025, require hosts created with AI to be labelled and viewers to be reminded of this continuously. Agencies that work with hosts may not organise fake transactions or fake reviews.

EU: customs duty on small parcels (1 July 2026). The customs duty exemption for consignments of up to 150 euros from outside the EU is gone. Until 1 July 2028, a temporary 3 euro duty applies per item category in the consignment, not per unit, according to the European Commission. It is paid by businesses, but our assessment is that it makes cheap direct imports more expensive, whatever the sales channel.

Digital Fairness Act (expected mid-November). The Commission’s proposal on consumer protection online is expected in mid-November 2026, according to the European Parliament. Our assessment is that countdowns and claims that stock is about to run out, which are common in streams, could be affected. More in Digital Fairness Act: what it could mean for online stores.

Product safety (GPSR). Since 13 December 2024, online marketplaces must act on orders from authorities about dangerous products without undue delay and in any event within two working days.

What does it mean for Swedish businesses?

TikTok Shop is not available in Sweden, and we have not found an announced date. TikTok’s European seller page says “Sell across 13 European markets” and lists the countries, but not Sweden (read 8 November 2026). Eight of the countries got TikTok Shop on 15 June 2026, according to TikTok. We have not found anything about TikTok Shop in TikTok’s Swedish newsroom. In its E-barometern report for 2025, PostNord wrote, citing Ecommerce News, that TikTok Shop was expected to reach Swedish consumers in 2026. That has not happened yet. Where the service is available is listed in Where is TikTok Shop available?, and how to prepare your store in TikTok Shop in Sweden.

Swedes still buy little directly through social media. According to PostNord, 84 per cent of online shoppers had not bought anything through social media in the past month, and 1 in 10 had bought without leaving the app. Among 18 to 29 year olds, around four in ten follow product links or look up products they have seen on social media. The survey covers online shoppers aged 18 to 79.

What works today is LIVE, the profile link, short videos and ads that lead to your own store. To sell inside the app, TikTok’s EU seller registration policy requires the business to be registered in one of the EU countries where TikTok Shop accepts sellers, and as a rule to store, ship and accept returns there.

Our assessment: start with short videos, which account for almost two thirds of TikTok Shop sales in the four EU countries above. Add streams for products that need to be shown and where customers have questions, and measure each stream separately. Do not plan around a launch date until TikTok has confirmed one.

What we do

We build online stores on Shopify and make short videos for social media. If you want your store ready to take orders from videos and streams, read how we build e-commerce (page in Swedish) or get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

How big is live shopping in China?

Livestream commerce in China exceeded 5 trillion yuan in 2025, almost a third of online retail, according to a white paper from the research centre of China’s market regulator and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, livestream sales grew 11.3 per cent in 2025, while online retail as a whole grew 8.6 per cent.

How much of TikTok Shop’s sales come from LIVE?

In Germany, France, Spain and Italy, 17.2 per cent of sales came from LIVE and 63.8 per cent from video between 11 April and 9 July 2026, according to an estimate from the analytics tool Kalodata. In the US, LIVE’s share was 8.2 per cent in the first half of 2026 according to Momentum Works. Both are estimates, not TikTok’s own figures.

Is live shopping growing in the US?

Yes, in dollar terms. The analyst firm eMarketer estimates US live shopping sales at nearly 20 billion dollars in 2026, about 35 per cent more than the year before, and TikTok told CNBC that its LIVE sales more than doubled in the first half of 2026. But according to an estimate from Momentum Works, LIVE accounted for only 8.2 per cent of TikTok Shop’s US sales in the same half year.

How is TikTok LIVE doing in the UK?

According to TikTok’s UK newsroom, TikTok Shop LIVE has grown 55 per cent year on year, without the company saying which measure that refers to, and more than 6,000 LIVE sessions take place every day in the UK (4 August 2026). The UK accounted for 65 per cent of TikTok Shop’s European sales in 2025, according to the analyst firm ECDB.

Can you do live shopping in Sweden today?

Yes, but the purchase happens in your own online store, since TikTok Shop is not available in Sweden (as of 8 November 2026). To go LIVE on TikTok you need to be at least 18 and have at least 1,000 followers, though the follower requirement varies by region.

Which new rules affect live shopping?

The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok’s For You feed breaches the DSA (6 November 2026). Since 1 July 2026, a temporary 3 euro customs duty per item category applies to consignments of up to 150 euros from outside the EU, and the Digital Fairness Act is expected in mid-November 2026. In China, AI-generated livestream hosts must be labelled since 1 February 2026.

Sources

All web pages read on 8 November 2026 unless stated otherwise. The figures from Kalodata, ECDB, Momentum Works and eMarketer are estimates from analyst firms, not the companies’ own figures.