TikTok Shop spend jumps during Deals for You Days

2024.07.26

The TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone. On average, TikTok Shop customers spend about 70% that of Shein and Temu shoppers, Earnest Analytics said. Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer via Getty Images

Brief:

Signaling a summer sales bump, purchases during TikTok Shop’s Deals for You Days event made up 37% of Chinese e-commerce sales in the U.S. during the week ending July 11, up from 0% last year as TikTok Shop didn’t launch in the U.S. until September. That’s compared to 37.2% at Temu and 25.8% at Shein.

The spend per customer reached a historic high of $52 during TikTok’s Prime Day competitor, according to a new report from research firm Earnest Analytics. Before the TikTok Shop sale, the weekly spend per U.S. customer on the platform had been declining since March, the report said. 

Though TikTok Shop’s sales event drove up spend, shoppers spent $71 and $72 on Shein and Temu, respectively, during that same period. On average, TikTok Shop customers spend about 70% that of Shein and Temu shoppers, Earnest said, noting TikTok purchases are mostly impulse versus intentional.

Insight:

TikTok Shop’s Deal for You Days event, which offered discounts on thousands of items from brands like L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline New York and NYX Professional Makeup, helped spike sales on the social media platform during the popular sales timeframe.

Major retailers like Amazon, Target and Best Buy ran their own sales events this month, and research suggests that Amazon’s Prime Day sale drove a boost in online shopping across the board. An Adobe Analytics analysis found that consumers spent $14.2 billion on July 16 and July 17 across various e-commerce sites, an 11% bump year over year.

As TikTok Shop gained on Shein and Temu during its summer sales event, other research from Earnest Analytics indicates an overlap between customers of the three companies. During the prior 12 months ending in February, 28% of Shein customers also shopped at TikTok Shop, and a quarter of Temu shoppers also made purchases via TikTok shop, according to a separate report released earlier this year. 

In its newest report, Earnest Analytics noted that Shein and Temu might have a leg up on TikTik Shop, as many TikTok shoppers are making impulse purchases while browsing, instead of navigating to various sales categories as they do on Temu and Shein, “where intent could be higher.”