TikTok is battling it out with the big dogs in online shopping, and it’s starting to pay off.
In July, US spending on its e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, was greater than online spending at major retailers like Target, Costco, and The Home Depot, according to US credit and debit card transaction data compiled by the customer-intelligence firm Consumer Edge.
TikTok Shop accounted for about 2% of online US retail spending last month, up from around 1.2% a year ago, per Consumer Edge’s analysis.
That jump in market share is “massive,” said Michael Gunther, SVP of Research & Market Intelligence at Consumer Edge.
TikTok is serious about taking on big players like Amazon and Walmart, even if its app is centered on short videos and entertainment.
In recent weeks, the company has begun introducing its own Amazon Prime-style membership program with free shipping and other perks. It’s also offering managed services to sellers who need help making videos and advertising their products.
The company pulled in over $500 million in US sales during last year’s Black Friday Cyber Monday week, and it’s been onboarding major brands like Samsung, Disney, and Ralph Lauren in recent months.
Some of TikTok’s year-over-year US spend growth in July could stem from the fact that its e-commerce app didn’t have to compete with Amazon Prime Day. It did run up against the blockbuster event in July 2025. Gunther said the Prime Day effect doesn’t seem to have had an outsize impact on TikTok’s growth in market share, though, which has been relatively linear since its launch.
“Given that TikTok Shop was at zero a few years ago, these moves are really, really big,” Gunther said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen something like this.”
TikTok’s US retail spend is still a far cry from Amazon’s, which hovers at around 35% in US market share depending on the month. It’s also driving less than a third of the online spend of Walmart, which falls at around 7% market share in the US.
That said, TikTok has gradually been creeping up on smaller competitors as its platform has matured.
The company has invested heavily in its e-commerce business since it launched in 2023, building out a full shipping and logistics offering, onboarding hundreds of thousands of sellers, and training creators on how to promote goods in videos in exchange for a commission.
TikTok’s growth in US spend last quarter was driven in part by a group of power users, according to Consumer Edge’s analysis.
TikTok Shop buyers who made 20 or more purchases in the second quarter of this year drove about 30% of the overall spending on the platform, while representing 5% of the total population of buyers.
Older shoppers are also helping TikTok pick up sales. The fastest-growing age demographic by year-over-year spend in the second quarter was shoppers over the age of 35.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post TikTok Shop is driving more online sales in the US than Target and other major retailers appeared first on Business Insider.
