TokTail
The future of shopping?
From July to September 2025, two-year-old TikTok Shop sold $19B of products.
Thirty-year-old eBay sold $20B during the same period.
TokTok Shop’s meteoric rise is proof that social commerce - buying online from influencers and trusted sources - is not a passing fad. As social commerce evolves, how might it reshape our communities and retail?
Will the convenience of in-app purchasing accelerate the decline of brick-and-mortar retail, further altering our downtown retail districts and cities?
Can influencers like Christiana Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Selena Gomez give Jeff Bezos a run for the money? Could influencer-driven social commerce challenge the dominance of e-commerce giants such as Amazon?
Could the blend of entertainment + shopping redefine how we spend our time and money? If Apple, Netflix, and other streamers can sell you $100 of stuff each month while you’re binging your favorite shows, why wouldn’t they?
Sources:
“TikTok Shop Is Now the Size of eBay.” Wired, 7 Nov. 2025, https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-shop-ecommerce-growth/.
“TikTok Shop Makes Up Nearly 20% of Social Commerce in 2025.” Emarketer, 9 Dec. 2025, https://www.emarketer.com/content/tiktok-shop-social-commerce-2025.
For me, we continue to find ways to increase over consumerism, which continues to pollute and fill our land fills. Tiktok shop is another example of this.