TikTok Sees 84% Jump in Black Friday and Cyber Monday Livestream Shopping

Livestream shopping is popular in China, but it hasn’t caught on in the United States.

That could be changing, however, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Dec. 16). TikTok parent ByteDance is trying to replicate the success it found with its Chinese platform Douyin in the U.S.

Small businesses are increasingly making TikTok a crucial part of their sales strategy, the report said. In some cases, these businesses have begun hiring full-time livestream hosts, consulting with Chinese agencies with experience in the field and recruiting production companies to help their feeds stand out.

Against this backdrop, TikTok said brands and sellers hosting livestreams on Black Friday and Cyber Monday jumped 84% year over year in sales, per the report.

Haley Walsh, vice president of talent at influencer management firm Digital Brand Architects, said live shopping’s potential is “only really at the forefront,” according to the report.

This form of shopping is “a central part of the content strategy” for those with their own brand or products, and the ability to provide tutorials and respond to audience questions in real time makes leading social media stars more accessible, she said, per the report.

PYMNTS examined live shopping last month in a conversation with Armand Wilson, vice president of categories and expansions at the platform Whatnot.

He said his company, valued at $11.5 billion, didn’t start with a focus on live shopping. Its goal was to serve a specific community. However, it found that livestreaming was the obvious answer to what this group required.

“The earliest days [were about]… just staying really close to our community and trying to solve needs for them,” he said.

That community-first instinct helped guide everything that followed. The sellers on Whatnot aren’t anonymous storefronts, but are committed authorities who know their product and their audience, making their streams feel more like a live show than a store.

“Our sellers are deeply passionate about the products that they’re selling,” he said. “They’re experts.”