Why This Report Matter
TikTok Shop is no longer a toy. It is a giant mall that lives in every phone. If you sell things online, you need to know how this mall works. Guessing is risky. SimpTok looks at real sales data every month. We turn thousands of rows into clear facts. This paper shares what we learned from the May 2025 pull. It uses simple language so anyone on your team can read it fast.
Fast facts from the dataset
| Metric | April 24 → May 23, 2025 | Change vs. Mar 24 → April 23 |
|---|---|---|
| Total GMV (all tracked shops) | $3.4 billion | +6% |
| Active shops | 54,000+ | +4% |
| New product SKUs | 18,700 | +11% |
| Average order value (AOV) | $28.44 | –3% |
| Median creator conversion rate | 3.7 % | +0.4 pt |
These five numbers tell the big story: more shops, more listings, more money, yet a slightly lower ticket size. Shoppers keep buying, but they also love deals.
How We Built the Report
We pulled raw data from TikTok’s public Shop feeds each day. The crawler tracks:
- Gross merchandise value (GMV) at SKU, shop, and category level
- Units sold
- Average selling price
- Launch dates
- Creator videos that drive sales
For May, we captured 30 major categories, 20 top-earning shops, and 200 best-selling items. We studied the 30-day window ending May 23, 2025 to keep the numbers fresh.
Big Picture: TikTok Shop Keeps Climbing
Total sales jumped six percent in only a month. That may sound small, but month-on-month compound growth is powerful. If TikTok Shop kept that pace, it would double in about a year. Growth is not even. Some corners of the mall boom while others cool. Let us dive in.
The Category League Table
People buy beauty creams and leggings, but they also buy power tools and protein powder. Which lanes grow fastest? The table below ranks the ten biggest verticals by dollars and shows their one-month growth.
| Rank | Category | Monthly Revenue ($M) | Growth vs. prior 30 days | Active Shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beauty & Personal Care | 517 | –3.9 % | 54,069 |
| 2 | Womenswear & Underwear | 345 | –5.1 % | 52,569 |
| 3 | Health | 236 | +4.7 % | 14,005 |
| 4 | Nutrition & Wellness | 225 | +8.3 % | 10,598 |
| 5 | Sports & Outdoor | 200 | –1.8 % | 40,477 |
| 6 | Vitamins & Supplements | 176 | +31.3 % | 9,029 |
| 7 | Fashion Accessories | 133 | –2.3 % | 44,860 |
| 8 | Collectibles & Hobbies | 128 | –0.6 % | 14,410 |
| 9 | Phones & Electronics | 124 | +1.3 % | 29,460 |
| 10 | Food & Beverages | 72 | –37.7 % | 8,834 |
What the table means
- Beauty still wins in dollars but lost almost four points of share in one month. The space is crowded and shoppers chase novelty.
- Wellness is the rocket. Vitamins jumped 31 percent with only one-fifth as many sellers as beauty. Less crowd + clear need = easy wins.
- Food crashed. Viral snack clips cooled off, and shipping costs hurt margins. Expect a rebound near back-to-school, but not before.
Takeaway: If you plan a 2025 launch, weight your bets toward health-first items or supplements. Beauty is not dead, but you will fight thousands of brands.
Shop Leaderboard: Who Earns the Most?
A few names pull in huge checks. They master live demos, partner with many creators, and keep inventory full. The next table lists the top-ten shops by dollar sales.
| Rank | Shop | Monthly Revenue ($M) | Avg. Item Price ($) | Creator Videos in Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halara | 63.1 | 35.75 | 1,980 |
| 2 | Popmart | 56.1 | 29.78 | 1,130 |
| 3 | Medicube | 51.7 | 39.00 | 2,450 |
| 4 | Vevor | 47.2 | 62.51 | 320 |
| 5 | Goli Nutrition | 41.3 | 19.31 | 730 |
| 6 | Tarte Cosmetics | 39.2 | 29.46 | 2,200 |
| 7 | QVC | 38.2 | 48.06 | 65 |
| 8 | Comfrt | 38.0 | 34.66 | 890 |
| 9 | Micro Ingredients | 36.4 | 22.87 | 460 |
| 10 | Brainista | 35.7 | 30.56 | 540 |
Quick lessons from the leaders
- Price matters. Eight of ten winners sit between $20-$40. Cheap enough for impulse, rich enough for margin.
- Content scale is not everything. Vevor sells industrial gear. Only 320 videos drove $47 million. Quality demos beat spam.
- Health beats hype. Four of ten shops sell supplements or functional foods. TikTok users may love dances, but they also love feeling better.
Product Heroes: Items That Went Viral
One giant couch sale shocked the charts, yet low-price health items filled most of the top ten. Here are the stand-outs.
| Rank | Product (short name) | Revenue ($M) | Units Sold | Avg. Price ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ovios Plush Corduroy Sofa | 467.6 | 739,000 | 632.68 |
| 2 | Yerba Magic Mate Powder | 3.2 | 105,830 | 30.45 |
| 3 | Medicube Glass Glow Kit | 2.7 | 26,020 | 104.47 |
| 4 | Colossal Bubble Mascara | 2.7 | 207,690 | 12.99 |
| 5 | Peel Shot Rice Ampoule | 2.2 | 50,370 | 39.81 |
| 6 | Tummy Bundle (Physician’s)** | 2.0 | 54,880 | 36.01 |
| 7 | Nello Supercalm Drink Mix | 2.0 | 50,760 | 38.87 |
| 8 | Wavytalk Ionic Brush | 1.8 | 54,660 | 33.06 |
| 9 | BoomBoom Nasal Stick | 1.7 | 122,620 | 14.07 |
| 10 | Flexi Fidget Aroma Puff | 0.7 | 33 | 19.94 |
Note: The sofa was a “door-buster” launch from a furniture dropshipper. It used one mega-viral unboxing clip that reached 95 million views.
How viral items win
- Story first. Each hit product tells a one-sentence story: “Calm in a stick,” “Glow like glass,” “Sofa that feels like a hug.”
- Visual proof. Bright color, texture, or a dramatic before-and-after dominates the frame within three seconds.
- Creator incentives. Top sellers pay 10-20 percent commission. That is double what many Amazon storefronts offer, so creators flood the feed.
New Product Spotlight
Among the 100 newest SKUs, three themes pop out:
- Fidget-Wellness Mashups – stress toys that smell like lavender or infuse magnesium oil.
- Dad-Branded Gadgets – grill thermometers and car cleaning gel pushed for Father’s Day.
- Lash Everywhere – mascaras with edible-grade lash peptides claim growth plus curl.
We will track which of these trends stick into July. Early signals show fidget-wellness bundles at a 5.4 percent creator conversion rate—higher than the 3.7 percent median.
What Drives a Sale on TikTok Shop?
Data shows three key levers:
- Watch time on product demo – The sweet spot is 12-18 seconds before “link in bio” mention. Longer demos lose viewers.
- Price vs. Amazon – Items priced within ±10 percent of their Amazon listing convert 30 percent better than those priced higher.
- Live-stream urgency – Limited-time discount banners raise the add-to-cart rate by 2.2 points on average.
A simple way to remember it: Show it. Match it. Race it.
Price Bands That Work
Most shoppers bite under $40. But tiny pockets exist above $100 when the value is obvious (see the glow skin kit). The next table splits total GMV by price band.
| Price Band | Share of GMV (%) | Top Categories in Band |
|---|---|---|
| $1-$10 | 12 | Impulse beauty, stickers, novelty candy |
| $11-$20 | 29 | Supplements, basic apparel, bags |
| $21-$40 | 37 | Mid-tier makeup, hair tools, activewear |
| $41-$100 | 18 | Skin devices, power tools, smart home |
| $101+ | 4 | Furniture, niche electronics |
The gap between $21-$40 is the lowest-risk zone for new sellers. High enough to make margin, low enough for a tap-to-buy mindset.
Conversion Funnel in Plain English
We tracked 1.2 million product clicks and built an average funnel:
- 100 video views
- 7 product page taps
- 1.3 add to cart
- 0.9 checkout starts
- 0.7 paid orders
Creators often worry when only one in 14 viewers clicks the cart. The truth: that is normal. Focus on getting more video views—especially from fresh creators outside your niche.
Five Easy Wins for New Sellers
- Trial sizes – Offer a $9 mini ahead of your full-size launch. June data shows trial SKU launch boosts full-size conversions by 27 percent next month.
- Under-20-minute lives – Long marathons burn hosts and viewers. The median high-GMV live in our data is 18 minutes.
- Two-item bundles – Pair your hero with a low-cost refill. Bundles under $45 lift AOV without hurting speed.
- Creator mix – Use at least three micro-influencers (<15k followers) for every one macro. Micros drive 1.4× higher conversion in beauty.
- Self-made UGC – Film three UGC-style clips of staff using the product. Even “real” content boosts trust and cuts editing time.
Pitfalls to Skip
- Global shipping without a plan. Orders from outside your core country have a 22 percent higher refund rate.
- Copy-paste Amazon pages. TikTok penalizes recycled bullet lists. Custom descriptions with emoji-style spacing read better on mobile.
- Over-promising health claims. Four of ten refund complaints cite “did not match effect.” Keep claims modest.
Creator Economics Snapshot
| Creator Tier | Followers | Avg. Cost-per-Post ($) | Avg. Sales Generated | Median Commission Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano | 1-10k | 80 | $1,140 | 15 % |
| Micro | 10-50k | 230 | $3,590 | 14 % |
| Mid | 50-250k | 750 | $7,410 | 12 % |
| Macro | 250k-1M | 2,600 | $18,100 | 10 % |
| Mega | 1M+ | 9,800 | $28,500 | 8 % |
Nano and micro creators give the best sales-per-dollar. They often answer buyer questions in comments, boosting trust.
A Quick Word on Ad Spend
Paid Shop ads are cheap—for now. The June average cost per thousand views (CPM) sat at $4.12. For comparison, Instagram Reels CPM averaged about $7 in the same week. Early movers on TikTok Shop still enjoy bargain clicks, but costs rise each month. Budget later in 2025 for a 15-percent CPM lift.
Seasonality Watch
Summer changes what people buy. Last July, sun care and travel minis jumped. We expect:
- Luggage and packing cubes to rise in late June.
- Hydration drink mixes to peak early July.
- Outdoor games (pickleball, frisbee golf) to gain through August.
Plan stock now, not when you spot the trend on your “For You” page.
Key Takeaways So Far
- TikTok Shop keeps growing.
- Health and supplements are stealing share from beauty.
- $21-$40 is the sweet spot for price.
- Nano and micro creators give the best bang for the buck.
- Fast demos, strong stories, and clear value win the algorithm.
When Do Shoppers Tap “Buy”?
Sales on TikTok do not flow the same all day. They surge in short waves. We sliced every paid order into one-hour buckets across the past 30 days. The picture is clear:
| Hour of Day* | Share of Daily GMV (%) | Avg. Page View → Order Rate (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00–02:59 | 7 | 0.46 |
| 03:00–05:59 | 4 | 0.39 |
| 06:00–08:59 | 5 | 0.40 |
| 09:00–11:59 | 14 | 0.71 |
| 12:00–14:59 | 11 | 0.62 |
| 15:00–17:59 | 18 | 0.78 |
| 18:00–20:59 | 26 | 0.84 |
| 21:00–23:59 | 15 | 0.69 |
*All times United States Eastern. International shops follow the same “after-work” bump in their local time zone.
What the curve means
- Evening wins. Nearly one-quarter of every dollar lands between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. People scroll after dinner.
- Post-school pop. Teens and college users push the 3 p.m. spike. If your SKU skews Gen Z, schedule lives right after the final bell.
- Night owls still buy. Midnight shoppers convert half as often, yet ad CPMs plunge 22 percent in those hours. Cheap reach can pay off if you can stand a lower rate of sale.
Action step: Run two 18-minute live sessions—one at 4 p.m., one at 8 p.m.—then recycle the best demo clip into spark ads the next morning at 9 a.m.
Creator Case Studies
Big follower counts are nice. Smart tactics are better. We tracked three sellers that rose fast in June by leaning on very different creator types.
| Seller | Core Product | Key Creator | Creator Tier | Followers | Views on Top Video | 30-Day Sales From Campaign ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GummyGlow | Collagen candy | @jade.tests (nano) | 8 k | 540 k | 182,300 | Genuine “first bite” face close-up felt real. Nano trust. |
| QuickPatch | Fabric repair kit | @diydanny (mid) | 190 k | 1.7 M | 118,900 | Slow-motion rip-then-patch demo in 7 sec. Replay-worthy. |
| FlexiStick | Aroma fidget | @reekoreels (mega) | 2.4 M | 6.9 M | 304,600 | Turned product into punch-line prop across five skits. Fans tagged friends. |
Lessons from the trio
- Nano honesty breaks through. Jade’s 540 k views beat accounts 20× her size in beauty last month. Viewers watch for a real reaction, not studio polish.
- Visual proof still rules DIY. Danny showed the problem → fix in one shot. No cuts. That built trust for a tool nobody had seen.
- Comedy scales products. Reeko scripted skits with the fidget stick as a gag gift. Each joke doubled as a use case. Humor plus utility fuels shares.
Refund and Repeat-Purchase Benchmarks
A sale is only a win if it sticks—and returns signal trouble. We measured refunds and re-orders 14 days after purchase.
| Category | Refund Rate (%) | Repeat-Purchase Rate* (%) | Main Refund Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty & Personal Care | 1.8 | 6.5 | “Color not right” |
| Womenswear & Underwear | 2.9 | 4.1 | “Size off” |
| Health | 0.9 | 8.2 | “Taste dislike” |
| Vitamins & Supplements | 1.2 | 11.3 | “Effects unclear” |
| Phones & Electronics | 4.4 | 3.7 | “Item defective” |
| Collectibles & Hobbies | 0.6 | 5.4 | “Box damaged” |
*Placed a second order for any SKU in same shop within 14 days.
How to cut refunds
- Ship in crush-proof boxes—electronics damage drives half their returns.
- Use a size chart with real-body photos; apparel refunds fall one point when size proof is clear.
- Add flavor sample packs in health; refunds drop 0.3 point when buyers taste first.
How to lift re-orders
- Send a discount code in the order confirmation. Repeat rate jumps two points.
- Toss in a free mini that pairs with a refill item. We saw a 17 percent follow-on lift in supplements shops that did this.
How TikTok Ranks Products in the Shop Tab
The algorithm uses over 50 signals, but four matter most. We ranked them by weight, based on regression across 2,800 SKUs.
| Rank | Signal | Relative Weight (0-1) | How to Improve |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conversion rate (views → purchase) | 1.00 | Tighten demo, match price to Amazon ±10 % |
| 2 | Average watch time on main video | 0.74 | Hook in first 3 sec, show product in use |
| 3 | Comment sentiment (positive %) | 0.49 | Pin happy reviews, address doubts fast |
| 4 | Creator diversity (unique IDs) | 0.32 | Recruit at least 10 creators per month |
Boost any one metric and ranking climbs. Boost two and traffic often doubles.
Six Easy Ranking Wins — Checklist
- Swap thumbnails weekly. Fresh cover frames bump click-through by 6 percent.
- Pin a buyer unboxing. Videos with pinned UGC rank higher for watch time.
- Reply to every question in comments within two hours. Fast answers push positive sentiment.
- Post in-stock reminders. Out-of-stock tags nuke conversion. Keep buffer inventory.
- Rotate coupon cooldowns. Use 15-minute coupon windows during live; it creates urgency.
- Bundle, but name it plainly. “Glow Kit” beats “Ultimate Glass Skin Deluxe 9-in-1.” Simple titles index better.
Tape this list above your desk.
Day-Seven Retention Funnel
We tracked 220,000 first-time customers. How many came back to view, cart, or buy within a week?
| Step | Users Entering Step | Drop-Off vs. Prior Step |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0: Completed first order | 100 % | — |
| Day 1: Opened TikTok Shop tab | 62 % | –38 % |
| Day 3: Viewed any product | 49 % | –21 % |
| Day 7: Added to cart again | 18 % | –63 % |
| Day 7: Placed second order | 11 % | –7 pt |
An 11-percent “week-one repurchase” might sound low. Yet on Amazon, similar small brands see 7-percent. TikTok’s FOMO drives faster second buys if sellers keep the feed warm with fresh clips.
Ad Spend Benchmarks
Paid Shop ads still deliver cheap reach, but costs climb each quarter. June CPM and CPC by top category:
| Category | Median CPM ($) | Median CPC ($) | Click → Purchase Rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty | 4.24 | 0.42 | 2.1 |
| Supplements | 3.88 | 0.39 | 2.7 |
| Apparel | 4.07 | 0.41 | 1.8 |
| Electronics | 4.97 | 0.53 | 1.2 |
Ad tip: bid 10 percent above median CPM in your slot to lock prime feed spots. Still cheaper than Instagram Reels, which averaged $7.02 CPM last month.
Three Myths, Busted
Myth 1: “TikTok users only buy cheap impulse items.”
Truth: $600 sofas topped revenue tables. High AOV works when the demo is wow.
Myth 2: “You need a warehouse to handle returns.”
Truth: Average refund rate is two percent. Use a 3PL that scans, posts, and reships; cost stays low.
Myth 3: “Going viral is random.”
Truth: Watch-time, price parity, and creator mix predict 72 percent of SKU ranking change in our regression model.
Sample Launch Calendar
Need an easy plan? Copy this 30-day schedule:
| Day | Task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Shoot three 15-sec hooks + one 40-sec demo. |
| 3 | Brief five nano creators. Ship samples express. |
| 5 | Upload product. Set $1 coupon, 15 % commission. |
| 7 | Run first live at 4 p.m. (soft open). |
| 10 | Spark-ad best nano clip at $50/day budget. |
| 12 | Second live at 8 p.m. with micro creator host. |
| 15 | Post UGC mash-up. Pin best buyer review. |
| 18 | Limited-time bundle drop (hero + mini). |
| 21 | Mid-campaign A/B thumbnail swap. |
| 24 | Third live plus giveaway. |
| 27 | Collect testimonials. Clip into 20-sec ad. |
| 30 | Send thank-you email + 15 % reorder code. |
Follow the calendar and you will hit each algorithm signal without scrambling.
What to Expect for Q3 2025
- Back-to-school lift. Stationery, dorm décor, and skincare bundle sales grow from late July.
- Supplement shake-up. New FDA label guidance lands in August. Clean-label brands may gain share.
- Even higher ad costs. Forecast: TikTok Shop CPM passes $5.10 by September. Early budgets lock lower rates.
Plan launches soon to ride the cheaper reach window.
Key Takeaways – Part 2
- Sales spike after school and after dinner.
- Nano creators can outsell macro stars with honest demos.
- Refund pain is low; re-order gold lives in supplements.
- Conversion rate, watch time, positive comments, and creator variety rule the ranking math.
- You can boost all four with quick, practical changes—thumbnail swaps, pinned UGC, clear pricing.
The Bottom Line
TikTok Shop in 2025 is a young marketplace with grown-up money flowing through it. Shoppers crave stories, proof, and value. Sellers that master short demos, creator blends, and smart timing grab outsized gains. Use the data points in this white paper as a playbook. Test, learn, and adapt fast. The mall in your phone is open 24/7; your best-selling window might only be 18 minutes long.
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