TikTok Shop UK Live Shopping Report: 61% of Merchants Generate a Week's Revenue from a Single Live Session

TikTok Shop UK has released its first live shopping report, focusing on how the real-time retail format is reshaping the UK commercial landscape, covering local small and medium-sized merchants, consumers, and sales data across all categories.

According to the survey, 61% of local SMEs said a single live shopping session generated more revenue than their other regular channels combined over an entire week; 24% of merchants said a single live session generated more revenue than other channels over a full month. 92% of SMEs already engaged in live shopping reported that the format helped them reach customer groups they previously could not cover; 75% of merchants noted that consumers acquired through the live channel are more likely to make repeat purchases. Among SMEs that have achieved sales growth through live shopping, 49% chose to increase inventory order volumes, 29% launched international expansion plans, and 25% successfully entered the supply systems of large retailers. 77% of surveyed SMEs plan to increase their investment in live shopping over the next 12 months.

Live shopping traffic is also driving footfall to UK high street retail areas. 32% of UK live shopping viewers go on to purchase the same products in physical stores after watching live shopping content, and 43% of this offline spending flows to the beauty category.

Currently, TikTok Shop UK hosts more than 6,000 live shopping sessions per day on average, and platform live sales grew 55% year-on-year over the past year, making it the fastest-growing shoppable content format for merchants on the platform. On the consumer side, 51% of UK adults plan to try placing orders via live shopping over the next 12 months, with the Gen Z cohort's willingness to try reaching 79%.

Live sales across categories show differentiated characteristics. In the fashion category, the product return rate via the live channel is less than half the return rate via the platform's static product detail page channel; in the second-hand luxury category, 90% of sales are completed through live streaming; in the electronics category, 50% of users who place orders via live streaming base their purchase decision on real-time product operation demonstrations during the live session; in the home and lifestyle category, 20% of UK adults are considering purchasing related products via live streaming over the next 12 months; one UK publisher achieved revenue growth of 225% through live shopping; in the collectibles category, transactions are built on community trust, with repeat buyers contributing 64% of the category's sales.

The report's release coincides with the Black Friday promotional period, and TikTok Shop UK expects this Black Friday to set the platform's highest live channel sales record since launch. The platform's Black Friday live shopping specials and related discount activities will run from November 13 to November 30, covering both brand merchants and SMEs. Survey data shows that 53% of Gen Z plan to spend via TikTok Shop during this promotional weekend. Among users planning to place orders on the platform during Black Friday, 24% each intend to purchase groceries and collectibles, breaking away from the traditional Black Friday structure where spending is concentrated on high-ticket big-ticket items.

Jan Wilk, head of TikTok Shop UK, noted in public content accompanying the report that live shopping delivers the kind of professional in-store shopping guidance experience directly to users' mobile devices, and that many merchants have already begun increasing their weekly live broadcast frequency and building dedicated live studios; merchants that lay out this channel early will capture the corresponding growth dividends.

This article was first published on the Ebrun official website.