Summary:
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TikTok Shop saw $50.3 billion in goods move globally in the first half of 2026, led by the U.S.
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Projected to reach $123.5 billion by year-end, TikTok Shop appeals more to older users for purchases.
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As TikTok’s audience ages, marketers must rethink strategies, using the platform as a discovery tool for younger users.
TikTok Shop moved $50.3 billion in goods worldwide during the first half of 2026, a 92% increase over the same period last year, according to a report from Momentum Works and Tabcut. The U.S. led every market with $11.8 billion, roughly double its year-ago pace.
Momentum Works projects the platform will close 2026 near $123.5 billion, up from under $1 billion five years ago.
New buyer data published Wednesday complicates the win. Seventy percent of U.S. social buyers say they made a purchase on TikTok in the past 12 months, more than on any other platform, according to an April survey from Bazaarvoice and eMarketer. Yet 63% of Gen Z respondents told Harris Poll they have stopped buying through TikTok Shop. Sixty-two percent still use the app to find products.
The audience has aged up. Some 36.5 million Americans ages 25 to 34 visited TikTok in May, compared with 24.5 million ages 18 to 24, per Comscore. Edison Research found 47% of users ages 25 to 44 went on to buy something they first heard about on the platform, the highest rate of any group.
That gap is the whole story for anyone buying creator media. Gen Z is still the discovery engine and no longer the conversion engine. Brands staffing their rosters entirely with 22-year-old creators are paying for reach into a cohort that browses and leaves.
Format matters too. Momentum Works found slightly more than half of first-half GMV flowed through the Shop tab, about 40% came from shoppable video and 8% from live selling. Beauty and personal care remains the top category, though third-party estimates of its share range widely, from roughly a fifth to nearly a third of platform sales.
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Creator pay is the murkiest piece. TikTok does not publish payout data. Third-party trackers put the average U.S. affiliate commission near 13%, with earnings heavily concentrated among a small top tier. Treat those figures as estimates, because the firms publishing them sell software to sellers.
The takeaway for marketers heading into Q4 is to stop planning TikTok Shop as a Gen Z channel. Plan it as a discovery layer for people under 25 and a checkout layer for people over 25, and split the creator budget accordingly.
