From content to cart, unlocking growth on TikTok Shop

Accelerate 26 Session Recap

The traditional purchase funnel is gone. Discovery, consideration, and purchase used to be three separate moments. On TikTok Shop, they happen in one. A single piece of content can take someone from never having heard of a brand to completing a purchase in seconds. That shift changes everything about how brands need to think about content, products, and growth.

That was the premise TikTok Shop brought to the Lattice Stage at Accelerate 26. Peilun Huang, GM of Health and Home Category, and Steven Zhang, Life Category Leader at TikTok Shop US, walked through the numbers, the methodology, and what actually separates brands winning on the platform from those still trying to figure it out.

The numbers are hard to ignore

TikTok Shop opened with the scale of what is happening on the platform right now. US TikTok Shop sales grew nearly 80% year over year in 2025. Seller revenue is up 50%. Small business combined sales growth topped 70%. Enterprise brands saw growth of nearly 97% through the holiday season alone. Over just four days during a recent shopping event, the platform generated over $500 million in sales.

Active creators on the platform grew over 120%. Partner agencies helping brands operate their TikTok Shops saw nearly 200% sales growth. More than 170 million active users are on the platform, and over 103 billion ecommerce searches have been conducted on TikTok Shop in the US.

Discovery is the product

Peilun framed TikTok Shop as a discovery commerce platform, and the distinction matters. TikTok is not where people go to buy something they already know they want. It is where they find out what they want in the first place. Over 70% of users on the platform discover new products and new brands through content, not search.

The analogy he used landed well: shopping on TikTok Shop is like walking down a street and having something catch your eye in a window. A passionate shopkeeper pulls you in and tells you what is new, what people are loving, and what they would recommend. That feeling of discovery is what the platform is built around, and it is what brands need to design for.

The brands winning on TikTok Shop have made one critical mindset shift: they have stopped trying to control every message and started participating in culture instead. Brands that let go of total control and lean into authentic creator storytelling see compounding results. JBL hit their original monthly targets in just 20 days after launching on TikTok Shop. Bloom Nutrition drove 10x revenue on other channels after launching a new flavor on TikTok Shop first.

The ACE methodology

Steven introduced the ACE methodology, TikTok Shop's framework for building a sustainable growth engine on the platform. It comes down to three things working together: Assortment, Content, and Empowerment.

Assortment is about having the right products. TikTok Shop rewards visually demonstrable, story-driven products. Brands need to think about what makes people excited to buy and keep launching new products consistently. The data backs this up: brands that continuously introduce new products see compounding GMV growth over time as new products take an increasing share of overall revenue.

Content is where most of the work happens. The majority of TikTok Shop sales in the health category come from content, not paid ads. That means volume matters. Short-form shop videos saw 93% year-over-year growth. Live streaming doubled. The brands scaling fastest on the platform are the ones investing heavily in creator partnerships, affiliate communities, and a consistent cadence of new content every single day.

Empowerment is about using the platform's tools and campaigns to amplify what is already working. TikTok Shop runs platform-wide campaigns nearly every month, category-specific campaigns each quarter, and Super Brand Day partnerships for brands ready to go all in. These are co-investment opportunities, not just promotional slots.

Creator content, live commerce, and the Shop tab

Steven walked through how each of TikTok Shop's three main discovery channels contributes to growth and why they work best together.

Creator content remains the largest driver of sales on the platform. With over 3 million creators, brands have an enormous pool of authentic voices to work with. The key is identifying the right vertical creators, building strong affiliate communities early, and giving creators the products and briefing they need to tell genuine stories.

Crocs is one of the standout examples. Starting from zero in December 2024, they became an $80 million brand on TikTok Shop in just 18 months. They run 24-hour non-stop live streaming seven days a week and regularly generate over $100,000 in daily revenue. Live streaming became their primary strategy for testing new product lines and identifying what resonates before scaling.

The Shop tab and search function is the most conversion-efficient channel on the platform. When users are actively searching, they are ready to buy. Brands that optimize their product listings for TikTok's search trends and integrate UGC content into their SEO strategy see significantly higher conversion rates and new customer acquisition from search.

TikTok Shop as a growth engine across all channels

One of the most compelling points of the session was the halo effect TikTok Shop creates beyond its own platform. Brands consistently see revenue lift on other ecommerce channels after launching on TikTok Shop.

Bloom Nutrition is the clearest example. After beginning to send samples and work closely with creators in July 2025, their shop video numbers grew six times compared to February of that year. Their ROAS improved from 2.5 to 5. When they launched a new flavor on TikTok Shop, they saw 10x more revenue on other channels. One brand launched a nutrition product on TikTok Shop and immediately saw a 70% revenue increase on their online channel, with search on other ecommerce platforms growing five times.

TikTok Shop is not just a sales channel. It is a discovery engine that feeds every other place a brand sells.

What brands should do next

Both Peilun and Steven closed with consistent advice: start with the right products, invest in content volume early, build creator relationships before you need them, and use TikTok Shop's tools and partner ecosystem to scale faster than you could alone.

For brands not yet on TikTok Shop, the TikTok Shop team is actively onboarding new partners. For brands already on the platform, the ACE methodology is the framework worth pressure-testing against current strategy.

The window to build early advantage on TikTok Shop is still open. But based on the growth numbers shared on stage today, it is not going to stay open forever.