“The consumer clearly has adopted TikTok as one of the few spaces of discovery and brand association,” Cohen said, according to the report.
The WSJ also cited data from eCommerce data provider Charm.io showing that TikTok Shop’s U.S. sales nearly doubled year over year to reach $4.9 billion in the first quarter, and data from data provider Consumer Edge showing that consumer spending on the platform was up 46% year over year in the first three months of 2026.
This growth has drawn more retailers to the platform, according to the report.
Some of the latest retailers to open their own virtual stores on TikTok include Ralph Lauren, Olaplex Holdingsand Ulta Beauty. They joined early adopters of the platform such as Crocs, Revolve Group and L’Oréal, per the report.
TikTok Shop went live in the U.S. in September 2023 after undergoing testing in the country since November 2022, PYMNTS reported at the time.
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The entire TikTok platform faced a threat in the U.S. beginning in April 2024 when then-President Joe Biden signed a law that would ban the platform in the country unless it was sold by its China-based owner ByteDance within a year. Supporters of the move argued that the threat of a ban was necessary for national security concerns.
That issue was resolved in December 2025 when a new TikTok U.S. joint venture was formed to enable the app to continue operating in the country.
According to Wednesday’s report from the WSJ, this transaction secured the platform’s future in the U.S.
Charm.io said in a March press release that the growth of TikTok Shop has been driven in part by the size and sophistication of the platform’s creator network.
Patrick Nommensen, head of strategic initiatives at TikTok Shop, told the company: “This has been a big driver of more and more big brands coming to the platform, because now there’s this community of creators for them to be able to work with.”
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Generation Pulse: Just How Influential Are Influencers?” found that more than half of U.S. consumers buy something recommended by an influencer at least once a year.
