TikTok Continues to Face Challenges With its In-Stream Buying Push

TikTok’s plan to transform itself into a world eCommerce powerhouse continues to face challenges, with the platform’s in-stream buying choices now struggling to realize vital floor in Indonesia, the place TikTok had been seeing greater ranges of buying success.

Final yr, TikTok acquired native on-line retail supplier Tokopedia, as a way to adjust to native rules that restrict social media corporations from working eCommerce platforms. The thought was that this is able to allow TikTok to each align with its authorized necessities, whereas additionally piggybacking off of Tokopedia’s success, with the buying app having established itself as a key on-line commerce instrument within the area.

However stories recommend that it hasn’t performed out the best way that TikTok hoped.

In keeping with Remainder of World, TikTok has since pushed Tokopedia sellers to make TikTok-like content material, which could be very completely different from the static product pictures they might add to Tokopedia. Sellers have additionally reported decrease website visits, in addition to greater charges and advert prices, which has prompted a lot of them to modify to different commerce platforms as an alternative.

So relatively than constructing TikTok’s on-line buying presence, it’s seemingly now taken it again a step. Which might be a very robust capsule to swallow for TikTok, provided that it paid $US840 million for Tokopedia, and TikTok had been gaining traction with its in-stream gross sales choices in South East Asian markets.

It hasn’t, nevertheless, seen the identical success in Western areas, the place shoppers proceed to desire to maintain their buying exercise separate from their social and/or leisure apps.

For no matter cause, Western customers haven’t proven the identical choice as Chinese language digital shoppers to cram as a lot performance as they will right into a single app, which is what’s seen platforms like WeChat and TikTok change into main cash makers within the Chinese language native market.

And now, TikTok’s gross sales push is stalling in different areas as nicely, and it’ll be attention-grabbing to see whether or not TikTok seems to be to shift focus onto its advert enterprise as an alternative, if it could’t acquire actual traction for its on-line buying choices.

However then once more, TikTok buying is steadily rising, simply not as quick as TikTok would love.

Final month, TikTok reported that:

“Over the previous yr, our group of sellers has expanded into greater than 750 classes, bringing buyers an unimaginable choice of over 70 million merchandise. To date in 2025, our rising group of buyers, sellers, and creators has pushed spectacular momentum throughout the TikTok Store platform. Within the U.S., TikTok Store gross sales have elevated 120% in comparison with the identical interval final yr.”

So TikTok buying is on the rise, however it’s a far cry from the fast success that the corporate noticed with its buying choices in China.

Certainly, buying is now the highest income stream for Douyin, the Chinese language model of the app, with Douyin bringing in $US490 billion in gross merchandise worth (GMV) in 2024 alone. By comparability, TikTok reportedly generated round $US33 billion in GMV, throughout all different markets.

The numbers underline the potential, but in addition the problem, in that TikTok has been pushing its buying choices for 4 years now, they usually haven’t gained on the similar price as they’ve within the Chinese language market.

But it surely’s nonetheless doubtlessly an space of alternative. And whereas TikTok is dealing with pushback in some areas, it appears possible that it’ll proceed to plough on with its buying choices, with a view to tapping into that very same potential in additional areas.

Challenges stay, however there’s seemingly sufficient development to maintain TikTok targeted on making this a factor, which is price noting for on-line sellers.