Since the late 1980s, Americans have marked the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday, the “official” start of the holiday sale season and the busiest shopping day of the year. Stores like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy used to draw huge crowds by offering massive discounts to the first shoppers to come through the doors. As time passed and e-commerce became more common, though, the one-day sales bonanza expanded to include online deals. Now Amazon is the undisputed champion of Black Friday, with more than 17 percent of all Black Friday purchases in the U.S. going through the online retailer, amounting to over $1.7 billion in single-day sales.

Compared to Amazon’s eye-popping numbers, TikTok Shop’s $100 million sales total may seem small, but experts say it’s a sign that more people are using social media to shop on Black Friday. TikTok, the wildly popular app best known for dance trends and lip syncs, launched an e-commerce platform called TikTok Shop last year. For brands like Nike, PacSun, and Crocs, TikTok Shop offers an alternative to Amazon and a way to tap into a user base of more than 170 million Americans. For shoppers, it’s an easy way to buy what they see while scrolling their video feeds.

But TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain. Earlier this year, the federal government passed a law that requires TikTok’s owner ByteDance to sell to a U.S. parent company by January 2025 or else face a nationwide ban. TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the ban that could eventually end up in the Supreme Court, which means there may not be a final ruling on the case until 2026. No matter what the future holds, however, businesses are taking advantage of TikTok Shop’s growing popularity while it’s still around. For example, entrepreneurs Marlin Chan and Rachel Cheng use the platform to sell crispy Cambodian beef jerky to their thousands of followers. “If we were sitting here worrying about what’s next, we would’ve never gotten on TikTok Shop,” said Cheng, co-founder of the company Yay’s Snacks. “We’re enjoying it while it’s hot.”

Questions:

1. What advantages and disadvantages does TikTok Shop have compared to an established e-commerce giant like Amazon?
2. How do you think businesses that sell products on TikTok Shop will respond if the U.S. government bans TikTok?

Source: Annie Palmer, “Why Amazon sellers and retailers are Flocking to TikTok Shop Despite Looming U.S. Ban,” CNBC, Dec. 2, 2024.