The Ultimate Guide to TikTok Live Shopping in 2025
TikTok is quickly taking over the world of E-commerce, if you want to learn how to succeed in the world of TikTok Shop, delve into our complete guide brought to you by Virtuopo.
What is TikTok Live Shopping?
TikTok Live shopping is an e-commerce experience that allows brands and businesses of all sizes to sell their products through interactive live streams on social media platforms.
TikTok first introduced Live Shopping to the platform in 2023, since then it has contributed immensely to the E-commerce landscape, with experts predicting the industry will be worth $4.8 trillion by 2025.
Live participants can purchase goods without ever leaving the TikTok app, which is one of the reasons for its popularity, it’s a smooth transaction offering viewers the unique opportunity to interact with brands in real-time.
Products can also be sold through in-feed videos and paid ads, meaning brands have numerous other ways to sell their products on the platform.
How Does TikTok Live Shopping Work?
Sellers can populate their TikTok Shop with products, which they can select to be featured within their TikTok Lives ‘basket’, meaning these products will be available to view and purchase during the live broadcast. Once live, viewers can browse and purchase these products.
Throughout the Live, the seller can ‘pin’ products to the stream, temporarily appearing on screen for all viewers to see, this is a helpful tool so the product you’re talking about can be highlighted.
5 Reasons Why Brands Should Use TikTok Live Shopping
Real-Time Interaction
TikTok Live takes brand-consumer engagement to a new level, allowing audiences to Interact in real-time with brands that they care about, helping to build trust and brand loyalty.
Shoppers can interact through text using the chat feature, which they can use to request product demonstrations, ask questions about products and generally chat with the host as well as other viewers.
These interactions are great for building authentic connections with new customers and strengthening the bond with existing customers.
Seamless Shopping Experience
Viewers in your live can make purchases without leaving the live shopping session, the live shop customer journey is as easy as clicking on the shopping cart icon in the corner and checking out your products.
TikTok also has its own ready-to-go shipping infrastructure, meaning customers can expect swift delivery.
Increased Reach
TikTok Live streams can be discovered by users who are browsing the app, meaning the potential of bringing in new customers is massive. TikTok as a platform has over 1 billion registered users, from all over the world, who could potentially join your live shopping event.
Going live is a guaranteed way of getting products in front of a wider audience, proving valuable for businesses of all sizes.
Customer Insights
TikTok’s in-depth analytical tools allow you to gain a better understanding of your audience, giving you a unique insight into your customer’s behaviours.
During your shopping event you can delve into real-time analytics, which allows you to see statistics such as Average watch time, Bounce Rate, Click-throughs, Products added to baskets, conversion rates, Average View Time and abandoned checkouts amongst many more.
TikTok also offers information on when your audience is most active on the platform, breaking it down to days and hours, so you can choose the best time to go live.
Potential for Higher Sales Conversion
TikTok Live provides brands with a unique opportunity to drive sales conversions. It allows potential customers to become familiar with the product and brand before they buy, increasing sales conversion.
Live shopping sessions offer limited-time discounts to live viewers, creating a sense of urgency for people to check out whilst they can.
Do People Actually Buy on TikTok Live Shopping?
a 2023 study found that 50% of TikTok users had bought a product after seeing it on a TikTok Live and throughout 2024 we have seen its popularity continue to grow, with popular creators and brands using it as a tool to launch new products.
Live shopping is most popular with Gen Z, which is ages 13-28, this is because Gen Z has grown up with social media and feels more comfortable consuming through TikTok Shop.
If you want to gauge the popularity of TikTok Live Shopping, take a look at the Black Friday statistics from TikTok 2024 season. The holiday shopping season helped TikTok increase revenue by 179% and saw a 131% increase in shoppers, from November 25th – December 2nd.
It also featured:
- Over 6000 live shopping sessions per day in the UK alone
- 95% of purchases came from small and medium-sized UK businesses
- 1.6 million shippable videos were created by brands and creators
What are the most popular products on TikTok Shop?
Fashion and beauty products are the most dominant product categories on TikTok Shop. Highly visual and interactive shopping livestreams make it easy for sellers to highlight key features of products.
Popular products include:
- Casual dresses
- Fragrances
- Skincare
- Hair and scalp care
- Makeup
- Beauty tools
- Sunglasses and glasses
- Electronic accessories
- Sweatshirts
- Jeans
- Bodysuits
- Headphones
- Hygiene items
- Jewellery
Record-Breaking TikTok Live – P.Louise Cosmetics
Paige Louise Williams founder of beauty brand P. Louise Cosmetics, started her cosmetics brand in 2018, she took out a loan of £20,000 to bring her vision to life. Since then P. Louise has become one of the top-selling make-up brands in the world, breaking records on TikTok with her 12-hour live stream that generated over £2 million, establishing her brand as a leader in the world of cosmetics and e-commerce.
Setting up Your TikTok Shop Live in 8 Simple Steps
Set up Your Shop
It’s important to set up your TikTok Shop by populating it with the products you want to sell, ensuring you add correct details of size, weight, colour, etc.
Set up Your Basket
Once your shop is set up, you can select which products will be available to your live viewers, this is called your basket. Think strategically about the order of your basket, the products that are high-performing should be at the top of your basket.
Set your title
Adding a relevant title can help the platform categorise your live event, using keywords relating to your niche can help the algorithm feed your stream to the right people. It’s also a helpful way of summarising your live in one sentence so users passing by can make a quick decision on whether to watch or keep browsing.
Add an image
Adding an image is just another small way of grabbing people’s attention, consider colours and designs that tie into the theme of your overall live stream, you want to make your live as eye-catching as possible.
Strategy
Think about your approach to selling your products, how are you going to engage your audience? Think about the language you can use to be persuasive and create a sense of urgency.
Moderators
Select a trusted person to be your moderator, this person will watch the chat to mute and report anyone who isn’t following the TikTok community guidelines. Moderators can also help relay questions from viewers to the presenters.
Violations
Familiarise yourself with the TikTok Live violations guidelines, this will ensure you don’t do anything to limit traffic to your live. It can be difficult to adhere to the guidelines, but it’s worth reading up on them to give your livestream the best chance at success.
Promotion
Promote your live with short videos letting audiences know what they can expect from your upcoming event. Highlighting deals and discounts can be a great way to build anticipation and grab people’s attention. Paid TikTok Ads are an effective way of increasing the reach of your promotional efforts.
Things to Consider During Your Live
When you are live it’s important to interact with your live audience and encourage viewer comments, likes and shares to boost engagement.
Use all tools available to you such as polls, giveaways, Live goals and effects to keep things exciting for watchers. Your goal is to keep people in your Live for as long as possible, to increase the chance of users purchasing your products.
A team member should be analysing your Live performance in real-time to ensure you are being reactive. Although it’s important to script and plan your Live, you will need to react and be able to adapt depending on what products are getting the most attention.
Here are some key live analytics you need to watch during your Live:
- GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume)
- Viewers
- Items sold
- Tap-through rate
- Likes
- Views
- Comments
- Shares
- Product impressions
- Product clicks
- Click Through Rate
- Ads product clicks
Things to Consider After Your Live
It’s important to take the time to review the performance of your TikTok Live, the platform offers an in-depth analysis of your live stream. You can review the minute-by-minute performance of the stream, and track sales, product views, checkouts and more. Giving you a really clear and concise picture of what went well and what can be improved upon.
You can also analyse the performance of your promotional videos building up to your live event, consider how effective your promotional efforts were and think about how you can improve for next time.
TikTok Shop Partners
TikTok Shop Partners are third-party agencies that offer their services to brands and sellers, this could include services such as:
- Content Creation
- Live Streaming
- Shop Management
- Integrated Marketing
- Affiliate Management
What are the benefits of partnering with a TikTok Shop Partner?
TikTok Shop Partners are experts in their field, using their services takes any technical, logistical and strategic pressure off the brand or seller, meaning you don’t have to stress about your live shopping event running smoothly.
Virtuopo – Live Streaming Professionals
Virtuopo is an official TikTok Shop Partner, we offer our live streaming services to sellers and brands. We aim to deliver professional live streams that elevate production values and help to increase sales.
Since 2020 Virtuopo has been at the forefront of the live industry, working closely with a range of clients to deliver bespoke live experiences. Based in Liverpool, we have a production studio which is used for live streaming, content creation and virtual production. Find out more about our Live Shopping services here.
Bespoke Fitness Live Shopping Experience
We approached upcoming content creator Annie (@annie.r.x) with ideas on how she could create an exciting live shopping experience for her audience. Our concept featured 3 segments: Fitness, Fashion and Beauty.
We chose a range of products available on TikTok Shop that would be featured in the live basket for her live shop, these products would be used and demonstrated during the live, strategically choosing products that would be desirable to her audience specifically.
We created a bespoke set that would have an area for each segment of the live show, allowing it to flow freely from one area to the next. We had 3 4k cameras shooting the live show to capture every moment, and we utilised wireless mics so the presenters could roam freely around the set.
Whilst live, we identified traffic-driving products that when spoken about, caused a spike in viewers, we prompted Annie to push these products and to interact with comments addressing these items. Live real-time analytics is such a powerful tool, and can help you enhance the effectiveness of your selling on TikTok Live Shop.
The event was a huge success, it was dynamic, engaging and brought Annie closer to her followers. We achieved our goal of creating an immersive shopping experience for her viewers, and increasing her sales through TikTok.
Virtuopo – TikTok Shop Partner Services
Virtuopo is registered as an official TikTok Shop Partner, meaning sellers and brands can discover our services us through the TikTok Seller Center.
Our production studio is based in Liverpool and we offer a range of services to our clients.
Livestream Operations
Our North-West based studio has professional live streaming capabilities, manned by our team who have years of experience in the live events industry, we’re the go-to team for live stream production.
Content Creation
Short-form videos can be created in bulk at our production studio, with lighting rigs, sound kits and 4k cameras, we can create bespoke content to promote your TikTok Live.
Our focus is to create experiential live shopping for brands, this approach aligns with the platform’s vibrant culture of storytelling, authenticity and community-driven engagement.
Come and see Liverpool’s only specialist live streaming studio for yourself, contact us using the details below to book a viewing.
If you want to find out more about how we can help you with TikTok Live Shopping, you can contact us at 0151 662 0275 or email us at info@virtuopo.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you shop on TikTok Live?
Yes, you can shop on TikTok Live! You can browse products from the Live Basket (shopping bag icon) and make a purchase from there.
How do I shop on TikTok Live?
To Shop on TikTok Live, you just need to join the live and check out products from the Live basket. You don’t even need to leave the app, just make sure your payment details are linked to your account, for a smoother checkout.
What is the live shopping feature on TikTok?
The live shopping feature allows users to go live on TikTok and sell products from within the live stream. Users can purchase products from the Live, without leaving TikTok.
Can anyone have a TikTok Shop?
You must have a business account to be able to set up a TikTok Shop. If you are currently using a personal account you will need to convert to be a business account.
Is TikTok live shop legit?
Yes, TikTok Live Shopping is a trusted platform. Sellers have to go through a joining process which requires official identification documents.
