TikTok Shopping Is Off to a Slow Start

TikTok invited hundreds of U.S. merchants to join its shopping service in November, but fewer than 100 of them were using it as of last month, my colleagues Juro, Theo, Ann and Kaya reported on Monday. That’s just some of the reporting that shows how few inroads TikTok has made in U.S. e-commerce so far.

Yes, the U.S. version of TikTok Shop is still in testing, but it’s live, available on the app to any users who want to purchase something, and it’s got a public landing page for merchants to set up their storefronts. The lingering threat of a TikTok ban is among the factors holding back U.S. sellers, merchants say.

The new efforts has faced a slow start for other reasons, we reported: