According to news on March 28, TikTok Shop, a Chinese online shopping platform, will launch its services for buyers in France, Germany, and Italy on March 31. Jan Wilk, the head of TikTok Shop's UK business, said that in these three newly launched countries, TikTok Shop has already cooperated with merchants and listed products.
The latest data from TikTok Shop shows that from July to December 2024, its monthly active users in the EU region reached 159.1 million, an increase of 9 million compared with the previous cycle. Among them, users from Germany, France, and Italy account for more than 60%, with an average daily usage time exceeding 90 minutes. France has the largest number of users, with 25.1 million, followed by Germany (24.2 million), Italy (22.8 million), and Spain (21.9 million). The highly active user ecosystem provides a natural traffic pool for the conversion of live-streaming e-commerce.
Market research firm Mordor Intelligence predicts that the European e-commerce market size will climb at a compound annual growth rate of 8% from 2024 to 2029, reaching USD 951.1 billion (CNY 6913.17 billion) by 2029. Currently, the e-commerce penetration rate in markets such as the UK and Germany is rising rapidly, and consumer demand for cost-effective Chinese goods is surging. TikTok Shop's decision to expand into Germany, France, and Italy at this time is a strategic move to position itself during the explosive growth period of social e-commerce in Europe.
To ensure that sellers can smoothly enter the European market, TikTok Shop has introduced two entry modes, full management and self-operation, for different types of sellers to match their diverse business needs. It is worth noting that the platform has also launched a "One Store for Five Countries" policy simultaneously: Sellers with a company entity in any of Spain, Germany, France, or Italy can operate sub-stores in the other three countries simultaneously after activating their main store (Ireland is currently by invitation only).
So far, TikTok Shop has entered multiple global markets, including Indonesia, the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the US, Spain, Ireland, and Mexico.
