In 2023, TikTok soft-launched TikTok Shop, and business immediately boomed. Businesses and influencers advertise their products on TikTok while providing links to buy their products in the TikTok shop. This allows consumers to buy the product without being directed to another site.
In hindsight, this seems like a helpful addition to TikTok, as customers can quickly purchase items and then return to scrolling. Additionally, many products on TikTok Shop are at a discounted price, giving viewers all the more reason to buy from the site.
But the extreme sales and convenience of the site drive viewers to buy products they normally wouldn’t. TikTok Shop made 100 million dollars from Black Friday alone in 2024.
This set-up is similar to companies like Temu who sell products at extremely low prices, but have negative environmental impacts. TikTok Shop feeds on the ever-changing trends on social media, specifically microtrends.
Junior Will Wern notices how TikTok Shop promotes microtrends. “The site shows microtrend items that are out of demand faster than the can be old. This can produce a significant amount of waste,” noted Wern.
Popular microtrends in the past included the coquette aesthetic and, most recently the “fisherman aesthetic.” These microtrends make consumers feel like they always need something new to keep up, which works in TikTok Shop’s favor, especially as the individual goes to buy the next microtrend the next month.
Most of the time, many of these products or clothes will end up donated within a short time frame. These items, however, are no longer what people are looking for, bringing them to their final location—a landfill.
TikTok Shop is also unreliable and sells products that may not exist. This, accompanied with poor customer service, is enough to deter many customers from repurchasing from TikTok Shop.
Past TikTok Shop buyer Alex Nash noted how compelling it is to buy on TikTok Shop and the poor customer service he received after purchasing a non-existent product. “Posts and the many coupons that the store offers can persuade people into choosing TikTok shop products when they could have gotten better quality through a different site like Amazon. I bought a Chamoy Pickle for $6 that never arrived and took almost six months to refund,” said Nash.
As viewers continue to scroll through content, many influencers post with TikTok Shop affiliate links. These are primarily “TikTok Shop Creators” who receive commission when someone purchases from the links they share for users to buy certain products. Now, when a viewer searches for product recommendations, they are met with influencers promoting items found on the platform.
Users hoping for honest reviews and recommendations are met with influencers looking for a cash grab instead. This has also made influencers and the in-app experience feel inauthentic to users. Wern has noted this while scrolling on his feed. “TikTok Shop encourages influencers to promote disingenuously for paid promotion for their audiences, which makes it so the TikTok shop products fail to live up to the expectations of consumers,” said Wern.
TikTok Shop has managed to increase the consumeristic nature of TikTok by providing a convenient way for users to feed into overconsumption.
