Magnificence has blossomed on TikTok Store, however a tug of struggle between the world’s two greatest superpowers means its future is unsure.
If mounting stress to promote to a non-Chinese language proprietor hasn’t forged sufficient uncertainty on TikTok’s future, the app’s destiny has now additionally turn into inextricably enmeshed in a commerce struggle between the U.S. and China.
In the latest improvement, U.S. President Donald Trump positioned tariffs of as much as 245 % on some Chinese language items, the best charge positioned on any of the 60 whole nations hit with tariff hikes as a part of the president’s reported plan to spice up the American financial system.
China, the one nation exempt from a 90-day pause on tariffs above 10 % which took impact April 5, has responded with retaliatory tariffs of 125 % on U.S. imports.
Pains of this tariff struggle are already being felt throughout industries, together with magnificence, a lot of which rely closely on Chinese language manufacturing for components and packaging. On high of this, the escalation additional complicates the way forward for TikTok — and subsequently, its burgeoning e-commerce arm TikTok Store — because the ByteDance-owned platform faces stress to both promote its U.S. operation to a brand new proprietor or face a ban within the area over safety issues.
Earlier deadlines of Jan. 18 and April 5 to both promote or be banned have each been prolonged by Trump, who’s intent on brokering a deal and most not too long ago set one other extension to June 19. A number of outstanding gamers have expressed curiosity in buying the platform, amongst them Microsoft; software program firm Oracle; Amazon; a start-up led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely known as Zoop, and extra.
“Shopping for TikTok and having that form of viewers and attain made available — it’s a once-in-a-lifetime alternative for lots of traders,” mentioned Sky Canaves, principal analyst at Emarketer, including that “a sale can’t be made with out Beijing giving the inexperienced mild — and proper now, TikTok is actually a pawn on this commerce struggle between the U.S. and China.
“I don’t know when or how we’ll see a sale with out this commerce struggle getting into a way more conciliatory section and, proper now, we’re nonetheless within the escalation stage.”
TikTok’s destiny within the U.S. stays in limbo.
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Enterprise as Regular?
Since hovering to mainstream reputation throughout the pandemic, TikTok has turn into a key platform for magnificence when it comes to producing tendencies and propelling manufacturers and merchandise to viral standing. Add to that the runaway success of magnificence promoting by way of TikTok Store following the commerce arm’s 2023 rollout, “the way forward for TikTok’s U.S. operations may have vital implications for magnificence general,” mentioned Jacqueline Flam Stokes, senior vice chairman of magnificence, drug and OTC retail at NielsenIQ.
Information from NielsenIQ reveals magnificence gross sales on TikTok Store have grown 53 % year-over-year, far outpacing whole magnificence e-commerce’s 10 % progress throughout the interval. In the course of the first quarter of 2025, magnificence gross sales on the platform reached $473.9 million — an 87 % improve from the $253.1 million generated throughout the identical interval final 12 months, per Allure.io.
However, it’s enterprise as regular even in opposition to this chaotic backdrop.
“Regardless of a fairly unsure future, we’re seeing that it’s very a lot enterprise as regular on TikTok Store — issues aren’t slowing down,” mentioned Flam Stokes, including that the platform “has modified the best way magnificence shoppers store — and that conduct, that means of procuring, can be what sticks.”
For many of TikTok Store’s trajectory, purchases made by way of the platform had been primarily these costing below $25, or these typically certified as “impulse purchases,” as Flam Stokes put it. However that’s altering. “We’re seeing the value factors and basket sizes improve into the over-$30 vary throughout the previous couple of months as shoppers turn into extra comfy spending more cash on TikTok Store, making purchases that require a bit of extra thought and consideration.”
Living proof: Medicube was the second-biggest magnificence model on TikTok Store throughout the first quarter, in line with Allure.io, and its high vendor? A $93 “glass glow” skincare set that includes eight of the Ok-beauty favourite’s complexion-boosting choices. Different top-10 manufacturers Lattafa Perfumes and Anua equally depend $45 and $79 bundles as their top-performers, respectively.
Anua’s five-piece Final Skincare Routine set netted $2.5 million in gross sales throughout the first quarter of 2025, per Allure.io.
Courtesy
TikTok Below New Possession
So far as how the TikTok expertise might be altered for the platform’s roughly 170 million U.S. customers if it does certainly change arms, most consultants are hoping it received’t — not less than, not when it comes to its core capabilities.
“I’d warning any new homeowners from radically altering something,” mentioned Leslie Ann Corridor, cofounder and chief government officer of social media company Iced Media, which has onboarded manufacturers like Dieux and Moroccanoil to TikTok Store. “The magic of TikTok — what makes it so peerless and distinctive — is the algorithm. It’s that understanding of what persons are enthusiastic about and tips on how to give them extra of it, in addition to that seamless integration of procuring and leisure.”
Added Alex Nisenzon, CEO of Allure.io: “Any acquirer ought to wish to protect the authenticity that TikTok has constructed — the very last thing you’d need is everybody leaving the asset you simply paid a ton of cash to get.”
With that being mentioned, sure potential acquirers appear poised to make invaluable enhancements to the best way the platform already operates.
Microsoft, as an illustration, has beforehand taken a strategic “hands-off” strategy with previous acquisitions corresponding to LinkedIn and, extra not too long ago, online game large Activision Blizzard. The corporate additionally owns Bing and holds a 49 % possession stake in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT — which is critical for a number of causes.
“We already know shoppers are more and more turning to ChatGPT for skincare product suggestions, and that development is simply going to proceed rising,” Corridor mentioned. “Should you have a look at Microsoft as a possible acquirer, and the flexibility for all of that wealthy TikTok knowledge to be enter into these ChatGPT suggestions — that’s gold. That’s the place the way forward for search and product suggestions, particularly in magnificence, are going.”
Along with this, “the youths are looking out on TikTok,” identified Dieux cofounder Charlotte Palermino, who counts greater than 445,000 followers by way of her private TikTok web page (@charlotteparler), and experiences that almost all views of her ultra-viral development and ingredient explainer movies come from TikTok search — not the For You web page.
Certainly, a 2024 survey by Adobe discovered that greater than 2 in 5 Individuals use TikTok as a search engine and almost 1 in 10 Gen Zers usually tend to depend on TikTok than Google as a search engine. Much more not too long ago, knowledge from Statcounter reveals that Google’s search market share dropped under 90 % for the primary time since 2015 for the final three months of 2024, with ChatGPT and Bing being among the many key share gainers.
Escalating rounds of tariffs between the U.S. and China affect the way forward for TikTok’s U.S. operation.
AFP by way of Getty Photographs
In the meantime an acquisition by Amazon, which declined to verify whether or not it positioned a bid for TikTok simply earlier than the April ban deadline, “looks like the least doubtless final result from a regulatory perspective, however could be probably the most transformational if it occurred,” mentioned Kevin Gould, who cofounded sister press-on nail manufacturers Glamnetic and Digi Magnificence, and is the founder and CEO of Kombo Ventures.
Added Entrance Row Group CEO Yuri Boykiv: “If Amazon was to accumulate TikTok, it may create a really profitable alternative for a lot of manufacturers simply from a conversion standpoint, if you concentrate on the quantity of information Amazon has about shoppers, manufacturers and retailers, mixed with TikTok’s energy as a demand-generating platform.”
On the similar time, although, many manufacturers which have embraced TikTok Store are nonetheless hesitant about Amazon. As an example, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton doesn’t promote any of its manufacturers on Amazon, however LVMH-owned Profit Cosmetics has been each an early adopter and a high-performer on TikTok Store even in areas outdoors of the U.S. “These manufacturers see TikTok Store as a very completely different channel — one the place they’ll management the voice, how the model is represented, what creators they companion with,” Nisenzon mentioned.
“The Wild, Wild West”
He added that one advantage of an acquisition by most contenders, together with Amazon, “is that it may form of get rid of the wild, wild West facet of TikTok Store.”
“TikTok is in these form of early-infancy days, just like when Amazon was first getting going, the place you don’t really want to share any particulars to checklist a product — you possibly can put up a photograph, a product identify and that’s it; there are quite a lot of misrepresented merchandise and counterfeit merchandise — any severe U.S. acquirer would doubtless clear a lot of that up.”
In accordance with Canaves, “the favorites for an acquisition are TikTok’s present minority traders — Basic Atlantic and Susquehanna, these private-equity sorts — who would take extra of a backseat position and never attempt to steer the corporate into very uncharted territories — they principally wish to maintain what’s working, working.”
However nonetheless, the backdrop of the U.S.-China commerce struggle makes it unclear when and if a deal may even transact.
“I believe we’ll proceed to see the ban deadline get prolonged, except China makes a transfer to drive ByteDance to tug out of the U.S.,” Canaves mentioned. “Which might be excessive — however given all the pieces else that’s taking place, it’s not out of the realm of chance.”
