Sales from major brands on TikTok Shop nearly doubled in 2025, according to Modern Retail, with beauty giants Ulta and Sally Beauty both opening storefronts on the platform. The shift marks a consolidation around TikTok as a genuine transaction channel, not just a discovery tool.
Ulta launched its TikTok Shop in late 2024 and expanded inventory throughout early 2025. Sally Beauty followed in January 2025, listing hair care, styling tools, and salon-grade products directly in the app. Both brands now let users purchase without leaving TikTok, closing the gap between a thirty-second product demo and checkout. According to eMarketer, TikTok Shop is reshaping US beauty ecommerce by collapsing the funnel: the same scroll that delivers entertainment now delivers products.
The mechanism is conversion proximity. Traditional social commerce required a user to watch a video, click a link, land on a website, navigate to a product page, and then buy. TikTok Shop removes four of those steps. A user sees a beauty creator apply a hair mask, taps the product tag in the video, and checks out in two more taps. The retailer pays TikTok a commission, typically 5% to 8%, but captures sales that would otherwise leak during the redirect. For Ulta and Sally Beauty, the trade-off is margin for volume and speed.
The play works because TikTok's algorithm rewards product videos that hold attention and drive transactions. Brands that seed inventory with creators see organic distribution when those videos perform. Ulta's strategy leans on partnering with mid-tier beauty influencers who post tutorials using Ulta products, then tag the TikTok Shop link. Sally Beauty emphasizes product education videos—how to use a flat iron, how to mix color—where the tool or product is available for immediate purchase. The platform gives these videos preferential reach if they generate sales, creating a flywheel: good content drives purchases, which drives more views, which drives more purchases.
A smaller physical-product brand can replicate the structure without Ulta's budget. Step one: list your top three SKUs on TikTok Shop. The setup takes two hours and costs nothing beyond TikTok's commission. Step two: shoot five product-in-use videos per SKU, each under thirty seconds, showing the problem your product solves. Use your phone. No studio. Step three: post one video every other day, tag the product, and monitor which video format drives purchases. TikTok's Seller Center dashboard shows revenue per video. Step four: identify your best-performing video type and produce three more variations that week. Step five: reach out to ten micro-creators in your category—those with 3,000 to 15,000 followers—and offer them free product in exchange for a video with your TikTok Shop link. Half will say yes. Their videos extend your reach without ad spend.
The cost line is manageable. TikTok Shop charges no upfront fee. Commission runs 5% to 8% per transaction, paid only when you sell. Shipping integrates through TikTok's logistics partners or your own 3PL. Product seeding to ten creators costs you the wholesale value of twenty units, typically under $200 for most consumer goods. You trade margin for customer acquisition in a channel where your competition is still figuring out the login.
The broader pattern is platform convergence. TikTok started as entertainment, added commerce, and is now competing directly with Amazon and Shopify storefronts for checkout volume. Brands that treat it as a satellite discovery channel will lose share to brands that build it as a primary revenue line. The window to claim shelf space in a high-intent feed is open, but narrowing as more brands follow Ulta's lead and flood the platform with inventory.
The takeaway
TikTok Shop collapses the purchase funnel by embedding checkout in entertainment, rewarding brands that pair product demos with instant transactions.
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