# Ulta Beauty and Sally Beauty Nearly Doubled TikTok Shop Sales in 2025 *Major retailers now treat the platform as a primary distribution channel, not a marketing experiment.* By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC. Published 2026-08-04. Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/tiktok-shop-2026-08-04t00-1 Subject: TikTok Shop Tags: tiktok shop, social commerce, beauty retail, distribution, direct-to-consumer, conversion --- Ulta Beauty and Sally Beauty joined TikTok Shop in 2025 and saw sales from the platform nearly double year-over-year, according to Modern Retail. The move signals that mainstream beauty retailers now view TikTok Shop as a core sales channel, not a secondary test. Both brands launched native storefronts on TikTok Shop, allowing users to purchase products without leaving the app. The integration meant zero checkout friction: a viewer watching a makeup tutorial could tap a product tag, add to cart, and complete payment inside TikTok. No browser handoff, no cart abandonment at a domain boundary. Ulta and Sally Beauty stocked a curated assortment — not their full catalog — prioritizing SKUs already performing in short-form video content. The mechanism is distribution arbitrage. TikTok's algorithm surfaces product content to audiences who have never heard of a brand's e-commerce site. A user scrolling beauty content sees a product demo, buys in two taps, and the brand acquires a customer it would not have reached via Google, Amazon, or owned channels. The platform's recommendation engine does discovery work that traditionally required paid social spend. For Ulta and Sally Beauty, TikTok Shop became a customer acquisition channel with built-in conversion infrastructure. The near-doubling of sales reflects a shift in user behavior: shoppers now expect to transact where they discover. A 2024 study cited by Modern Retail found that **68%** of TikTok users who saw a product in-feed preferred to buy without leaving the app. The brands that embedded checkout inside the content feed captured that intent. Those that linked out to Shopify or their own domains lost the majority of interested viewers at the redirect. A small physical-product brand can replicate this without a multi-SKU catalog or a media budget. First, apply to TikTok Shop as a seller — approval takes one to two weeks for U.S.-based brands with a business license and a functioning Shopify or WooCommerce store. Second, select **three to five** hero SKUs that solve a visible problem or deliver a transformation viewers can see in under 30 seconds. Third, create **10 to 15** organic product demo videos using a smartphone: unboxing, before-and-after, comparison tests, user testimonials. Post these over two weeks, tagging products in each video. TikTok's algorithm will test the content across micro-audiences. The videos that generate watch-through and saves will be shown to larger cohorts. No media spend required at this stage. Once organic posts generate traction, layer in TikTok Shop's affiliate program. Recruit **five to ten** micro-creators (1,000 to 10,000 followers) in your product category and offer them a **10% to 20%** commission on sales they drive through their own content. These creators post product demos with your TikTok Shop link embedded. You pay only on conversion. A brand selling kitchen gadgets, for example, could recruit home-cooking creators, send them a sample unit, and let them demonstrate it to their audience. The creator earns a commission, the brand acquires customers at a known cost per sale, and TikTok Shop handles payment and fulfillment tracking. The cost structure favors small operators. TikTok Shop charges a **5%** transaction fee on orders under **$100** and **2%** on orders above that threshold, lower than Amazon's **15%** referral fee for most categories. Brands that ship directly avoid Amazon's FBA storage and fulfillment charges. A $40 product that sells **50 units** per week through TikTok Shop incurs **$100** in platform fees, compared to **$300** in Amazon fees for the same volume. The playbook is now public: embed your checkout inside the discovery feed, stock hero SKUs that perform in short video, and recruit creators who already speak to your audience. Ulta and Sally Beauty ran the play at scale. A one-person brand can run it with three products and a phone camera. ## The takeaway TikTok Shop's in-app checkout captures intent at the moment of discovery, converting viewers who would abandon a browser redirect. --- ## Publisher **Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339. Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**. - Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about - LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt - MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp - Client dashboard: https://dashboard.pops4.com/ - Catalogue: 70,000+ products, 200+ brands