One early morning last April, the gaming room in Shi Ke’s home glowed with light from three computer monitors.
At 30, Shi leads TikTok Shop operations for Shenzhen-based 3D printer maker Creality. He sat tensely before the screens, watching a live product demonstration by a US influencer on one monitor while tracking order data and replying to viewer comments on another.
Notification alerts pinged nonstop. By the end of the session, Creality’s live stream had generated more than USD 40,000 in sales, the company’s best single-day performance since expanding overseas.
Shi is not alone. Luo, who runs a Christmas tree factory in Dongguan; Kong Xiaotian, founder of wig brand OQ Hair in Xuchang, Henan; and many others across China are connecting with overseas consumers through a web of data, short videos, and live streams.
Their shared platform is TikTok Shop, which has expanded rapidly. By 2025, its gross merchandise value had approached USD 100 billion, with more than 400 million active shoppers across 17 global markets.
When that much money flows through a single platform, TikTok Shop becomes more than a sales channel. For Chinese merchants, it serves as a bridge to unfamiliar markets, a growth engine, and a frontline for building global brands.
Selling what people never knew existed
In August 2025, thousands of cardboard boxes were stacked neatly in a Dongguan warehouse, ready to ship.
It was still four months before Christmas, traditionally the slowest season for Christmas decor makers. But for Bringstar Store, the summer brought a surge of unexpected orders.
The catalyst was a collapsible Christmas tree that can be set up in seconds.
On search-based e-commerce platforms, such a product would struggle. Consumers who do not know foldable Christmas trees exist are unlikely to search for them, and static product photos fail to communicate the difference. On TikTok Shop, however, a short video made the value immediately clear. Lift the tree’s top and let go, and the branches unfold automatically, forming a full tree in seconds.
Short-form video proved ideal for capturing that moment of surprise. Influencer collaborations helped the product spread quickly. Within four months, Bringstar sold all 5,000 units and generated more than USD 500,000 in revenue.
“As long as a good product is shown the right way, it sells fast,” Luo said.
Search-based e-commerce is efficient, but unforgiving.
Han Han, general manager of Super-Chien Technology, learned this firsthand. His company developed a nut milk maker, a niche appliance in Western markets. Without brand recognition or direct consumer searches, the product was buried beneath listings from established blender brands.
The turning point came when US-based influencer Ahren Graves, who has over 300,000 followers, posted a TikTok video demonstrating how to make almond milk using Super-Chien’s device. One scoop of nuts, some water, a button press, and two minutes later, a glass of milk was ready. The video drew about 2.2 million views and 110,000 likes, and monthly sales climbed to RMB 10 million (USD 1.4 million).
Consumers who had never heard of the product discovered it through video. Some later purchased the same model on Amazon, lifting sales across channels.
Traditional e-commerce assumes consumers know what they want. Content-driven commerce surfaces latent demand by showing consumers what is possible.
That dynamic makes TikTok Shop especially effective for products best understood in motion, as well as niche items consumers did not know they needed. For agile sellers, it creates room to grow despite intense competition.
The wig maker who listens
OQ Hair founder Kong Xiaotian grew up amid the kerosene scent of small wig workshops in Xuchang. The business was once purely mechanical. Buy raw hair, process it into bundles, and ship it overseas. Orders came and went, but the factory rarely heard from end customers.
That changed when Kong tried on one of his own wigs.
“I suddenly understood what customers meant,” he said. “Was the lace flat enough? Did the elastic band hurt? Did it look real?”
The geographic and cultural distance that once separated Chinese factories from overseas consumers has narrowed. Platforms such as TikTok Shop now deliver feedback in near real time.
In 2023 and 2024, OQ Hair sent samples of its glueless wig to TikTok Shop influencers to test demand. One creator, an ethnic Black woman filming in her car, posted a clip showing how easily the wig could be put on. The video reached 7.6 million views and presumably drove a surge in sales.
What mattered most to Kong was not the spike in orders, but the feedback that followed.
Early buyers said wigs without clips felt unstable. Within days, OQ Hair added detachable clips so users could adjust fit and comfort. As summer approached, customers asked for cooler options, prompting lighter designs. Others worried about slippage, leading to added anti-slip bands.
Each change came directly from comments and live stream interactions.
“We just look at TikTok Shop data and user feedback,” said Liu Tao, OQ Hair’s product manager. “It tells us exactly what to make next.”
In Xuchang’s factories, production lines now respond less to wholesalers’ forecasts and more to live consumer data from overseas.
Giving Chinese brands their own name
Selling products abroad is one thing. Being remembered for them is another.
In Humen Town, Dongguan, garment maker Ruimin produces plus-size women’s clothing and generates about RMB 120 million (USD 16.8 million) in annual sales. It is a top supplier on third-party e-commerce platforms, known for speed and scale. Yet founder Guo Hua remained uneasy. As an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), the business depended on external orders. If those platforms stopped buying, the impact would be severe.
Guo had registered a brand called Finjani, but it existed largely on paper.
That changed in late 2023, when one of Ruimin’s knit sets sold more than 1,000 units on TikTok Shop. Seeing the platform’s potential, Guo formed a small team to build a direct-to-consumer presence.
By studying content trends, the team learned that Western shoppers favored bright, high-saturation resort colors. Ruimin expanded its dress line from four colors to 16 and added elastic bands at the bust for comfort.
The redesigned dresses, now under the Finjani label, were promoted through TikTok advertising and influencer partnerships. Within five months, a single viral dress sold nearly 120,000 units, and annual store revenue surpassed RMB 23 million (USD 3.2 million).
Today, garments shipped from Ruimin’s Dongguan factory to Europe and North America carry the Finjani tag, visible across live streams and short videos.
“A person needs a name,” Guo said. “So do the clothes we make.”
When visibility becomes influence
For Creality, already known among 3D printing enthusiasts, the challenge was reaching a broader audience.
When Shi took over TikTok Shop operations in March 2025, he was working alone and had two weeks to launch a new product. He partnered with a US-based influencer using the handle @is3dp, a creator with fewer than 15,000 followers but deep technical expertise.
Because Creality’s printers often cost hundreds of dollars, buyers needed reassurance. Shi turned the live stream into a virtual showroom, staying awake in Shenzhen until as late as 4 a.m. to answer real-time questions on materials and compatibility. The transparent format helped ease hesitation.
One April night, the live stream generated USD 40,000 in orders.
Over time, Shi expanded collaborations with US creators, refined targeting, and experimented with formats. Creality’s TikTok Shop GMV (gross merchandise value) reached USD 400,000, while monthly consumables sales exceeded 10,000 units.
For established brands, TikTok Shop offers a stage to shape identity, build relevance, and occasionally spark cultural moments.
The global rise of Pop Mart’s Labubu illustrates that potential. Hail a ride in the US today, and there is a good chance the driver has a Labubu figurine hanging from the dashboard.
The surge can be traced back to November 2024, when Vanity Fair posted a TikTok video of K-pop star Lisa showing off her collection. Interest spiked. When Pop Mart launched the Labubu “Big into Energy” series on TikTok Shop in April 2025, nearly 100,000 viewers tuned in to the live stream, and all 20,000 figurines sold out within seconds.
Labubu-tagged videos now exceed 3.5 million on TikTok, with more than one billion cumulative views. On TikTok Shop’s US page, Pop Mart’s total sales surpass 2.5 million units.
From Guo’s first Finjani tag in a Dongguan factory to Shi’s late-night data monitoring and Labubu’s viral rise, TikTok Shop has played a role at every stage. It gives unbranded products an identity, turns niche items into mainstream hits, and helps established brands reach new cultural relevance.
TikTok Shop’s near USD 100 billion GMV in 2025 underscores how content-driven commerce has reshaped global retail.
For decades, Chinese manufacturers operated behind the scenes of global supply chains, distant from end consumers. TikTok Shop offers a direct line outward, allowing them to sense demand, iterate, and build brands.
When businesses such as OQ Hair and Finjani, once anonymous suppliers, can read global consumer signals in near real time and respond quickly, perhaps, it points to a deeper shift underway.