Officially launched on March 31, 2025 in France, Germany, and Italy (and still pending in Belgium), TikTok Shop allows users to discover and purchase products directly within the app.
A shift that confirms the explosive rise of social commerce in Europe.
And while some brands are already exploring this new sales channel, others are wondering: is TikTok Shop just a passing trend or the new standard in e-commerce?
In this article, we break down this strategic pivot by the Chinese giant.
TL;DR: TikTok Shop allows users to purchase directly from videos, without leaving the app.
Already live in France, Germany, and Italy, it puts creators at the heart of the sales journey, with content that becomes instantly shoppable. Live shopping, interactive videos, mini-stores… TikTok offers a fully integrated, mobile-first, highly engaging shopping experience.
As Instagram scales back its shop features, TikTok is positioning itself as a powerful new e-commerce lever. The tool is not yet available in Belgium, but its launch seems imminent.
How does TikTok Shop work?
No need to redirect to an external site: content, recommendations, and purchases happen in one seamless environment.
In concrete terms, TikTok Shop relies on four key features:
- Live Shopping: Real-time product demos with instant purchase options
- Shoppable Videos: Purchase links embedded in regular videos
- Product Showcase: A mini-store hosted on the seller’s profile
-
Shop Tab: A dedicated space aggregating all products
Content creators can earn commissions, turning each video into a potential sales channel.
For brands, it’s a chance to create an ultra-short customer journey, powered by TikTok’s algorithm.
TikTok Shop in Europe
In France
TikTok Shop is now available to all users. Brands like Carrefour, Sephora, and Cdiscount have already started testing the format, especially through live shopping. The goal is clear: capture a young, mobile, impulse-buying audience.
In Germany
The German market has undergone a full rollout. Partnerships have been announced with AboutYou, Nivea, and Douglas. The feature is already used at scale by local influencers.
In Belgium
As of now, TikTok Shop is not available in Belgium. According to an April 2025 survey by Testachats, only promotional content is visible. Users can discover products through videos, but purchases still redirect to external links. No official launch date has been announced.
Note: In Belgium, TikTok Shop only exists as non-interactive showcases. The full version—with integrated checkout—is expected, but has yet to be activated.
“With TikTok Shop, online shopping becomes a natural extension of the content. The product isn’t next to the video; it’s part of it. It’s integrated, recommended, staged. The result? A smooth, fast, mobile-native experience.
The ‘For You’ algorithm now plays a key role: not just entertaining, but also recommending ultra-targeted products. And creators? They no longer just bring visibility – they sell, directly through their videos.”
– Laureline Jozic, content manager @Stellar Tech
Instagram Shop losing momentum
Instagram was one of the first social platforms to integrate a shopping experience, launching Instagram Shop in 2017. For several years, brands could create product showcases, tag items in posts, and drive traffic to their sites.
But since 2023, Meta has taken a strategic turn: removing the Shop tab, refocusing on content, and reducing features in several countries.
As of today:
In France and Germany, Instagram Shop is still available. Brands can tag and sell products.
In Belgium, however, the feature has almost disappeared—for both brands and consumers. There’s no product search or dedicated tab in the interface.
This progressive retreat leaves room for TikTok’s more integrated, engaging, and current approach.
TikTok vs Instagram: who dominates social commerce in 2025?
On one side, TikTok is accelerating—adding new formats, betting on integrated shopping, and pushing deep personalization.
On the other, Instagram is slowing down—removing key features and leaving brands with fewer tools to convert.
When it comes to social commerce, TikTok clearly has the upper hand:
Native, intuitive shopping experience, with no friction
Influence-led dynamics, where creators become sellers
A powerful algorithm to push the right products to the right audiences
Instagram still has strengths: a well-established brand base, a premium image, and strong integration with Facebook. But its model now seems less suited to fast, mobile, community-driven shopping.
For brands, the message is clear: TikTok is a lever to test—and even prioritize—in your e-commerce strategy, especially in France and Germany.
Start on TikTok Shop with the right creators
Stellar is the leading influencer marketing platform to find, analyze, and manage the collaborations that matter – including on TikTok.
Find the right TikTok creators with Discovery
- Access a database of 50+ million creators
- Find your next ambassadors via advanced search, social listening, or our Chrome extension
- Analyze past performance, tone, audience, and authenticity
- Spot market trends through competitive benchmarking
Manage your campaigns from A to Z with Stellar
With Stellar, you can track and monitor your campaigns in real time, measure performance on TikTok (and beyond), and manage your results from awareness to sales.
You can:
- Monitor TikTok (and multi-platform) campaigns from a central dashboard
- Manage briefs, timelines, product shipments, content, and approvals in one place
- Generate trackable links and promo codes to measure real impact (clicks, sales…)
- Track all your KPIs: views, engagement, ROI, EMV, etc.
- Export clear, ready-to-share reports
- Analyze audience feedback using sentiment analysis
- And much more!
TikTok Shop, a channel to watch closely
TikTok Shop is part of a clear trend: a faster, more integrated, influence-led e-commerce.
Already live in France, Germany, and Italy, it stands out for its ability to turn content into a direct sales channel. In Belgium, the full version is still pending, but its launch seems inevitable.
For brands, this is a new playground, both exciting and demanding, that requires rethinking how they activate campaigns, build partnerships, and grab attention.
