New data from Marketplace Pulse shows that revenue on TikTok Shop concentrates among its top sellers more sharply than on Amazon, according to research tracking nearly 100,000 U.S. TikTok Shop sellers.

The top 1% of sellers in the dataset account for 60% of all tracked U.S. gross merchandise value. The top 0.1%, fewer than 90 sellers each averaging over $100 million in lifetime sales, account for more than a quarter of total GMV. The bottom half of sellers contribute roughly 0.1% of tracked GMV.

How TikTok Shop Compares to Amazon

On Amazon, approximately 1.6% of the active seller base, fewer than 8,000 sellers, generate half of its third-party GMV. On TikTok Shop, the top 1% of tracked sellers, fewer than 900, surpass that same 50% threshold. Marketplace Pulse describes the TikTok Shop distribution as more concentrated than Amazon’s.

The GMV figures represent lifetime totals, estimated from units sold and average price rather than a set time period. Marketplace Pulse notes that as coverage expands further into the long tail and time-period data becomes available, long-tail percentages may shift, but says the overall shape of the distribution is unlikely to change.

Seller Badges and Platform Surfacing

TikTok Shop assigns Official Store and Gold Star badges to verified, higher-performing merchants and surfaces those sellers more prominently on the platform. Official Store sellers move approximately 40 times the volume of unbadged sellers at a higher average price. Gold Star sellers move close to 18 times the volume of unbadged sellers.

Marketplace Pulse notes that badging is partly a consequence of scale rather than a direct cause, but that the platform’s own curation directs additional demand toward sellers who have already established high sales volumes.

The research covers close to 100,000 U.S. TikTok Shop sellers, with Marketplace Pulse stating that its coverage of the platform’s largest sellers is comprehensive, and the long tail continues to fill in.

TikTok Shop’s Patrick Nommensen, Head of Strategic Initiatives, previously stated that the platform supports sellers across size tiers. “We really see it as an ecosystem and a platform where brands of all sizes can be successful,” he said. 

Image source: Marketplace Pulse
The full report is available here

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast