Working paperNot peer-reviewed
ContentIQ Working PaperCIQ-WP-2026-08Version 1
Most TikTok Shop categories grew in the last four weeks, but only four are ahead over thirteen
29 categories covered, 2 Sept to 1 Oct 2026 (revenue data as of 29 Sept 2026)
Key findings
- 19.1%share of last-4-week revenue held by Beauty & Personal Care, the largest category
- 44%combined share of the four largest categories (Beauty & Personal Care, Womenswear & Underwear, Sports & Outdoor, Health)
- 16 of 25categories with higher revenue in the last 4 weeks than the 4 before
- 4 of 25categories with higher revenue over the last 13 weeks than the 13 before
- +37%4-week growth in Textiles & Soft Furnishings, the fastest of any category, from a 2.1% share
- -25%4-week change in Toys & Hobbies, the weakest of any category
Abstract
We examine how TikTok Shop revenue is distributed across categories and how each category's momentum has moved over the last 4 and 13 weeks. Beauty & Personal Care and Womenswear & Underwear together account for 31% of revenue in the last 4 weeks, and the four largest categories account for 44%. Sixteen of 25 categories with reported figures grew over the last 4 weeks against the 4 before, but only four are ahead over 13 weeks against the 13 before. These are associations in observational revenue estimates over a short window, not forecasts or causal effects.
1. Introduction
Brands deciding where to sell next face two questions: which categories already hold the most revenue, and which are gaining or losing ground. Share shows where demand is concentrated. Momentum shows the direction of travel, and the two can diverge.
Prior work on online retail shows that sales spread across a long tail of niche products beyond the bestsellers [1]. This suggests that even smaller categories can support sellers. Two cautions apply to any momentum reading. Revenue series contain seasonal patterns that should be separated from trend [2]. Observational data cannot show what caused a change in sales [3].
This paper reports each category's share of revenue and its growth over the last 4 and 13 weeks. It is intended as a descriptive guide to where revenue is growing, not as a forecast.
2. Data
The window runs from 2 September to 1 October 2026, and the latest revenue data is as of 29 September 2026. The sample covers 29 categories. Revenue figures are estimates of weekly category revenue over the past year, and shares are of all categories tracked.
The tables and charts report 25 categories with a stated share, which together account for about 99.7% of last-4-week revenue. This paper does not use video-level or product-level data.
Weekly category figures for the US (estimated revenue, its split between video, LIVE and the shop tab, affiliate revenue, shops and active products, and a year of weekly revenue) and daily rankings of each category’s top-selling products (unit price, commission rate, launch date and revenue by channel) were collected from several independent sources. Medians of price and commission are weighted by revenue; momentum compares the latest weeks with the same number of weeks before. This paper covers 2026-09-02 to 2026-10-01.
3. Methods
Momentum compares a category's estimated revenue in the latest 4 weeks with the 4 weeks before. It makes the same comparison for the latest 13 weeks against the 13 before. Both comparisons are built from the category's weekly revenue over the past year.
Share of revenue is the category's estimated revenue in the last 4 weeks divided by the total across all categories tracked. We report point estimates only; the evidence gives no confidence intervals. We did not decompose the series into seasonal and trend components.
4. Results: revenue share and momentum by category
Revenue is concentrated. Beauty & Personal Care holds 19.1% of last-4-week revenue (about $291 million) and Womenswear & Underwear holds 12.0% (about $183 million). Sports & Outdoor (6.8%) and Health (6.2%) follow. The ten largest categories hold about 71% of revenue, and the smallest, Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives, holds 0.7%.
Over the last 4 weeks, 16 of 25 categories grew and 9 declined. The fastest were Textiles & Soft Furnishings (+37%), Computers & Office Equipment (+33%), Furniture (+22%), Menswear & Underwear (+21%) and Kitchenware (+20%). The weakest were Toys & Hobbies (-25%), Household Appliances (-20%), Pet Supplies (-20%), Home Improvement (-19%) and Womenswear & Underwear (-12%). Beauty & Personal Care grew 2.1%.
| Category | Share of revenue | Last 4 weeks vs 4 before | Last 13 weeks vs 13 before | Revenue, last 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty & Personal Care | 19.1% | +2.1% | -12.2% | $290.7M |
| Womenswear & Underwear | 12% | -12.3% | -6.9% | $182.6M |
| Sports & Outdoor | 6.8% | +3.4% | -21.2% | $103.3M |
| Health | 6.2% | +9.4% | -8.7% | $94.2M |
| Fashion Accessories | 5.9% | +12.3% | -9.6% | $89.5M |
| Phones & Electronics | 5.5% | +13.4% | -15.9% | $84M |
| Home Supplies | 5% | +14.4% | -7.6% | $77M |
| Menswear & Underwear | 3.5% | +20.7% | -19.4% | $54M |
| Collectibles | 3.4% | +4.6% | +7.9% | $51.2M |
| Automotive & Motorcycle | 3.4% | +17.5% | +4.9% | $51.2M |
| Household Appliances | 3.3% | -20.3% | -13.1% | $49.9M |
| Furniture | 3% | +22.4% | -26.3% | $45.9M |
| Shoes | 2.9% | -1.4% | -10.4% | $43.7M |
| Toys & Hobbies | 2.4% | -25.4% | -9.7% | $36.5M |
| Kitchenware | 2.3% | +19.6% | -3.2% | $34.7M |
Note. Revenue is estimated weekly category revenue; shares are of the categories shown in our data. Source: ContentIQ analysis of 29 TikTok Shop categories, 2 Sept – 1 Oct 2026.
5. Results: thirteen-week momentum is weaker
The longer view is less positive. Only four categories earned more over the last 13 weeks than over the 13 before: Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives (+8.3%), Collectibles (+7.9%), Books, Magazines & Audio (+7.4%) and Automotive & Motorcycle (+4.9%). The other 21 were lower, including Beauty & Personal Care (-12.2%), Sports & Outdoor (-21%) and Phones & Electronics (-16%).
Several categories with strong 4-week growth are still below their 13-week-earlier level. Furniture grew 22% over 4 weeks but fell 26% over 13. Menswear & Underwear grew 21% and fell 19%. Textiles & Soft Furnishings grew 37% and fell 7.1%. Only Collectibles, Automotive & Motorcycle and Books, Magazines & Audio are ahead on both horizons.
6. Discussion
For brands, the largest categories offer the most revenue but, in this window, mixed momentum. Beauty & Personal Care is roughly flat over 4 weeks and down over 13. Several mid-sized and smaller categories show recent gains, notably home-related and computing categories. These gains follow weaker longer-term periods, so they may be a rebound rather than a lasting shift.
The broad 13-week declines could reflect seasonality, such as an unusually strong earlier period. They could also reflect market-wide softness or changes in how revenue is estimated. Separating these would need seasonal adjustment [2], and we have not done so. As with advertising effects [3], the associations here do not show why a category moved.
For creators, the data speaks to category choice only. It says nothing about which content formats work.
7. Limitations
Product figures cover the top-selling products we track in each category, not every listing, so they describe what sells best rather than everything on sale. Results are associations, not causes. Paid promotion, creator audience size and product price are not fully controlled for. Revenue, views and sales are estimates, not figures reported by TikTok. The window is short, and 4-week comparisons are sensitive to single weeks and events. Smaller categories (below about 1% share) are especially noisy, as small absolute changes produce large percentage moves. Revenue figures are estimates, and no confidence ranges are available. The sample reports 29 categories covered, while this paper reports 25 with stated shares. No video-level analysis is included.
8. Conclusion
TikTok Shop revenue is concentrated in a few categories, with Beauty & Personal Care and Womenswear & Underwear holding 31% between them. Most categories improved over the last 4 weeks, but only Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives, Collectibles, Books, Magazines & Audio and Automotive & Motorcycle are ahead over 13 weeks. Of these, Collectibles, Automotive & Motorcycle and Books, Magazines & Audio are also growing over 4 weeks.
Brands should treat the 4-week gains as early signals, check them against their own sales and margins, and revisit them as more weeks accumulate.
References
- [1]Brynjolfsson, E., Hu, Y. J., & Smith, M. D. (2003). Consumer surplus in the digital economy: Estimating the value of increased product variety at online booksellers. Management Science, 49(11), 1580–1596.
- [2]Cleveland, R. B., Cleveland, W. S., McRae, J. E., & Terpenning, I. (1990). STL: A seasonal-trend decomposition procedure based on loess. Journal of Official Statistics, 6(1), 3–73.
- [3]Lewis, R. A., & Rao, J. M. (2015). The unfavorable economics of measuring the returns to advertising. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(4), 1941–1973.
Cite as
Coherence Research (2026). Most TikTok Shop categories grew in the last four weeks, but only four are ahead over thirteen. ContentIQ Working Paper CIQ-WP-2026-08, version 1. https://www.coherenceltd.com/research/tiktok-shop-growth
Version history
- Version 1This version