Shoppable video carries about two-thirds of TikTok Shop sales, and most of it runs through affiliates

1. Introduction

Brands and creators on TikTok Shop must decide where to put effort: shoppable video, LIVE streams or the shop tab, and whether to depend on affiliate creators or on their own accounts. The answer plausibly differs by category, because products differ in how much they benefit from demonstration, conversation or simple search.

Prior work suggests why channels might differ. Live-stream selling has been linked to consumer trust and engagement in social commerce [1]. Affiliate programmes rely on referral fees that are set with seller and referrer incentives in mind, and these vary across settings [2]. We ask a descriptive question: how is revenue split across the three channels in each category, and how much of it is credited to affiliates?

This matters because a brand weighing in-house content against a creator programme needs to know how typical its category's channel mix is, and where it departs from the market.

2. Data

The window runs from 2 September to 1 October 2026. The channel figures describe the latest week, with data as of 29 September 2026. The analysis covers 29 categories; the category table we publish contains 25 of them. We did not track or analyse individual videos for this paper, so it rests on category-level revenue only.

For each category we recorded the share of revenue from shoppable video, LIVE and the shop tab, and the share of revenue credited to affiliate creators. The remainder is other or unattributed revenue, which was 0% in every category and in the market overall.

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

Each category's revenue in the latest week was split into shoppable video, LIVE and the shop tab, with any remainder counted as other or unattributed. We also computed the share of the category's revenue credited to affiliate creators.

Market-level channel shares combine all categories. All figures are shares of revenue, not of units, orders or views. We calculated no confidence intervals, because the evidence is a single-week split rather than a sample of videos or products.

4. Results: most revenue runs through shoppable video

Across categories, shoppable video accounted for 64.9% of revenue, the shop tab for 18.0% and LIVE for 17.1%. No revenue was left unattributed. Video is therefore the dominant channel, and LIVE and the shop tab are of similar size at market level.

Video's share was highest in Baby & Maternity (77.7%), Books, Magazines & Audio (76.3%), Womenswear & Underwear (73.8%) and Shoes (72.5%). It was lowest in Collectibles (5.8%), Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives (39.4%) and Home Improvement (49.7%).

5. Results: LIVE and the shop tab matter most in a few categories

LIVE's share was largest in Collectibles (48.9%), followed by Health (25.1%), Household Appliances (24.6%), Kitchenware (21.8%) and Luggage & Bags (21.4%). It was smallest in Menswear & Underwear (5.7%), Books, Magazines & Audio (7.2%) and Baby & Maternity (8.1%).

The shop tab was largest in Collectibles (45.4%), Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives (39.8%), Fashion Accessories (29.6%), Home Improvement (29.3%) and Furniture (27.1%). These categories also have the lowest video shares, so the shop tab and LIVE appear to substitute for video there.

6. Results: affiliates account for most revenue in most categories

The affiliate share was highest in Household Appliances (84.3%), Baby & Maternity (83.9%), Health (83.6%), Shoes (82.6%) and Beauty & Personal Care (82.3%). In Womenswear & Underwear it was 81.5%.

The lowest shares were in Collectibles (7.9%), Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives (43.0%) and Fashion Accessories (63.7%). These are also categories with large shop-tab shares, which is consistent with more revenue coming from brands' own accounts and store listings. The table gives exact figures for all 25 categories.

7. Discussion

For brands, the evidence suggests that in most categories shoppable video is where sales happen and affiliates are the main route to it. Brands that sell in these categories without an affiliate strategy may be leaving out the channel that carries most revenue. In Collectibles, Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives and, to a lesser extent, Fashion Accessories and Home Improvement, the shop tab and LIVE carry a much larger share, and a LIVE or store-led approach may fit better.

The LIVE pattern is consistent with the idea that live selling builds trust and engagement [1], but our data cannot show that. Categories with high LIVE shares, such as Health and Household Appliances, may simply have products that suit real-time explanation, or sellers who favour the format. Affiliate shares may also reflect how commissions are set [2], and we do not observe commission terms here.

These associations are descriptive. Revenue splits do not show which channel causes sales, and observational channel data cannot easily separate the effect of a channel from that of the products sold through it [3].

8. 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 evidence is a single week of category-level revenue shares, so we cannot say how stable they are or give uncertainty ranges. No videos or products are counted in this analysis. Revenue shares do not reveal order counts, margins or returns. The affiliate share is the share of revenue credited to affiliate creators and is not broken down by channel. The category table covers 25 of the 29 categories examined. Differences between categories may reflect product type, seller mix or promotions in that week rather than the channel itself.

9. Conclusion

In the latest week, TikTok Shop revenue was 64.9% shoppable video, 18.0% shop tab and 17.1% LIVE, and affiliates accounted for most revenue in nearly all of the categories we report. Collectibles and Jewelry Accessories & Derivatives are clear exceptions, with revenue weighted toward LIVE and the shop tab and with low affiliate shares.

Brands and creators should check their own category's mix against these figures before deciding where to invest. Repeating the analysis over several weeks, with uncertainty ranges, would show how stable the splits are.