Why TikTok is full of teleshopping right now

If you’ve scrolled through TikTok recently, you might have noticed that it’s not just viral dances, get-ready-with-mes and story-time videos on your For You Page right now. In fact, I rarely scroll through eight or nine TikToks before I come across a live video where I’m being directly sold to. “Caroline! 11 items! I’m gonna have a great time packing up this order,” is the first thing I hear when I open the app today, coming across a livestream of a woman standing in front of a cupboard stacked full of make-up products. She’s streaming on behalf of the make-up brand Made By Mitchell and talking directly to someone who is commenting on the livestream and making purchases. “Seeing as you’ve ordered two of the mystery boxes, I’m going to throw you an extra lip gloss in. Don’t tell anyone,” the streamer continues, talking in a familiar tone to her customer on a live stream that over 200 people are watching.It’s an ostensibly retro sales technique, almost identical to what you probably remember of ’90s shopping channel QVC, watching an older relative dial in to buy a discounted kettle or a plant pot. And although live shopping is just taking off in the UK, it’s hardly a niche corner of the internet. In China, in 2023 alone, an estimated $500 billion in goods were sold via livestream on apps, according to the New York Times. And now plenty of businesses in the UK and the U.S. are turning to this…Why TikTok is full of teleshopping right now