TikTok grossed 19 billion in the third quarter! The window period is narrowing, help you interpret the next wave of growth opportunities

The latest data shows that TikTok Shop delivered an impressive report card in the third quarter of 2025,with global Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) reaching approximately $19 billion. The US market led the world with a 125% quarter-on-quarter growth rate, while Thailand, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian markets all saw increases of over 110%. The Italian market achieved a staggering 395% growth.

Image source: Internet

Meanwhile, the weekly rankings of popular products in the US, Mexico, and Spain during the second week of October further reveal consumption trends on the platform: smart cleaning devices, sports products, and electric mobility items are hot sellers in the US; Mexican consumers prefer health supplements and personal care tools; Spanish users favor electronics, clothing, and food & health products.

These figures not only reflect unique consumer preferences in different regions, but also confirm that TikTok has become an unignorable growth arena for global brands.

Image source: Echotik

01

Three-country Weekly Rankings Revealed: A New Landscape for TikTok E-commerce

From the weekly rankings of the three countries, it is clear that TikTok e-commerce is showing a distinct coexistence of “local characteristics+global trends”.

In the US, high-ticket smart cleaning devices and sports products are popular; in Mexico, there is strong demand for health and wellness products; in Spain, electronics and food supplements stand out.

This differentiated consumer preference precisely illustrates the diversity and maturity of TikTok’s user base and purchasing power.

More importantly, most of these popular products are not traditional big brands, but emerging brands that have broken through via content seeding and influencer recommendations. This shows that TikTok’s “active discovery” scenario is reshaping consumer decision paths—

Users no longer buy just because of brand awareness, but because authentic and interesting content builds trust and interest.

Image source: Internet

02

Cracking the Growth Code: Advertising Strategies Under New Summit Policies

Faced with such a hot and diverse market, a core question emerges: How can brands accurately seize these opportunities and convert platform traffic into incremental business?

TikTok for Business held theE-commerce Overseas Marketing Summit onSeptember 17, providing a systematic “reference answer.” The summit unveiled a series of actionable and replicable brand overseas growth methodologies, among which the comprehensive upgrade of advertising products is undoubtedly the core engine driving growth, giving brands the most critical weapon to tackle complex markets.

The core concept can be summarized as “dual-engine drive”,which meanscoordinating closed-loop and open-loop ads to meet brands’ growth needs at different stages:

Closed-loop e-commerce (GMV Max)pursues “deterministic conversion.” Its value lies in automated efficiency optimization, especially suitable for new product launches and major promotional events.

Open-loop e-commerce (Smart+ Catalog)targets “scalable growth.” It breaks through the bottleneck of manual creativity and finds potential customers in a broader traffic pool. Data shows its CPA is 36% lower than manual ads, significantly reducing brands’ customer acquisition costs.

Looking deeper, the ACC marketing model promoted by the platform actually guides brands to break free from the “involution” of pure performance advertising. The seeding stage can boost brand favorability by 28%, proving one thing: on TikTok, content investment itself is an efficient form of advertising investment.

Image source: TikTok for Business

03

In-depth Insights: How Brands Can Break Through and Soar Under New Policies

Looking at the new policies released at this summit, one can clearly capture TikTok’s strategic intent: it is no longer satisfied with being just a “traffic channel,” but is committed to becoming an ecosystem closed loop that can incubate brands and carry full-domain business. For brands,understanding this underlying logic is key to formulating the next strategy.

For merchants who have already succeeded in Southeast Asia, the similarities between countries mean your products, creatives, and operational methodologies can be quickly replicated, achieving “one core, multiple countries” scale effect.

For brands that started in the high-ticket US market, prioritizing entry into European and Latin American markets with similar consumption power and user profiles allows maximum reuse of their premium positioning and content style, avoiding mismatches caused by “downgrading” or “upgrading.”

A reminder to all sellers: expanding into new markets should not be blind trial and error, but a strategic extension based on existing advantages. During the window period when platform traffic dividends still exist, rapid deployment through systematic strategies can lock in future growth space at the lowest cost.

Image source: Internet

Tuke’s conclusion is: The competition in TikTok e-commerce is upgrading from guerrilla warfare of single explosive products to a systematic battle covering products, content, advertising, and operations.

If brands want to truly seize the dividends behind this $19 billion, they must go beyond short-term ROI calculations and participate in the co-construction of the platform ecosystem with a more macro perspective and more determined investment.

The entry ticket for this game is getting more and more expensive, but the rewards are equally abundant.