Will Livestream Shopping Ever Take Off in Europe Like It Has in Asia?

Short answer: Livestream shopping is still a much smaller habit in Europe than in China, but 2026 has produced the clearest evidence yet that it is growing fast rather than staying a curiosity. One third-party estimate puts TikTok Shop's sales across four European markets at roughly €500 million in about a quarter. Whether that becomes a mainstream habit, as it has in China, or settles into a smaller niche, like TV shopping, is still open.

Livestream shopping has been an enormous retail channel in China for years, and the US is now seeing real traction too, with apps built around the format drawing serious usage. Europe has been slower. 2026 is the first year the numbers suggest the gap may be starting to close, though the data is thinner than the headlines suggest.

What's Actually Real Here

The €500 million figure is an estimate, and it covers more than livestreams. Lengow's analysis of data from the tracking firm Kalodata puts TikTok Shop's sales across France, Germany, Spain and Italy at about €499 million in the 90 days to 9 July 2026, which covers most of the second quarter. Germany led with roughly €175 million, followed by France (€133 million), Spain (€105 million) and Italy (€87 million). Lengow's write-up notes that these are Kalodata's estimates, not figures reported by TikTok, and that real-world transaction amounts may differ.

It is also sales through the whole platform. In that same analysis, affiliated creators accounted for about 70% of the total, while the Shopping Mall tab accounted for only about 15%. That tells you creator-led selling drives the numbers. It does not tell you how much of it is live video as opposed to short videos and product pages, so the figure should not be read as a pure livestream total.

The platform is expanding. TikTok announced that TikTok Shop would reach Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland on 15 June 2026, following its earlier launches in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland. According to Social Media Today's report of that announcement, more than 100,000 European businesses had joined and daily sales had grown at triple-digit rates between August 2025 and February 2026. Those are the company's own claims, from a low starting base.

China is the benchmark, and it is huge. A December 2025 report from the US Department of Agriculture's Shanghai Agricultural Trade Office, Selling in China: The Rise of Livestreaming E-commerce, put the market at about $807 billion in 2024, with 833 million livestream viewers, about 75% of China's internet users. Nothing in Europe is close to that scale.

The US is moving. CNBC reported on 1 September 2026 that livestream shopping is gaining steam in the US, thanks to apps such as TikTok and Whatnot. We could only read the headline of that piece, so we use it for the direction of travel and not for any specific number.

Where the Hype Outruns the Reality

• A single estimate is not a trend. One quarter of third-party tracking data cannot show whether growth will last. Early gains often come from a few categories and promotional pushes, and then flatten.
• Europe is fragmented. Unlike China's single enormous market, Europe is a patchwork of languages, currencies, consumer rules and shopping habits, which makes it harder for one platform or one host to scale. This is a structural explanation, not a measured finding, but it is a widely made one.
• Trust takes time. Livestream shopping leans on host credibility and real-time persuasion. Building that across several cultures is slower than in one country.
• Habits are sticky. European shoppers already have established online retail and, in some markets, long-running home shopping television, and these compete for the same impulse purchases.
• The data covers four countries. The estimate above includes only France, Germany, Spain and Italy. It says nothing about the rest of Europe, including the UK and the newer launches.

Where the Old and New Models Overlap

A version of livestream-style selling already exists in Europe. Home shopping channels such as QVC have broadcast in several European countries for years, and QVC Italia, for example, has been on air since 2010. The core mechanic is the same as on the new apps: a host demonstrates a product live and pushes an immediate purchase decision. The new wave is partly moving that format from TV screens to phone screens, and adding creators, chat and in-app checkout.

What to Watch Into 2027

1. Whether sales keep growing across the four big markets and the four newer ones, or plateau after the launch push.
2. Which categories work. Livestreams suit products that can be demonstrated, such as beauty, fashion and home goods, better than commodity purchases. The Lengow analysis points to strong growth in home improvement in all four markets, which is a reminder that the mix can surprise.
3. Whether established retailers adopt the format themselves, or leave the channel to social platforms.
4. Whether regulators and consumer bodies take a harder look at urgency tactics and influencer disclosure in live selling.

FAQ

Is livestream shopping actually big in Europe yet? It is growing quickly, with an estimated hundreds of millions of euros in quarterly sales through TikTok Shop in four countries, but it is still far behind China's scale, and the European figure covers all TikTok Shop sales, not only live streams.

Why has livestream shopping been slower to catch on in Europe than in Asia? Market fragmentation, different consumer trust norms and established online and TV shopping habits are the usual explanations. They are plausible but not proven.

Is TV-style home shopping related to the new livestream shopping trend? Yes. They share the same core mechanic of a host demonstrating a product live to drive a quick purchase. The new wave has moved that format onto phones and social apps.

Where does the €500 million number come from? From Kalodata's tracking estimates, reported by Lengow, for the 90 days to 9 July 2026. It is not an official TikTok figure.

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Hype-o-meter: Too Soon to Tell

The growth is real, and the platform is expanding across Europe, but the headline number is a third-party estimate for roughly one quarter and covers far more than live streams. That is not enough to say Europeans have adopted livestream shopping the way China did. Revisit it in a year.

Sources

• Lengow: TikTok Shop Europe, Q2 2026, €500m across four markets
• Social Media Today: TikTok Shop grows to new EU merchant countries
• CNBC: Livestream shopping is gaining steam in the US, thanks to apps like TikTok and Whatnot
• USDA Shanghai ATO: Selling in China, The Rise of Livestreaming E-commerce (December 2025)