The TikTok shop posted 60% growth and is rewriting the rules of how Brits are buying
A new Barclays insights report on Beauty Trends 2026 shows the TikTok Shop became the UK’s fourth-largest beauty retailer in 2025, posting a staggering 60% year-on-year growth in the category.
Beauty now ranks as the platform’s second-largest category overall, and the social commerce giant shows no signs of slowing down heading into 2026.
UK consumer spend on health and beauty jumped 10.7% year-on-year in 2025 (following 7.1% growth in 2024), with the average annual spend per person rising to £328 from £291 the previous year.
Globally, beauty sales grew around 10%, and 20% of consumers say they plan to spend even more on the category in 2026. Yet traditional retail has faced headwinds, making TikTok Shop’s meteoric rise all the more notable.
From viral videos to seamless purchases
What sets TikTok Shop apart isn’t just its scale, but how it fundamentally changes the shopping journey. Traditional beauty retail has long relied on in-store discovery, glossy magazine ads, or established e-commerce sites.
TikTok Shop flips that model on its head with discovery-led, content-driven commerce.
Consumers are no longer browsing aisles or searching product pages in isolation. Instead, they watch short-form videos, creator tutorials, live shopping events, and before-and-after demos.
Purchases happen in-app, often impulsively, fueled by education, community, and entertainment. K-beauty trends like “glass skin” routines have been particularly explosive, helping drive the 60% beauty sales surge alongside live shopping and creator-powered content.
Barclays analysts Isabella Clough and Melissa Pendlebury, Co-heads of Fashion and Beauty at Barclays UK Corporate Bank, highlight how social commerce is “reshaping market share and rewriting the retail growth playbook.”
Established brands are taking notice: clients like Designer Parfums (owner of Ghost Fragrances) have seen significant visibility and engagement on the platform. In 2026, TikTok Shop plans to double down on supporting bigger names alongside the challenger brands that initially thrived there.
What this means for British retail
TikTok Shop isn’t just stealing market share in beauty; it’s forcing a broader rethink of retail strategy.
64% of UK adults have already used AI tools to guide beauty purchases, while 82% seek more personalised solutions. Wearable AI and beauty-specific tech are gaining traction, with consumers spending an average of £136.80 annually on wearables and £97.80 on beauty tech.
Nearly half of UK premium beauty sales now happen online (up sharply from 28% in 2019), underscoring the shift away from pure brick-and-mortar.
Brands and retailers must now compete on content velocity, creator partnerships, and in-app conversion rather than solely on physical presence or traditional advertising.
For smaller and challenger brands, the platform has lowered barriers to entry, enabling rapid scaling through viral moments and affiliate creators. For larger players, the challenge is adapting legacy operations to this fast-moving, algorithm-driven ecosystem while protecting margins amid heavy promotion.
