We spent September going through the public numbers on TikTok in Europe for the first half of 2026 and checked each figure against its source. The audience is already large. Shop sales are still early, and most of them depend on creators.
TikTok does not publish its European sales by country, so part of this picture comes from outside estimates, mainly Kalodata (published by Lengow), Momentum Works with Tabcut, and Goldman Sachs. Each firm uses its own method, so we read their totals as rough guides. User numbers come from TikTok’s own filings under the EU Digital Services Act, and seller counts come from TikTok’s statements to the press.
FULL REPORT · PDF TikTok in Europe, H1 2026 15 pages with charts, country data and every source Download ↓189 million people in the EU
TikTok reports its EU audience twice a year. The number has gone up in every report since 2023 and reached 189 million monthly users in the first half of 2026, 11.5% more than a year earlier. Worldwide, Sensor Tower counted more than 2 billion monthly users in the first quarter.
Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, the four countries where TikTok Shop opened on 15 June, already had 31 million monthly users between them. The Netherlands (+9.3%) and Poland (+8.5%) grew faster over the half year than France, Germany, Italy or Spain. To us, that makes them worth testing early.
Shop sales are growing from a small base
TikTok Shop sold US$50.3 billion worldwide in the first half, 92% more than a year earlier, according to Momentum Works and Tabcut. The US alone sold US$11.8 billion. Europe is a small part of that total, but TikTok says daily sales in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland grew at triple-digit rates between August 2025 and February 2026.
Kalodata estimates that the four largest EU markets sold €498.8 million in the 90 days to 9 July. Germany led with €174.7 million, followed by France, Spain and Italy. Goldman Sachs, counting only the top ten categories over 180 days, ranked the four countries in the same order. For markets of this size, the numbers still feel early to us.
The UK is still ahead
TikTok Shop has run in the UK since 2021. Between March and August, the UK’s ten best-selling brands sold about €172 million, while the top tens of Germany, France, Spain and Italy sold about €100 million combined. The three biggest UK brands were Medicube (Korean skincare, €32.6 million), Halara (apparel, €30.3 million) and Shark (home appliances, €29.5 million).
TikTok also says the UK passed 300,000 small business sellers in July, that sales through LIVE grew 55% over the past year, and that more than 6,000 LIVE sessions now run there every day.
One year in, market by market
Around their first anniversaries, TikTok published figures for each market. In Germany, Italy and Spain, TikTok Shop already ranks among the top 16 online retailers. Rankings come from NielsenIQ where named, and growth rates are TikTok’s own statements.
| Market | Sellers | Online retail rank | What TikTok reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Francesince Mar 2025 | 33,000+ (Mar 2026), up from 16,500 in Oct 2025 | Not published | Sales up 113% in six months. LIVE is 20% of sales. |
| Germanysince Mar 2025 | 25,000+ (Mar 2026) | 15th (NIQ) | Daily sales nearly doubled in six months. 15% of online shoppers have bought on it. |
| Spainsince Dec 2024 | 21,000+ (May 2026) | 16th (NIQ), 7th in beauty | Beauty sales grew at triple-digit rates in six months. Beauty LIVE sessions up 173%. |
| Italysince Mar 2025 | 21,000 (Apr 2026) | 14th by revenue | Daily sales grew at triple-digit rates in six months. Over-40s bring 41% of sales value. |
| UKsince 2021 | 300,000+ small businesses (Jul 2026) | Not published | LIVE sales up 55% in a year. |
Creators carry the sales
We think this is the most important number in the report. In Germany, France, Spain and Italy, affiliate creators brought in 69.9% of TikTok Shop sales in the 90 days to 9 July. The shopping mall, where people browse and search, brought in 15.3%, and brands’ own accounts 14.8%. In the US, the Shop tab now brings in 51.4% of sales. Most European buyers still find products through videos and creators.
Share of sales through affiliate creators by country. In Italy, brands’ own accounts bring in 29.6% of sales.
It also makes some brands fragile. In the UK, Medicube spreads its sales across nearly 13,000 creator accounts, and its top three creators bring in 8%. On the continent it goes the other way: moero in Italy gets 62% of its sales from three creators, and UTOPYA and armonias in Spain each get more than 55%. If one of those creators takes a month off, the brand feels it straight away.
LIVE brings in about 20% of sales in France and in Italy. In Spain, beauty LIVE sessions grew 173% in six months, and in the UK, LIVE sales grew 55% in a year. Buyers are also older than many brands assume. In Italy, people over 40 bring in 41% of TikTok Shop sales value, against 32% across Italian e-commerce, and in Spain 40% of Gen X consumers have bought on TikTok Shop, compared with 23% of Gen Z.
What sells
Beauty is the biggest category in France (18.3% of sales), Italy (17.7%) and Spain (15.9%). Germany is different: household appliances lead with 17.1%, and beauty comes second. Home improvement grew fastest among categories with more than €2 million in sales, in all four markets.
At brand level, SharkNinja sold about €73 million across the UK, Germany, France and Spain between March and August, and Medicube sold €39 million across the UK, France, Spain and Italy. Chinese hardware brands such as Dreame, JONR and Merach are in Germany’s top ten.
The beauty results surprised us. Medicube is the best-selling beauty brand in the top tens of the UK, France, Spain and Italy, and we could not find a single Chinese skincare or make-up brand in any top ten across the five markets. We think this is the clearest opening for C-beauty brands in Europe right now.
Selling got more expensive
- 8 Jan 2026TikTok Shop commission in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Ireland rises from 5% to 9% (7% in some categories such as electronics). New sellers can pay 4% for up to 60 days.
- 15 Jun 2026TikTok Shop opens in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. Sell Across Europe lets sellers list in several EU markets and ship with TikTok’s logistics partners.
- 1 Jul 2026The EU charges a €3 customs duty on parcels worth €150 or less sent from outside the EU, once for each type of item in the parcel. The EU calls it a temporary measure.
- 12 Aug 2026The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) applies to all packaging placed on the EU market.
- 19 Oct 2026UK sellers can sell into 12 EU countries from their UK account, including Czechia, Greece, Portugal and Hungary. A pilot started on 21 September.
Our advice is to move stock into an EU warehouse. Bulk shipments go through normal customs clearance instead of the per-item duty, and buyers get their orders faster.
What we would do now
- Build a wide creator base in each country before spending on ads. Relying on two or three creators is a risk we would not take.
- Recheck your unit economics with the 9% commission and the €3 duty in them, and hold stock in the EU.
- Plan each country on its own. Germany buys appliances, while in Italy brands’ own accounts bring in almost 30% of sales and buyers over 40 bring in 41%.
- If you sell beauty, get the EU paperwork ready first: CPNP notification, an EU Responsible Person and PPWR-compliant packaging. The top of the beauty rankings is still open.