TikTok Shop is coming for Shopee’s ecommerce crown

In the second quarter of 2026, TikTok Shop overtook Shopee by sales volume in Thailand. While it was only a 3% margin, it’s a sign that Shopee’s dominance in Southeast Asia is beginning to falter.

This could signal more intense competition in the region’s ecommerce sector next year, with TikTok Shop launching a standalone app. It also raises the question of where else Shopee could lose its lead, or if Thailand is an exception.

Analysts suggest Vietnam, where TikTok Shop is trailing closely behind Shopee in gross merchandise volume (GMV), could soon be next.

Toni Ruotanen, head of Southeast Asia markets at marketing firm Havas, estimates that based on TikTok Shop’s current pace of growth, it could overtake Shopee in Vietnam within the next six to nine months.

In Vietnam, “TikTok Shop has already overtaken Shopee in the fashion category, while beauty is now evenly split between the two platforms,” Ruotanen tells Tech in Asia. He previously served as chief commercial officer at ecommerce enabler Crea.

TikTok’s Thailand edge

TikTok Shop had already overtaken Shopee in the skincare and face-care categories in Thailand six to 12 months before Q2 2026, notes Simon Torring, co-founder of markets insights firm Cube Asia. Because of this, TikTok catching up to Shopee was “not so unexpected,” he says.

According to Torring, Thailand’s ecommerce market is skewed toward certain product categories that TikTok Shop is a natural fit for.

Within Southeast Asia, Thailand has the biggest beauty, personal care, and wellness market in ecommerce, with these categories accounting for around 30% of the country’s online sales. These categories are well-suited to short videos and livestreams, where creators can demonstrate products, review them, and answer questions.

Paul Srivorakul, CEO of ecommerce enabler aCommerce, similarly notes that among the brands it works with, beauty and personal care were TikTok Shop’s leading categories in Thailand in the first half of 2026. ACommerce helps brands such as Estee Lauder and Unicharm manage their sales across multiple online platforms.

The relatively higher margins of beauty and personal care give brands more room to pay affiliate commissions to creators. Sales through affiliate marketing, driven by short-video and live content, account for roughly 32% of TikTok Shop’s GMV in Southeast Asia, according to Srivorakul.

Izhhar Gemilang, assistant manager for ecommerce at AB Foods, agrees that categories such as fashion, beauty, and snacks tend to perform better through TikTok Shop affiliates because those products are easier to demonstrate in a livestream.

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