Douyin E-Commerce GMV Grows 34% YoY; New Strategy Focuses on Merchant Cost Reduction and Revenue Growth (Exclusive)

Douyin’s E-Commerce Performance

exclusively learned that from August 2024 to July 2025, Douyin e-commerce’s GMV grew 34% year-on-year (YoY). Among this, shelf e-commerce performed prominently with a 49% YoY GMV growth, outpacing the overall e-commerce growth.

Previously, reported that Douyin’s e-commerce GMV in 2024 was approximately 3.5 trillion yuan, with a 30% YoY increase. This indicates that Douyin e-commerce maintains steady growth even as the overall e-commerce industry’s growth slows.

Shelf E-Commerce Growth

The rapid growth of shelf e-commerce is inseparable from Douyin’s subsidies. During this year’s 618 shopping festival, Douyin’s shelf e-commerce achieved impressive results, exceeding expectations with a GMV of around 200 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 50% of total GMV.

In mid-2022, Douyin e-commerce upgraded from “interest-based e-commerce” to “global interest-based e-commerce”, launching the Douyin Mall tab and an independent app. At that time, Wei Wenwen, President of Douyin E-Commerce, announced a focus on mall and search, aiming for shelf e-commerce to account for over 50% of GMV in the future.

A person close to Douyin revealed that Douyin e-commerce planned to increase shelf e-commerce’s share to 30%, 40%, and 50% over three years. This plan is on track: shelf e-commerce’s share rose to 30% in 2023, 40% in 2024, and reached 50% during this year’s 618.

New Annual Strategy: Merchant-Centric Growth

Douyin e-commerce has adjusted its annual strategy to focus on merchant growth—helping merchants increase profits and reduce burdens, as merchant growth drives platform growth. As early as late 2024, Douyin e-commerce made reducing merchant operating costs a core 2025 business goal.

Recent adjustments reflect this strategy:

• In March this year, exclusively reported that Juliang Qianchuan (Douyin’s advertising platform) was fully integrated into Douyin e-commerce as a secondary department. The algorithm teams previously serving Juliang Qianchuan and Douyin e-commerce were merged. This integration means Juliang Qianchuan is no longer just responsible for advertising revenue but also for overall goals like GMV, merchant and user experience, especially merchant ad ROI.
• After merging product operations and algorithm teams, the two traffic pools will link underlying algorithms and distribution rules. For example, user subsidy coupons previously issued in ad traffic scenarios may now be distributed in natural traffic, expanding user reach and benefiting more merchants.
• In January this year, Douyin e-commerce released 9 merchant support policies, including “optimizing algorithm mechanisms” to improve traffic distribution accuracy, increase exposure for quality content/products, and reduce product return rates to lower merchant operating costs.
• Recently, ByteDance transferred sales and industry operation teams specializing in e-commerce performance ads (such as key account direct sales) to Douyin e-commerce, achieving integrated business operations for easier merchant access.

Merchant Subsidies and Regulatory Measures

learned that Douyin e-commerce’s subsidies shifted from consumers last year to merchants this year. By the end of August, Douyin e-commerce had subsidized merchants over 19 billion yuan in 2025 to help them reduce costs and grow steadily.

On September 21, at the Douyin Creator Conference, Douyin e-commerce released the Douyin E-Commerce Community Operation Norms for the first time, clarifying platform boundaries and rewarding good practices while punishing bad ones. In the past year, over 13 million non-compliant content videos were handled, and 470,000 non-compliant live streaming rights were revoked. Public figures like Zhang Lan and Wang Xiaofei were permanently banned for “malicious hype to gain traffic”, and top influencer Gu Qianqian (over 5 million followers) was permanently banned for flaunting wealth (claiming to earn 300,000 yuan a day while lying flat).

Focus on Core E-Commerce Business

There’s a misconception that top influencers contribute most to Douyin’s e-commerce GMV. In reality, top influencers (over 1 million followers) contribute only about 9% of total GMV, while small and medium influencers (under 1 million followers) contribute about 21%.

A person close to Douyin e-commerce told that Douyin e-commerce will not overly engage in the instant retail war dominated by major platforms. Instead, it will focus resources on improving e-commerce services and experience.

On September 16 (a week ago), Douyin e-commerce launched the Mid-Autumn & Double 11 promotion, lasting 57 days—marking a new growth phase for Douyin e-commerce.