TikTok is aiming to boost its shopping capabilities, with its parent company, ByteDance, reporting significant success in China. In 2025, the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, generated around $500 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV). In contrast, TikTok outside of China reached about $130 billion GMV, marking a 100% increase in in-app sales year-over-year. Despite this growth, Western consumers remain cautious about in-stream shopping. A key factor in increasing trust and encouraging spending is security, which TikTok is addressing. To enhance consumer confidence, TikTok has ramped up its efforts to protect intellectual property. In the first half of 2025, the platform proactively removed 30 times more products and content than it did reactively, achieving an 89% accuracy rate in identifying IPR violations. The company also took down over 143 million videos for violating Community Guidelines related to counterfeit goods. TikTok is making it easier for users to report IP infringements by simplifying the process to just one click, down from seven. Despite these improvements, Western consumers tend to prefer established eCommerce platforms like Amazon and eBay for their shopping needs, largely due to a lack of trust in social media for financial transactions. This skepticism is supported by data from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, indicating that about 23% of adults globally have fallen victim to online scams. TikTok’s focus on tightening security measures could potentially change this trend, but overcoming ingrained shopping habits remains a challenge.