TLDR: Live shopping companies are experiencing significant growth in 2025, driven by a heightened focus among marketers on measurable influencer performance and direct sales conversions, transforming influencer marketing into a more data-driven channel.
Live shopping platforms are reporting substantial growth throughout 2025, largely attributed to a strategic shift by marketers towards prioritizing the measurable performance of influencer campaigns. While live shopping, where creators livestream to sell goods, has long been popular in Asian markets, it is increasingly gaining mainstream traction in Western regions this year.
Companies like Whatnot exemplify this surge, having already generated over $3 billion in sales in 2025, surpassing their total sales figure for the entirety of 2024. Armand Wilson, Whatnot’s VP of categories and expansion, noted that some of their top sellers are achieving ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ in sales, establishing significant businesses. Wilson stated, ‘This year feels like the year that live shopping has become much more mainstream, and multiple categories have had tremendous growth.’
The expansion isn’t limited to dedicated platforms. TikTok, identified by Neil Saunders, a managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData, as the most popular live shopping platform in the United States, has also seen considerable growth. A joint study by TikTok and GlobalData published in June revealed a 20 percent year-over-year increase in sales on the platform in 2025. Saunders highlighted that a key finding from their research is consumers’ increasing use of TikTok Shop for product discovery, differentiating it from platforms like Amazon and Walmart, which are often used for planned purchases. Additionally, Fanatics, a live shopping platform focused on collectibles, expanded its operations by launching a United Kingdom marketplace in April 2025.
The primary driver behind this growth is the inherent measurability of live shopping. Unlike traditional influencer marketing methods such as sponsorships or branded content, live shopping offers easily trackable conversion metrics through direct clicks and sales. Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of the live shopping platform Bambuser, affirmed that her company has experienced growth over the past year, emphasizing, ‘At the end of the day, everybody measures sales. If it doesn’t drive sales, it’s a quite costly channel.’ This focus on tangible results mirrors the rising interest in affiliate marketing, where performance is directly linked to outcomes.
The increased demand for live shopping has also fostered the expansion of a broader ecosystem, including specialized agencies and production companies. One such agency reported working with 10 to 15 clients in 2025, all of whom have seen an increase in live shopping revenue, including a rise in ‘Mega Lives’ and purchase-based live shopping events. Despite this growth, live shopping remains a relatively experimental influencer marketing technique for many brands.
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The evolution of influencer marketing itself plays a crucial role. By 2025, it has transformed from a brand awareness tactic into a data-driven revenue engine. Research indicates that 68% of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers now consider influencer campaigns vital to their financial performance, especially as paid social media costs escalate. Key metrics like Return on Ad Spend (RoAS), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) have become non-negotiable for evaluating influencer success. The integration of AI-driven tools for creator selection and predictive metrics has become standard, further solidifying influencer marketing as a precision growth channel. The industry is also seeing the emergence of AI influencers, suggesting a future where AI-generated content will become increasingly prevalent in the influencer space.
