Medicube, Crocs are betting on TikTok Shop for discovery e-commerce

Sponsored // May 20, 2026 Medicube, Crocs are betting on TikTok Shop for discovery e-commerce By TikTok Shop As consumers’ shopping habits evolve, retail is shifting from traditional search-and-scroll e-commerce to a new model that revolves around discovery.

Sitting at the center of that transformation is TikTok Shop, which represents a new retail model centered on community, trust and entertainment-driven discovery. Shopping happens natively and naturally, as TikTok Shop guides users from inspiration to purchase in one place.

At April’s second annual TikTok Shop Summit, brands including Medicube and Crocs highlighted how the platform is driving measurable business outcomes for their brands through creator-led commerce and live shopping.

More than 2,000 attendees, including sellers, creators and partners, learned about a series of key product and ecosystem updates across TikTok Shop. Under the theme of “Where Discovery Powers Growth,” the TikTok Shop Summit emphasized how the platform is essential to brands’ full-funnel playbooks for strong, scalable growth.

“TikTok Shop is not just a place where people go to scroll,” said Patrick Nommensen, head of strategic initiatives at TikTok Shop. “They come to discover what is trending, what is trusted and what is worth buying — and that discovery informs them whenever and wherever they choose to shop.

“Discovery e-commerce is redefining how shoppers discover and shop for brands and products, online and offline,” he said. “And TikTok Shop is at the center of that shift, transforming a moment of influence into a true lever for brand growth.”

Medicube balanced creator and seller content on TikTok Shop to generate millions in sales For K-beauty brand Medicube, TikTok Shop has been instrumental to growing its global presence.

In fact, according to Lexy Shim, global TikTok Shop lead at Medicube and Aprilskin, TikTok helped accelerate the shift of K-beauty from a niche category to a major part of beauty discovery for global customers. In the two years since the brand joined TikTok Shop, the Medicube hashtag has generated more than 864,000 video posts and 13 billion views globally.

But beyond that visibility, Medicube leveraged TikTok Shop into a sales channel and, by extension, a growth engine for the brand.

By tailoring TikTok Shop’s ACE (Assortment, Content, Empowerment) methodology to each discovery channel within the platform — creator content, seller content and shop tab and search — Medicube has become one of the top beauty brands on TikTok Shop with 219% year-over-year growth in gross merchandise value.

“The ACE Indicator System is a TikTok Shop operating toolkit that enables monitoring, analysis and optimization of your growth performance,” Nommensen said.

“It brings brands key metrics across content, creator and business performance into one view, giving them clear visibility into their performance, enabling smarter, faster decision-making to drive growth.” Medicube particularly leaned on creator content as part of its full-funnel TikTok Shop strategy.

Top-performing beauty creator affiliates played a critical role — driving awareness and brand authority, while creating a strong halo effect. Further down the funnel, the focus shifted to conversion and working closely with TikTok Shop creator affiliates.

“This is where content becomes directly shoppable, and where discovery turns into actual purchase,” said Shim. “And what makes this strategy work is how these two layers connect: upper funnel builds demand, lower funnel captures it. “If I had to pick just one element in the ACE framework, it would be content — especially from creators,” Shim continued.

“Because without that element, even great [product] assortment and strong empowerment can become inefficient investments. Content is what gives the rest of the framework real momentum.” Medicube also executed two Super Brand Days in 2025, applying a different ACE strategy tailored to the campaign objective.

How Crocs’ record-breaking livestream drove discovery and growth Footwear brand Crocs put itself at the convergence of content, creators and commerce during its annual “Croctober” campaign. In October 2025, Crocs livestreamed content on TikTok Shop for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the entire month.

Filming locations included the brand’s flagship store in New York. The 744 hours of content marked the longest continuous livestream on the U. S. platform. The nonstop livestream connected Crocs with millions of fans, generating more than 11 million views.

As part of Croctober, Crocs sold merchandise exclusive to the TikTok Shop live stream, brought on celebrity partners and hosted giveaways, Modern Retail reported. For Crocs, which joined TikTok Shop in 2024, the livestream transformed into a real-time engine for discovery, product education and community.

During the Croctober campaign, the brand achieved a milestone of $1. 5 million in live sal