How 3 brands are using TikTok Shop to expand abroad

Global Retail // June 29, 2026 How 3 brands are using TikTok Shop to expand abroad By Gabriela Barkho Ivy Liu Brands are increasingly looking to replicate their TikTok Shop success when entering overseas markets.

Modern Retail spoke with three brands — gaming consoles business Nex Playground, K-beauty company MBX and luxury resale platform Fashionphile — about how they are using TikTok Shop to expand internationally, and why they believe the momentum they have experienced on the platform in the U. S. will translate to success abroad.

As these brands venture into new territories, such as the U. K. , Europe and Japan, they say that the key to a global approach to TikTok Shop involves tailored marketing campaigns, creator partnerships, and a commitment to experimenting with new tools and services within the TikTok ecosystem.

Building on holiday momentum After selling out during the 2025 holiday season on TikTok Shop, gaming console Nex Playground is launching on the platform in the U. K. and Ireland. The brand launched in the U. K. and Ireland through Amazon U. K. , Argo and Smyths Toys. It will also be available on TikTok Shop later this month.

Stephen Saiz, vp of publishing at Nex Playground, said that because TikTok Shop helped fuel the company’s explosive growth in the last year, it was important to incorporate the channel into its overseas expansion strategy. Nex Playground sells a controller-free motion gaming console.

Its value proposition centers around the idea that it is a gaming console that the whole family can use, a format reminiscent of the Wii Sports games millennials grew up with. Last Black Friday weekend, Nex Playground’s gaming console sold out almost instantly.

Saiz said a 360-degree omnichannel approach was key to the brand’s success on TikTok Shop, which involved integrating marketing campaigns and live shopping sessions. The company collaborates heavily with family-focused creators who produce authentic content on how they use the console at home.

Saiz said the company has taken away a few lessons from the viral period last year, which it will apply to its international expansion. The biggest learning involves getting products to TikTok creator partners more efficiently. Nex Playground began utilizing TikTok Shop’s Refundable Sample program in the U. S.

, which involves affiliate creators paying for the product upfront. “If they produce two or three pieces of content, we’ll reimburse them, which is a win-win for us,” he said. “We are also bringing in creators who are more traditional game streamers, because that’s a big area of growth for TikTok and we want to lean into it,” Saiz said.

For the past year, Nex Playground has also relied on Fulfilled by TikTok, which Saiz said allowed the company to work with creators who can help showcase the console’s gaming experience in a personal setting. In the U. K. , the company is also sticking with the Fulfilled by TikTok logistics infrastructure to maintain efficiency and avoid delayed orders.

Saiz said that in the U. K. , TikTok Shop has a more established electronics market than in the U. S. , which he believes will help the company introduce its $299 console to more people without resorting to heavy discounting. “TikTok Shop is perceived a little differently in the U. K.

, and it’s a bit more established from an e-commerce perspective, which means it has a higher shopping cart value,” Saiz said. Since the company is starting by launching in English-speaking countries, Saiz said the focus of this expansion is to localize operations rather than the marketing language.

For example, Nex Playground is staffing teams in those markets for customer support and fulfillment operations. “This is not just for time zone purposes, but it’s also about them jumping in to support the operation so it really feels like a unified team,” Saiz said.

Building a custom TikTok Shop operation Meanwhile, luxury resale platform Fashionphile has taken a more bespoke approach to international TikTok Shop operations. Because it sells single-SKU products, Fashionphile does not work with TikTok Shop influencer affiliates to sell its products and instead hosts its own live-selling sessions via TikTok Live.

Ben Gallagher, Fashionphile’s head of U. K. , told Modern Retail that the company has tested the TikTok Live channel in the U. K. and is now adopting it across other markets. Gallagher previously founded and ran the U. K. -based luxury resale marketplace Luxe Collective, which Fashionphile acquired last October.

Since January, Gallagher has led Fashionphile’s TikTok Shop launches in Japan and integrated the existing U. K. infrastructure with the U. S. TikTok Shop store. Gallagher said the U. K. customers on TikTok are already much more accustomed to purchasing high-end items through TikTok Shop. This is much different than in the U. S.

, where top categories include lower-pric