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Amazon isn鈥檛 taking its Q2 miss lightly: The retailer aggressively pushes to drive growth by partnering with TikTok and Pinterest, testing a speedy delivery service, and courting Chinese sellers.

Moving away from retail can help it overcome growth roadblocks, while a look to China could signal what鈥檚 coming for the space

The popularity of livestreaming ecommerce is spreading to other parts of the world besides China. But not every market has embraced this new retail format to the same degree.

The rise of shopping apps selling ultralow-cost goods from China is drawing more value-driven US consumers. But are their strategies sustainable over the long term?

The pandemic no longer has a major impact on Chinese supply chains, improving cross-border ecommerce. China lifted pandemic restrictions at the end of 2022, putting manufacturing and ports back to business as usual. US consumers can now access a larger variety of goods from China and benefit from faster shipping times from the country. A strong dollar is buoying cross-border ecommerce.

Alibaba's Tmall offers brands a relatively easy foray into China鈥攂ut it's a hypercompetitive market. Some global brands still haven't tested the ecommerce waters in China, but given the size and sophistication of the market, they should expect extensive competition in every category. Driving recognition and sales with an unfamiliar brand is neither easy nor cheap.

Note that the chart below excludes platforms that are overwhelmingly China-centric, such as WeChat (835.2 million users in China) and ByteDance鈥檚 Douyin (838.4 million users in China). Click here to view our full forecast for social network users worldwide, by platform. Facebook has a huge advantage in emerging markets.

68% of shoppers were deceived into buying counterfeits last year: Copycats鈥� rapid growth is a mounting problem for global players like Nike and Amazon as well as small merchants.

Many TikTok Shop sellers are also China-based or ship from China. The tariffs could weaken consumer spending power. As of this writing, the de minimis exemption remains in effect. But some tariffs, including those on steel and aluminum, have been implemented and expanded to include more countries than China, Mexico, and Canada.

The platforms will likely use new social commerce activations to attract new users as competition intensifies. TikTok and Douyin Are the Platforms to Watch in Asia-Pacific. TikTok will be the fastest-growing social platform in Asia-Pacific this year, extending its reach to 257.5 million users.

TikTok sister app Douyin is a livestream behemoth in China, where nearly 40% of internet users also engage in livestream shopping, according to our forecast. But in the US, the format hasn鈥檛 caught on in the same way.

While that may change, retailers (and platforms) may find more success leaning into more proven social commerce tools. Go further: Read our Social Commerce Forecast 2022 report. This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Retail & Ecommerce Briefing鈥攁 daily recap of top stories reshaping the retail industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.

Amid global economic gloom, Asia-Pacific remains a region of digital opportunities in 2023, highlighted by the increasing momentum of the metaverse in China, surging retail sales in India, and burgeoning livestream commerce in Indonesia.

Using innovative shopping experiences that are app-based, entertaining, and highly deal-driven, these ecommerce players with Chinese roots are gaining ground on legacy retailers. To respond, established retailers will have to prove their value to consumers.

However, several other platforms have similarly sought to evolve into social commerce before pulling back due to a lack of interest. For example, Meta last year pulled back on several social commerce features, including Instagram鈥檚 Shop tab, as it sharpened its focus on driving advertising revenues. The big takeaway: TikTok faces an uphill climb to attract more sellers.

TikTok sticks to the plan: TikTok is devoting a lot of resources and effort to bring what鈥檚 working in China to the US market. But while livestream ecommerce in China is expected to grow 25.0% to $703.27 billion this year, US consumers are proving to be a tougher sell, despite TikTok鈥檚 faithful adherence to the Douyin playbook.

As a result, TikTok users would be able to purchase items on the platform through TikTok Shop only, which mirrors the strategy that TikTok鈥檚 Chinese sibling app Douyin deployed in October 2020. TikTok aims to own the full customer journey. That鈥檚 important as it looks to build an Amazon-like flywheel that consists of three main elements鈥攎edia, advertising, and commerce.

This year, programmatic will account for more than 9 in 10 display ad dollars in every major market except China. Despite relying heavily on digital channels, advertisers in China have been slower to embrace programmatic. Digital represents 86.1% of total media ad spending in China鈥攖he highest proportion of any country or region we track.

Go further: Read our Chinese Ecommerce in the US report.

But like other China-based retailers, Pinduoduo is contending with softening demand from domestic consumers as Beijing鈥檚 zero-COVID measures鈥攁nd now growing protests against those measures鈥攄epress spending. That鈥檚 why Pinduoduo is shifting gears to focus on cross-border sales with Temu, its discount ecommerce platform, as it tries to capitalize on US shoppers鈥� price sensitivity.

How time spent with media, device ownership, and media adoption stack up in China.