TikTok Shop adds digital gift cards to challenge Amazon and eBay

TikTok Shop has rolled out a new feature in the U.S. that allows users to purchase digital gift cards, marking a direct effort to compete with e-commerce platforms Amazon and eBay. The feature was introduced during the holiday season, a high-stakes period for the platform’s shopping division as it seeks to establish its position in the market. Both Amazon and eBay already offer digital gift card options, making this launch a key step for TikTok Shop as it aims to compete with these competitors. Currently, the digital gift cards are only available in the U.S. for now, limiting the initial rollout of the feature to the domestic market.

Under the new system, users can purchase and load these digital gift cards with amounts ranging from $10 to $500. The cards are delivered to recipients via email, and those receiving them must have a TikTok account to redeem the funds. Once a card is redeemed, the value is instantly credited to the user’s TikTok Balance, which operates as an in-app credit system. To personalize the gifts, users can select from various animated designs tailored for occasions such as birthdays, weddings, and thank-you cards, and recipients can reply with a thank-you note. By early 2026, TikTok plans to expand these personalization features, allowing users to record or upload video messages to attach to their digital gift cards. According to a company spokesperson, this upcoming experience will also feature an “interactive unboxing that captures their reaction in real-time” to enhance the gifting process.

The introduction of digital gift cards follows a period of strong sales performance for the platform. Over the four days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, TikTok Shop recorded more than $500 million in sales in the U.S. Despite this commercial momentum, the platform’s long-term operations in the country remain highly uncertain. TikTok currently faces uncertainty as the sale of the app’s U.S. operations to an American investor group looms. If a sale does not occur, the platform faces a potential ban in the country. To provide more time for these negotiations, President Trump has extended the deadline for the sale to January 23, 2026, leaving the future of the application in the U.S. unresolved.

Why it matters

This feature expansion signals TikTok Shop’s intent to deepen its e-commerce ecosystem and compete directly with incumbents like Amazon and eBay, even as the platform navigates significant regulatory headwinds in the U.S.