Case Study 1: Made by Mitchell (UK beauty/cosmetics)
This is one of the most oft-cited success stories on TikTok Shop in Western markets.
What happened
- During a TikTok Shop Summer Sale live event, Made by Mitchell sold one product every second over a 12-hour live, generating ~US$830,000. Within 24 hours, they crossed US$1 million in sales. (cewuk.co.uk)
- They were (reportedly) the first UK beauty brand to hit that $1M/day mark on TikTok Shop. (cosmeticsbusiness.com)
- Their growth was not just transaction-based. The brand doubled down on community: daily Lives, “mystery bags,” free product giveaways, creator collaborations, popups, etc.
- They structured their TikTok Shop approach via creator partnerships (e.g. exclusive bundles with creators), high frequency Lives, content playlists, UGC re-posting, and building hype cycles. (business.tiktokshop.com)
How does it match the topics?
Topic | How it shows up in this case |
Growth over 12 months | The jump from a modest beauty business to doing $1M/day in live showcases explosive scaling via TikTok. |
Video & long form | Lives (which are longer than short 15-30s clips) become the anchor. Also, they repurpose content in playlists. (edesk.com) |
In-app discovery purchase | The live events, product tags in scenes, and seamless TikTok Shop checkout drive that flow. |
Community + brand building | The brand emphasises community first (not just transactions): giveaways, showing order packing in Lives, and interacting with fans. |
Key metrics/outcomes:
- $830K in 12 hours in a single live, >$1M in 24 hours (cewuk.co.uk)
- The virality helps the brand land physical retail (e.g. expansion into Boots in the UK) (TheIndustry.beauty)
Growth of community-driven content and sustained sales beyond the live. (Socially Powerful)
Case Study 2: Quay Australia (sunglasses/fashion)
This is a marketing / performance-ad case study (less about TikTok Shop but useful for the discovery + performance + conversion side).
What happened
- Quay ran a Conversion Lift Study in partnership with TikTok to validate incrementality (i.e. how many extra purchases / add-to-cart happen because of TikTok exposure). (TikTok For Business)
- They employed Catalogue Ads Retargeting, Web Conversion campaigns, and “Smart+ Web” campaigns. They refreshed the creative every 7–14 days to keep the content from going stale. (TikTok For Business)
- As a result, compared to a control group, Quay achieved:
• 417% lift in search
• 70% lift in add-to-carts
• 54% lift in purchases - They also exceeded their ROAS (return on ad spend) targets by 91%. (TikTok For Business)
Why it’s useful
- It shows how TikTok can be used for bottom-of-funnel / conversion— not just awareness.
- It’s a clean experiment (treatment vs control), so students can see the measured impact of TikTok in a full funnel.
- You can map where AI / algorithmic matching helps — e.g. TikTok targeting + optimisation, plus creative refreshes to hit different users.
Case Study 3: Nike / #MagicBoots
A brand-driven campaign that mixes awareness, challenge format, creator seeding, and Shop integration.
What happened
- For launching a “Future Lab” pack tied to a new Nike boot, Nike launched a hashtag challenge (#MagicBoots), live challenge pages, in-feed ads, and a brand takeover for ~60 days. (retaildive.com)
- In only six days, Nike’s TikTok profile gained 215,000 followers. (retaildive.com)
- The campaign got over 317 million views and ~160,000 user entries/participations. (retaildive.com)
Why does it link to your topics
- Discovery & content – The challenge format pushes user participation, which feeds the algorithm and spreads awareness.
- AI + algorithm: the campaign used in-feed ads and placements likely matched users predisposed to sports content.
- Video/story: creators doing trick clips, boots in action, user-generated footage.
- Influence + conversion: the challenge builds brand momentum; then they can layer Shop/product drop phases or link to product pages from content.
