Outside of the United States, TikTok is still making Shop happen

As TikTok‘s American operations hang in the balance, the app is applying the lessons it learned in the U.S. to further its growth in other territories. In particular, TikTok is leafing through its ecommerce playbook in the U.K., where new business-friendly policies offer a path forward for enterprising creators.

TikTok recently announced a “game changing” tool called GMV Max, which optimizes campaigns by identifying and scaling top-performing assets. GMV Max users can use the feature to build campaigns that deploy “all available TikTok Shop content,” according to a TikTok blog post.

GMV Max is designed for the 200,000 active small businesses that peddle their wares on TikTok Shop. Those sellers host 6,000 TikTok LIVE broadcasts per day, according to the blog post. That community is part of a global wave of social sellers that earns billions per year for TikTok parent ByteDance.

Local resistance and cultural clashes hindered TikTok Shop’s initial U.K. rollout, but the app has gained favor across the pond through initiatives that have included in-person pop-ups in London. Insights from TikTok Shop’s operations in the U.S. have shown that the app’s consumers prefer a shared shopping experience.

That’s what Sandie Hawkins, who helped lead TikTok Shop’s U.S. push before recently departing the company, explained to Business Insider. “You have that community environment,” she said. “You have all of your friends there with you and they’re telling you what they think you should buy. You’re taking those recommendations right there, and you’re closing the loop instead of having to send them to go someplace else.”

Though the U.S. government may not realize it, efforts to ban TikTok only instill a deeper sense of community. That’s why, when the likelihood of a U.S. TikTok ban was at its highest, TikTok Shop sales spiked. Even if President Trump fails to bail out TikTok, the app’s excitement surrounding ecommerce has already taken hold with American consumers, and TikTok has millions of reasons to continue its investment.