Even though cross-border e-commerce has entered an era of stock competition, TikTok Shop’s explosive growth still proves that strong content leverage can drive huge sales and challenge traditional major brands.
In 2025, beauty and personal care became the largest and fastest-growing category in the US market. In Malaysia, Muslim fashion also relied heavily on local creator styling content, with demand amplified by both religious moments and everyday necessities.
1) US TikTok Shop: Celebrity Effect and the End of the “Cheap Means Low Quality” Bias
Beauty has a natural advantage on TikTok Shop, and beauty and personal care accounted for nearly half of total sales in the US market in 2025.
Source: Nuozhou Digital Intelligence - Cross-Border Analytics - Germany - Beauty Care - Annual Brand Ranking.
In the annual product ranking, Medicube’s skincare set ranked first with more than USD 300 million in sales. Its average transaction price was about RMB 920, which still places it in the relatively affordable skincare range.
Source: Nuozhou Digital Intelligence - Cross-Border Analytics.
Celebrity-founded beauty brands are extremely common in the US. Strong examples include Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, Hailey’s Rhode, and Selena’s Rare Beauty. Their shared feature is not premium pricing, but mass-market pricing that reaches a broader audience.
De-Celebrity Branding
The most successful celebrity beauty brands in Western markets are usually affordable beauty and skincare products. Many of them eventually gain recognition beyond fandom and complete a process of “de-celebrity branding.”
Medicube, one of the standout beauty challengers in recent years, was not founded by a celebrity. Yet its devices repeatedly appeared in TikTok content from high-profile celebrities and creators in Korea and the US, which effectively helped the brand complete that de-celebrity transition.
Celebrity endorsement is a double-edged sword. It brings overwhelming traffic in the early stage, but it also raises expectations and makes the brand vulnerable to stricter judgment once the product itself falls short.
That is why TikTok depends heavily on the creator effect. Celebrities and influencers help break the prejudice that “cheap means low quality,” but the real key to sustainable success is still whether the product is genuinely good.
Drew Barrymore, founder of the affordable celebrity beauty pioneer FLOWER Beauty, once said that if a founder already brings traffic, the saved marketing cost should be reinvested into formulation and R&D so that prices can stay lower. That logic is more honest than treating celebrity products as something that must be expensive by default, and consumers respond to that honesty.
Source: Nuozhou Digital Intelligence - Cross-Border Analytics.
Beyond brands like Medicube, breakout products such as the SACHEU lip liner with an average price of RMB 112.27 and BoomBoom nasal sticks at RMB 253.28 show another trait of the US TikTok market: consumers are impatient with products that promise slow results. Around RMB 200 is right in the range where users are willing to buy on impulse after being convinced by short-form content.
2) Malaysia Annual Ranking: Finding Residual Fabric Value in the Space Between Faith and Fashion
Malaysia presents a completely different picture. The logic behind Muslim fashion is almost the opposite of US beauty.
Source: Nuozhou Digital Intelligence - Cross-Border Analytics.
In Malaysia, Ramadan in March is the lifeline of annual GMV. For local women, items such as Tudung headscarves and Abaya garments are high-frequency consumer goods used in different daily and religious scenarios.
Best-selling products range from quick-wear headscarves priced around RMB 16.49 to dresses priced near RMB 119.99, all generating strong revenue. Consumers in this market rely heavily on styling recommendations from local creators. The operating key for top-ranked products is usually collaboration with local KOLs and KOCs, using contextual content such as travel, prayer, or sports.
Whoever can turn religious constraints into fashion expression through local styling content gains pricing power.
Source: Nuozhou Digital Intelligence - Cross-Border Analytics.
The data also shows that the RMB 0-200 price band overwhelmingly dominates Malaysia’s Muslim fashion market. This means sellers cannot rely on brand premium alone. They must rely on real supply-chain depth and material intelligence.
The real winners are the sellers who can combine Dubai-inspired embellishment with the breathable fabrics required by Malaysia’s humid climate while still keeping pricing below RMB 100.
3) Conclusion: Celebrity Credibility Reduces Trust Cost, Supply-Chain Depth Determines Conversion Efficiency
From Medicube’s global rise to the success of celebrity brands like Hailey’s and Rihanna’s, the US beauty playbook is already clear: celebrity credibility reduces trust cost, while affordable pricing and strong product quality convert traffic into revenue.
In Malaysia, the real edge does not come from celebrity influence at all. It comes from understanding religious context, local creators, and price-band structure at the same time. The better a seller understands local content expression, the easier it becomes to turn TikTok traffic into stable GMV.
4) Consultation and Free Trial
Consultation hotline: 021-63606298.
Follow the official account and use the QR code below to claim a free data trial.
5) One-Time Product Selection Services
- (High-volume selection) Global TOP500 best sellers: a category-specific hot-product list for one-click market insight. Supports specific countries, platforms, and industries within Nuozhou coverage, and returns TOP500 products by revenue or sales volume together with links, images, revenue, sales, and price data.
- (Potential-product selection) Rapid competitor tracking: vertical TOP500 fast-growth winners. Supports specific countries, platforms, and industries and returns high-growth TOP500 products with links, images, revenue, sales, price, and growth metrics.
- (Niche selection) Keyword-guided TOP500: accurate positioning of global niche dynamics. Supports specific countries, platforms, industries, and keywords, and returns TOP500 products with links, images, revenue, sales, price, and growth data.
Amazon platform entry: Open link↗
Follow to receive industry reports.
6) About NWi
Since 2023, NWi Nuozhou Digital Intelligence has expanded into overseas data services. It now covers multiple mainstream overseas e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok, and tracks market-wide sales performance across Europe, the US, Southeast Asia, and nearly 30 national marketplaces. The goal is to help brands compare domestic and overseas market structures, identify opportunities by country, and build global expansion strategies.
7) Global Footprint and Go-Global Solutions
Global footprint: reuse domestic operating experience in overseas markets and exchange time for space.
Go-global solution portfolio:
If you are interested in cross-border e-commerce data, leave a message in the official account backend and contact us to go global with digital intelligence.
Follow the official account for more cross-border e-commerce insights.