Every "Instagram vs TikTok for e-commerce" article ends with the same advice: use both. That's not a strategy. That's a cop-out.

If you're running an e-commerce brand with a small team - maybe it's just you, maybe you've got one or two people - "use both" is the equivalent of "just work harder." It ignores the reality that every platform demands different content, different formats, different posting cadences, and different skills. Choosing where to focus isn't about which platform is "better." It's about which one gives you the best return on the hours you actually have.

I've managed social media across both platforms for 100+ e-commerce brands over the past decade - first through an agency, now building social media software. Here's what I've learned about where different brands should actually spend their time in 2026.

The numbers everyone quotes (and what they actually mean)

Let's get the headline stats out of the way, because you'll see them in every comparison article.

TikTok Shop is projected to hit $23.4 billion in US e-commerce sales in 2026 - a 48% increase year-over-year. That gives it a larger US e-commerce business than Target, Costco, or Best Buy. TikTok Shop's conversion rate sits at 4.7%, more than double Instagram Shopping's 2.1%. About 57.7 million Americans are expected to buy through TikTok Shop in 2026.

Instagram has 2 billion monthly users and 46.8 million US shoppers interact with shopping tags monthly. Instagram shoppers have a higher average order value ($65 vs TikTok's lower basket sizes), and 45% of users say they've purchased after seeing a product in their feed. Instagram influencer marketing spend hit $3.17 billion in 2025.

These numbers are real. They're also misleading if you don't add context.

TikTok's conversion rate is higher partly because of how discovery works. People see a product in a video, tap, and buy - it's impulse-driven. Instagram's lower conversion rate reflects a longer decision cycle where people save posts, compare options, and come back later. Neither is inherently better. They're measuring different buying behaviours.

And those $23.4 billion in TikTok Shop sales? Nearly 80% come from health and beauty products. If you sell premium furniture or B2B accessories, that headline number doesn't mean what you think it means.

Instagram vs TikTok for e-commerce: the five questions that actually matter

After running campaigns across both platforms for years, I've found the decision comes down to five things. Not demographics, not "where Gen Z hangs out" - these five practical questions.

1. What does your product look like in motion?

TikTok is a video-first platform. Not video-optional - video-first. If your product has a natural "wow" moment on camera - a before-and-after, an unboxing reveal, a satisfying texture, a transformation - TikTok will reward you disproportionately. Skincare routines, kitchen gadgets, fashion try-ons, cleaning products, food prep tools - these categories dominate TikTok Shop because they translate naturally to short video.

Instagram works with video too (Reels are essentially the same format), but it also works with static images, carousels, and curated aesthetics. If your product sells on design, craftsmanship, lifestyle imagery, or aspirational positioning - jewellery, home decor, premium fashion, artisan goods - Instagram's visual format gives you more ways to tell that story.

The honest test: film a 15-second video of someone using your product. If it's immediately interesting, lean TikTok. If it needs context, styling, or a story to sell, lean Instagram.

2. What's your price point?

TikTok Shop thrives on impulse purchases. The average order is lower, the decision is faster, and the buyer often discovers the product for the first time in the video that sells it to them. Products under $50 do extremely well. Products under $30 are the sweet spot.

Instagram supports higher-consideration purchases. Users save posts, visit profiles, read captions, check reviews, and come back days later. The $65 average order value is higher than any other social platform. If you're selling anything over $75, Instagram's slower buying cycle is actually an advantage - it gives people time to build confidence in the purchase.

This isn't a hard rule. Premium brands can work on TikTok, and cheap products can sell on Instagram. But if you're choosing where to invest limited time, follow the money.

3. How much content can you realistically produce?

This is the question most comparison articles skip entirely, and it's the one that matters most for small teams.

TikTok's algorithm rewards volume and recency. The platform wants fresh content constantly. Brands that post 1-2 times per day see significantly better reach than those posting a few times per week. And the content needs to be video - not polished, but genuine, engaging, and ideally featuring a real person. That's a serious production commitment.

Instagram's algorithm has shifted too, but it still works with a mix of formats. You can post a Reel, a carousel, a static image, a Story - and you don't need the same volume. Three to five posts per week with high engagement will outperform daily posting with low interaction. Instagram also has a longer content shelf life. A good carousel or Reel can generate engagement for weeks. TikTok content either goes viral in the first 48 hours or it doesn't.

Be brutally honest about your bandwidth. If you can commit to daily video content, TikTok's upside is enormous. If you've got 3-4 hours per week for social media, Instagram will give you more flexibility.

4. Do you have (or can you get) an on-camera person?

This is related to content production but it's worth calling out separately because it's a genuine blocker for many brands.

TikTok's highest-performing e-commerce content features a real person - showing the product, reacting to it, explaining it, or using it. Creator-driven short videos account for two-thirds of TikTok Shop revenue. The platform's algorithm explicitly favours faces and authentic presentation over polished brand content.

Instagram doesn't require this. Product photography, flat lays, lifestyle imagery, graphic carousels, and curated aesthetics all perform well. You can build a strong Instagram presence without ever appearing on camera.

If nobody on your team wants to be on camera and you don't have budget for creators, that's not a character flaw - it's a practical constraint that should influence your platform choice.

5. Where does your audience actually buy?

This sounds obvious but people overthink it. Check your Shopify analytics. Look at where your traffic comes from. If you're already getting referral traffic from Instagram, that's a signal - those people are in the habit of finding products there. If you're seeing TikTok referrals growing, follow that trend.

If you're starting from zero, demographics matter more. TikTok skews younger: 38.5% of users are 18-24, another 30% are 25-34. Instagram has a broader spread with stronger presence in the 25-44 range. But age alone isn't the deciding factor. TikTok's fastest-growing demographic is 35-54 year olds, and Instagram's heaviest shoppers are 25-34.

The real question is whether your customer discovers products through entertainment (scrolling videos, stumbling on things) or through curation (searching, saving, following brands they like). The first behaviour maps to TikTok. The second maps to Instagram.

The reach question: both platforms have changed

A year or two ago, the narrative was simple: Instagram's organic reach collapsed, TikTok's was wide open. That was largely true. Feed posts reaching 2-3% of your followers, brands paying to talk to audiences they'd already built - it was a real problem.

But Instagram has been actively course-correcting. Meta has been pushing hard toward a discovery model, particularly through Reels. New creators and small brands can now get meaningful reach on Instagram without an existing following - something that wasn't realistic in 2022 or 2023. The algorithm increasingly surfaces content to non-followers based on interest signals, which is exactly what TikTok pioneered. It's not quite at TikTok's level yet, but the gap is closing.

That said, the two platforms still have different reach dynamics. TikTok's algorithm is more aggressive about surfacing content from unknown accounts. A brand with 500 followers can genuinely reach millions if the content hits. Instagram's discovery is growing but still weighted more toward accounts with some engagement history. If you're launching from absolute zero, TikTok will give you faster initial reach.

The trade-off is consistency. TikTok's reach is volatile - you might get 500,000 views one day and 200 the next. Each video essentially starts from zero. Instagram's reach is more predictable, and your followers do carry value over time, especially through Stories (which still reach 5-10% of followers) and through Reels being recommended to people who follow similar accounts. For brands that want steady, compounding growth rather than viral spikes, Instagram's model can actually be an advantage.

The elephant in the other room: TikTok's platform risk

You can't have this conversation in 2026 without addressing the ban saga.

TikTok spent all of 2025 under a legal cloud. The Supreme Court upheld the ban, the app briefly went dark in January 2025, and it took a full year of deadline extensions before a deal closed in January 2026. TikTok's US operations are now under a joint venture with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX as managing investors. ByteDance's stake is capped at 19.9%.

The platform survived. Commerce thrived during the uncertainty - US revenues jumped 26.2% year-over-year to $13.9 billion in 2025 despite the ban hanging overhead. But the episode revealed a real risk: building your entire social commerce strategy on a platform that was 24 hours from disappearing is not a comfortable position.

The new ownership structure reduces that risk significantly. But if platform stability matters to your business planning, it's worth noting that Instagram has never faced an existential regulatory threat. That stability has value, even if it's hard to quantify.

My framework: where to start based on your situation

You sell visual, impulse-friendly products under $50 and can produce daily video content. Start with TikTok. The organic reach advantage for new brands is too good to pass up, and TikTok Shop's conversion mechanics are built for exactly this type of product. Set up Instagram as a secondary presence but don't try to master both simultaneously.

You sell premium, design-led, or higher-consideration products over $75. Start with Instagram. Your products need the context that carousels, captions, and curated feeds provide. Instagram's longer buying cycle matches how people shop for premium goods. Consider TikTok for awareness and brand building, but don't expect it to be your primary conversion channel.

You have less than 5 hours per week for social media. Pick one platform and go deep. Splitting time across both will give you mediocre results on both. Choose based on the questions above, commit for 90 days, then evaluate whether to expand.

You have a team member who's great on camera. That single asset tilts the equation heavily toward TikTok. On-camera talent is TikTok's highest-leverage resource, and it's something most competitors don't have. Use it.

You're already established on one platform. Don't abandon what's working to chase trends. If Instagram is generating sales for you, optimise it before adding TikTok. If TikTok is working, same thing. The grass isn't always greener - it's just a different shade.

What "use both" actually looks like

If you do have the bandwidth to run both platforms, here's how I'd structure it based on what I've seen work across the brands we've worked with. (If you're still figuring out how to automate social media for your Shopify store, start there.)

Use TikTok for discovery and top-of-funnel awareness. Short, engaging videos that showcase your products in action. The goal is reach - getting your brand in front of new people who've never heard of you. TikTok Shop handles the impulse buyers who convert immediately.

Use Instagram for relationship-building and conversion. Curated content that tells your brand story, customer testimonials, product education, and lifestyle imagery. The goal is trust - turning awareness into consideration and consideration into purchase. Link everything back to your Shopify store.

Repurpose content across both, but adapt the format. A TikTok video can become an Instagram Reel, but the caption, hashtags, and posting time should be different. Don't just cross-post identically - each platform rewards native content.

And if managing two platforms still feels overwhelming with a small team, that's exactly the kind of problem that tools like Connily are built to solve - handling the strategy, content creation, and publishing across platforms so you can focus on running your business.

The bottom line

TikTok has the momentum. The organic reach, the conversion rates, the explosive growth of TikTok Shop - it's all real, and it's reshaping e-commerce. If you're not paying attention to it, you're leaving money on the table.

Instagram has the infrastructure. The broader audience, the higher order values, the mature advertising platform, the stability. It's not as exciting as TikTok right now, but it's reliable and it works for a wider range of products and brands.

The right answer isn't "both." The right answer is: which one matches your product, your resources, and your customers? Start there. Do it well. Then expand when you have the bandwidth to do the second platform justice.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're falling behind because you're only on one platform. A brand that posts great content consistently on one platform will outperform a brand that posts mediocre content inconsistently on three. If you want help figuring out which social media tools work for Shopify stores, we've covered that too.