An AI-generated video of a car-sized hamster barging through a home is followed by a clip of Olivia Rodrigo covering CMAT at the BBC live lounge. Several incomplete strands of thought comparing the final season of Euphoria to the New Testament precede a storytime from a smiling girl about how her necklace reminds her of home when she’s living abroad.You are, of course, scrolling through videos on your phone, drawn in by one of the various social media apps that have integrated endless reels of short-form content into their platforms.But as the smiling girl touches the jewellery looped around her neck – a small, gold-plated Ireland insignia – a little orange bubble pops up. You can buy her necklace for just €35.99, and you can do so in the next 30 seconds if you wish. “The way I like to think about it is that it’s like a shop directly in your pocket,” says Katey McElroy, head of operations at TikTok Shop Ireland.TikTok Shop, the ecommerce feature of TikTok’s popular social media app, launched in Ireland in 2024, following commercial success in other countries including Britain and France.In addition to standard entertainment videos uploaded by users on the social media app, shoppable ads are now integrated into the platform.“When people spend time on the app, they see lots of videos and now some of those videos are shoppable – they’ll have a little shopping icon,” McElroy says. Users can click on the icon, upload payment information and complete the transaction for the advertised product, all without ever leaving the app. The shopping option is also available on the livestreaming feature of the app, where creators can go live and market their products with viewers purchasing in real time.How long does it take to checkout? “By the time someone comes into the live and purchases, it could be 30 to 60 seconds,” says Seán Leddin, founder and chief executive of Limerick-based brand Fíor Jewellery. He is one of many small Irish retailers who have found opportunities for growth in some of the more modern channels of the changing ecommerce landscape, availing of a national audience without having to consider a strong physical retail presence.“As soon as I heard about TikTok Shop being launched in Ireland, I knew it was something that we had to get on,” Leddin says.Fíor Jewellery started selling on TikTok Shop in early 2025, with Leddin using the livestream feature to promote their products. “I was just at the warehouse and I was like, look, I’m just going to go live, start packing orders,” says Leddin. “And then people were asking about our products, and then I kind of stopped packing the orders and started selling instead.“We did a couple of hundred euros revenue in the space of like 90 minutes and I was like, this is just a game changer,” says Leddin.His experience is reflected in Fíor Jewellery’s annual turnover: since joining TikTok shop, the ecommerce platform accounts for 10–15 per cent of its overall revenue. TikTok Shop is just one of the retailers changing the face of Ireland’s ecommerce landscape in 2026, with features such as app-wide flash sales and live shopping, but it is not the only one. In Ireland’s €20 trillion retail industry, ecommerce accounts for about a fifth of all sales. In the last few weeks, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chief executive of the Easy Group (known for EasyJet), announced its upcoming ecommerce retail platform in Ireland – EasyShop. Cas Paton, chief executive and founder of OnBuy, the technology behind Easy Group’s new venture, noted that “EasyShop removes many of the barriers that typically slow retail expansion by operating as a pure marketplace without inventory, logistics, or local infrastructure”. Fast-fashion retailer Shein also opened a new ecommerce hub in Dublin last week. The Chinese group established its Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in the city in 2023. The language used in these channels isn’t missed: shopping is “easier” and spending is “accessible" when retail is centralised around an online presence. The figures don’t lie. In the beauty sector alone, TikTok Shop debuted at number 24 in the Irish retail rankings two years ago. It now sits at number five. More than €2 million in commission has been paid out to Irish influencers in the two years since TikTok Shop arrived in Ireland. It opened the ecommerce feature to all Irish businesses late last month, with it having previously been available only to businesses invited on to the platform. “By opening this up, we’re going to make sure that the Irish customer has lots of different products to choose from”, McElroy says, citing a range from Pokémon cards to lip stains. McElroy also confirmed TikTok Shop’s plans to open in eight new markets across Europe from Monday, giving Irish businesses using its store the ability to sell across Europe. ***As unavoidable as the rise of ecommerce platforms such as TikTok Shop is the impulsive nature of the shopping they incentivise. The channel is littered with bundle deals and flash sales during live events, it’s a central feature to the success of the platform – Leddin says they often promote their product lines by saying: “you will never get the product at a lower price anywhere else.” “If you are presented with lots of discounts, [and] flash sales,” says consumer psychologist Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, “those kinds of things mean you are worried about missing out.” Another issue is the impact on traditional “bricks-and-mortar” retailers. If McElroy is correct and ecommerce platforms do make shops as accessible as if they were in your pocket, what does this mean for the shops that cannot quite fit in the palm of your hand?McElroy has an optimistic take on the situation. “In terms of TikTok Shop, we coined it the halo effect”, she says, referring to her view that physical shops are enhanced, as opposed to threatened, by ecommerce platforms. She cites the use of TikTok Shop by established family owned-brands such as Elave Skincare: “I think it’s 1934 the family business started, so its incredible where they are today”.An Post chief executive David McRedmond expressed pessimism in recent weeks about the effects the growth of ecommerce in Ireland will have on high-street retail stores, noting that the “death of high street” had become an election issue for voters in the UK. Jansson-Boyd suggests the uncertain fate confronting physical retailers is due partially to the “changing psychological relationship” consumers have with the goods they purchase. She also thinks the dynamic between physical and online retailers has changed, pointing to what she says is the flourishing performance of shopping centres. “I guess the shopping malls kind of reflect online shopping to some extent,” Jansson-Boyd says. “It’s all about mimicking the online experience – you get everything you want under the sun in one space.”Either way, both McRedmond and Jansson-Boyd draw on the idea that the benchmark has been moved on what constitutes a satisfactory shopping experience. It may well be that the tables have flipped and it is no longer online retailers seeking to catch up with physical shops, but vice versa.