Back-to-school season is no longer starting only in stores or storefront windows: it’s also kicking off on TikTok Shop. As September approaches, users turn to the platform to discover new ideas, trends, and products to tackle the return to the routine. In this context, searches for stationery and school supplies rose by about 30% between June and July, especially in categories like planners, notebooks, and writing materials.
This trend is also reflected in purchases, with about a 30% increase in sales of this category in July compared to the previous month on the platform. The data show how back-to-school demand begins to pick up and solidify TikTok Shop as a space for discovering and purchasing new brands and products.
For small businesses, this environment also offers the opportunity to showcase their products through content, connect more closely with potential customers, and build a community around their brand. Short-form videos and LIVE Shopping sessions enable presenting products in a more dynamic way, sharing their story and answering users’ questions, turning discovery into a buying opportunity and helping smaller brands gain visibility and drive sales.
VG: An artisanal stationery brand
One example of this evolution is VG (@vikguiraoshop), an artisanal stationery and personal development brand born in Murcia eight years ago. The company designs and locally manufactures its own products and, lacking a network of physical stores, has found TikTok Shop to be a way to showcase its catalog, reach new audiences, and build a community around its products.
Since the brand joined TikTok Shop exactly one year ago, the platform has become one of its main growth levers. In fact, TikTok Shop now accounts for 50% of the brand’s revenue, and its LIVE Shopping sessions have generated as much as €8,000 in sales in a single session, a record reached precisely in August, during the back-to-school campaign prep.
However, the platform has also helped the brand break the seasonality of its business. In April 2026, Vik Guirao Shop orders on TikTok Shop grew more than 1,000% compared with orders across all its channels in April 2025.
Thanks to its strategy of connecting with its community through organic content and LIVE Shopping sessions, the brand has sold more than 21,000 products with 98% of customer reviews being positive.
A new way to experience back-to-school
The VG (@vikguiraoshop) case shows how TikTok Shop can offer stationery brands a new way to connect with their customers. In a category where personal recommendations, inspiration, and user experience carry significant weight, short-form video formats and LIVEs allow sellers to bring their products closer to consumers, build trust, and foster a more human relationship.
Thus, TikTok Shop becomes a new online storefront for small businesses heading into the back-to-school season, letting them show their products in a friendly, dynamic, and engaging way. From discovering a planner through a video or a LIVE to answering questions, learning how to use it, and buying it directly, TikTok Shop helps give visibility to products and brands, spark conversations with customers, and turn that discovery into a purchase.
