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TikTok began notifying some e-commerce workers on Wednesday that their roles were cut as part of “organizational and personnel changes,” according to two current employees and an internal email viewed by Business Insider.
HR will help affected workers through the next steps around the “difficult news,” and there is “no need to come to the office” as they work through the transition, according to the email.
The cuts are hitting Shop staff across various parts of TikTok and ByteDance’s global e-commerce division, including moderation workers, product team members, and staff who work with creators and sellers, the employees said. BI wasn’t able to immediately learn how many roles were affected.
While some workers were told their jobs were cut, others were informed that they would still have roles after a restructuring.
“As the TikTok Shop business evolves, we regularly review our operations to ensure long-term success,” a TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. “Following careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to adjust parts of our team to better align with strategic priorities.”
In its internal messaging to staff, the company said it’s spent the past month assessing how to “best support our evolving global e-commerce business in alignment with our mission and evolving goals,” and that it’s “repositioning resources and reducing complexity in pursuit of strengthened collaboration and increased efficiency.”
These new changes are the latest in a series of layoff rounds affecting Shop workers this year.
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In April, TikTok and ByteDance made cuts to multiple teams within its e-commerce governance and experience group, which oversees marketplace safety for sellers, creators, and users within Shop. In May, it conducted two rounds of layoffs within e-commerce, affecting US operations and global key accounts workers and staff in Indonesia, Bloomberg reported.
TikTok’s US e-commerce business became an area of focus for cuts this year after division lead Bob Kang told staff in a February all-hands call that the group failed to meet some of its performance goals in 2024. US performance in 2025 has been mixed, as sales have slumped at times amid new tariffs on China. Weekly US order volume dropped in mid-May compared to mid-April, BI previously reported. The company wrote in a blog post that platform sales were up 120% for the first half of June compared to the same period the previous year.
Beyond layoffs, TikTok also culled staff during performance reviews in March, when some employees were offered the option to accept a performance-improvement plan or leave the company via a mutual separation agreement. As some US team members have departed, leaders from China and Singapore with knowledge of TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin, have consolidated control of the business, employees previously told BI.
Wednesday’s job cuts arrive as TikTok is in the middle of talks with the Trump administration over a 2024 law that requires ByteDance to separate from TikTok in the US.
Trump said in a Fox News interview late last month that his administration aimed to approve a bid for TikTok’s business from a group of “very wealthy people.” Any deal with ByteDance around a TikTok sale would also require approval from the Chinese government.
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