Young lady riding in a shopping cart doing a superman pose

You might remember watching haul videos – where people share their new buys with the world online – on YouTube in the 2010s and thanks to social media platform TikTok, a decade later they’re enjoying a comeback.

TikTok might be best known for its entertaining dance challenges, genius beauty hacks, and addictive cleaning reels, but the platform is also full of haul videos too.

In fact, some top haulers have become so popular they’ve made it their careers, attracting lucrative brand deals.

During lockdown, the shopping craze hit a new high with online deliveries and social media the only way for people to get their fashion fix and TikTok become a vital channel for retailers to reach their audiences. So much so, TikTok’s #haul now has over 8.7 billion views!

But what brand tops the TikTok Haul of Fame?

To find out, we analysed over 40 of the biggest high street and online fashion brands in the UK.

Taking the top spot in the TikTok Haul of Fame is Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein, with over 2.5 billion #sheinhaul views and counting.

Despite the billion-dollar company being surrounded by controversary about its ownership and supply chain, Shein is a master at social media promotion, using a network of of-the-moment influencers to sell, sell, sell. And it seems to be the winning formula, inspiring its customers to share their own promotional content too.

Spanish retailer and UK high street staple, Zara comes in second place with an impressive 873.6 million views of its TikTok haul hashtag. Experts in brand loyalty, Zara famously spends very little on advertising and has always relied on high-quality social media content to keep it at the forefront of the fashion conscious.

Primark is a surprise third place in the TikTok Haul of Fame with 221.9 million views, bucking the trend with no online store. In 2020, the brick-and-mortar retailer was forced to close its doors, causing its monthly sales to dive from £650 million to £0.

But that didn’t stop the brand from growing its loyal fanbase online. During lockdown, Primark positioned its social channels as a go-to place for everything from fashion advice to boredom-busting baking recipes, keeping its customers engaged and whetted their appetite for when it threw its doors open again.

As is tradition with a Primark visit, customers end up leaving with more than they intended, so this style of shopping is perfectly suited to #Haul Tok.

Pretty Little Thing (owned by Boohoo Group) and Berksha (with the same parent company as Zara) make up the rest of the top five, with 91.1 million and 82.7 million views respectively.

Original online favourite ASOS just misses out on the top five, despite promoting a haul-style shopping experience by stocking over 850 brands and offering free returns. The brand has 76.2 million views on #asoshaul.

Here are the results in full:

TikTok Haul of Fame data table

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