I recently met a new friend—she’s generous, beautiful, and honestly just really cool. What impressed me even more was her work: running a TikTok shop (I might add the link to her shop later).

Back in 2018, I also had a store on AliExpress. Unlike a lot of older resellers, I wasn’t just flipping products for a quick margin. I cared about understanding what people my age actually liked, the shopping habits in different countries, and even the tiny language details that change how people buy. I had some basic design skills, a bit of data sense—but that was all before TikTok blew up and before AI became a thing.

Her niche now is home décor, which I also sold back then. Remember the old “Instagram aesthetic”? Gold wire frames, macaron color palettes, palm trees with flamingos and monstera leaves, shiny golden accents, and the black-and-white “less is more” calligraphy. At the time it looked trendy, but now it just feels painfully outdated. She also wants to branch into women’s accessories—something I’ve always admired but never really understood, maybe because of the gender gap.

Unlike Shopee or Lazada, the mainstream e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, TikTok Shop runs at full speed. It’s driven by young people, their trends and creativity. It’s deeply rooted in local culture while still plugged into a global audience. Honestly, it reminds me Rednote/Xiaohongshu—super trend-driven, where personality and vibe matter as much as the product itself.

After a simple lunch, she showed me her back-end and some of her daily operations. Her shop is still new, but the way she moved through different dashboards—smooth, focused, like she’d been doing it for years—really impressed me. She had fresh methods I’d never seen before: the pace at which she “nurtures” a store, the clean detail shots and videos she makes. Her aesthetic sense is amazing, and watching her work was actually a joy.

At one point I told her, “I like hanging out with younger people, it keeps my brain fresh.” She immediately got it—I don’t want to slide into that stale, “old man” mindset. Most of my creative energy these years has gone into blogging and Instagram. I scroll TikTok and Lemon8, but I’ve never posted anything. Creating short-form videos feels like it requires this raw urge to express yourself—something that honestly pushes me outside my comfort zone. I didn’t have many friends growing up, I spent most of my time reading and writing bits here and there. I can’t draw well, I’ve never danced on camera, and I’ve never seriously tried editing video. If I ever dive back into e-commerce, I’d need a partner like her.

Since my TikTok account isn’t based in Malaysia, I couldn’t even open the shop interface myself—so she generously let me try it out on her iPad. I really admire her hustle and her ideas. I genuinely hope her shop takes off—and at the same time, I hope I can find the courage to start creating more too.