How to Sell on TikTok Shop (and Optimize Your Shop for More Sales)

If your brand hesitated to start selling on TikTok Shop at its launch, you’re not alone.

But all signs point that Shop is here to stay in a big way (and no, it's not too late to start).

Here’s a quick snapshot that highlights the boom in CPG brands selling on TikTok Shop:

• Consumer trust is already there. Many Shop products are regularly selling in 10,000+ units.
  
  
• TikTok is investing heavily in Shop features. Makes sense given that Shop is integral to the app's $17 billion revenue goal in 2024.
  
  
• The rise of TikTok SEO. More commercial product searches are shifting away from Google and Amazon to TikTok.

While selling on TikTok Shop is 100% happening, sales aren’t guaranteed and competition is fierce.

Below we dig into how to get sales on TikTok Shop and set themselves up for more sales.

How to Set Up TikTok Shop (If You Haven’t Already)

Is your brand already selling on TikTok Shop? Skip this section to get to the good stuff!

Below is a quick breakdown of the big-picture steps of setting up your TikTok Shop.

For a more in-depth explanation, check out our recent webinars (“Should Your Brand Be on TikTok Shop?” and “How Brands Are Driving Sales on TikTok”).

1. Create Your Shop in the TikTok Business Center

• Upload products directly or connect your storefront with an ecommerce tool
• Options include: Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Salesforce and Amazon
• Choose shipping options based on your brand's product catalog and fulfillment setup
• Beyond inventory and basic product description, TikTok isn't super customizable (yet) 

2. Register as a TikTok Affiliate Seller

• Brands must register an Affiliate Seller before selling products on TikTok Shop
• Verify your identity and link your Shop to a TikTok Business account
• Submit your application and expect approval within 2-6 days
• Once approved, link your TikTok Shop to your account and start selling!

3. Select an Affiliate Type for Your TikTok Shop

• Brands can partner with creators with a “Target” Plan or “Open” Plan (or both)
• Target Plan: invite specific influencers to act as affiliates for your Shop
• Open Plan: any approved creator (who meets TikTok’s requirements) can act as an affiliate
• As of writing this post, the sole requirements for Shop affiliates are that you must be 18 years of age and have a minimum of 5,000 followers.

How to Get Sales on TikTok Shop in 5 Steps

We've seen firsthand how CPG brands are scoring sales through shoppable videos on TikTok.

But trust us: they're not doing it all by accident!

Below are five tips and best practices for selling on TikTok Shop based on recent trends, the best Shops we've seen and the app's own recommendations.

1. Prioritize the Right Products for Your TikTok Shop

The best-selling items on TikTok Shop don't fall under a one-size-fits-all category.

And honestly, sometimes it's not the same products that you might expect. 

Here are some of the common threads between many (but not all!) of the products that perform well on TikTok Shop for CPG brands:

• Relatively low price point ( >$50). Given that more than half of consumers on TikTok identify that they make impulse purchases on the app, this isn't a huge surprise. The trade-off here is that if a product's price point is too low it can impact its appeal to your brand's TikTok affiliates.
  
  
• Small items (ex: something you could hold in your hand, fit in a backpack). These types of products are typically easier to ship and likewise show off on camera. There's also an inherent expectation for free shipping for items like this.

• Products that are straightforward for creators to film. So much of how to sell on TikTok shop is figuring out creative ways to get influencers to promote your products. The easier it is for a creator to feature a product in their content, the better.

The larger your products get in terms of price point and size, the more legwork required to drive purchases. That said, it's not just beauty brands and makeup products that sell on TikTok. 

A brand like LEVOIT is a really good example of a TikTok Shop selling a variety of products at different sizes and price points. It's no coincidence that their smaller items which have been featured in multiple viral videos are the best-sellers. However, the sales of their bigger items in terms of size and price tag are nothing to scoff at.

If you're not sure what to sell on TikTok Shop, start by looking at your current best-sellers that tick the boxes above. Although TikTok recommends that sellers embrace variety, make sure that the margins make sense for whatever you decide to list in your Shop. Choosing a product that's easy to film in terms of how it works is always a plus for creators.

2. Be Strategic With TikTok Shop Deals and Affiliate Payouts

As of writing this post, TikTok still offers some pretty steep discounts for first-time buyers and waiving various fees for Shop sellers.

The idea here is to drive as many sales to TikTok Shop as possible to hook audiences and get them invested in the platform before removing them. We've seen this strategy play out with the likes of Netflix and Uber raising prices so it's not a huge surprise.

However, these offers won't be around forever and the days of dirt-cheap products will come to a halt for buyers. Seller fees already hiked from 2% to 6% and will reach 8% in July 2024.

This highlights the importance of being strategic about your deals and discounts when you sell on TikTok Shop. Customer expectations on Shop are similar to that of Amazon as buyers expect the best deals possible.

Your pricing on TikTok Shop may mirror your pricing strategy on Amazon for this reason. Just be mindful that you aren't taking a total loss.

In terms of affiliate payouts, TikTok recommends starting with 10% and gradually reducing to somewhere between 5% and 1% depending on your goals. If you expect creators to consistently promote your products, you're going to need a value exchange to match.

The takeaway here is that knowing how to sell on TikTok Shop doesn't mean much if simply having a Shop is putting you in the red. Pay attention to the fine print and price your products accordingly.

3. Score More Sales with An Always-On Influencer Strategy

Creators are the cornerstone of TikTok Shop and what makes it so effective and potentially powerful for CPG brands. Since shoppable posts can rank in social search and trend in the #FYP, the value of having consistent creator content feed the TikTok algorithm is massive.

The more creators you collab with, the more potential reach you can earn. This speaks to the importance of a high volume of partnerships with TikTok micro-influencers. 

TikTok makes it relatively easy for brands to build their army of influencers whether you have an existing creator roster or not based on your choice of affiliate plan.

• Open Plan: put some (or all) of your products on the TikTok Shop affiliate network.
• Products become available for all creators to select on the Product Marketplace
• Creators can create content featuring your products after selecting them.
• Commission is deducted from each sale and paid to the creator automatically.
• TikTok recommends that brands start with an Open plan to start, then switch to Target for creators you love
  
  
• Target Plan: directly invite specific creators to promote your products
• Define custom commission amounts for your “best” creators
• Must use TikTok’s “Creator Connect” to find and message creators individually

Keep in mind that you can mix and match between Target and Open affiliates. Either option has its benefits so which one you choose really depends on your bandwidth and whether you can support influencer collabs at scale! 

Chances are you already collaborate with influencers on TikTok that meet the criteria for Shop. These creators are perfect candidates to promote your products and boost your storefront's visibility. The trick is finding these creators without digging through profiles or conducting outreach.

This is where Statusphere's platform can be a huge help. We've recently rolled out the ability for brands to enable TikTok Shop tagging within their campaigns. That means you can instantly activate creators posting your TikTok Shop product links without sending a single DM.

The result? More eyes on your storefront and more potential affiliate revenue for your TikTok Shop creators (all with no manual legwork on your part). It's a win-win!

4. Test-Drive TikTok Ads Featuring Shoppable Videos

Remember: influencer ads outperform non-creator ads by default on TikTok.

Thankfully, there are multiple types of TikTok Ads (like Spark Ads!) and Video Shopping Ads which can feature both creators and link back to your Shop listings. 

The potential reach and engagement rate on TikTok Shop ads is staggering, by the way.

A recent case study for Love and Pebble illustrates how. The brand saw massive results by sparking influencer content for a promotional campaign featuring TikTok Shop products. The results:

• 3.2x ROAS and 1194% (!!!) increase in sales
• 240+ conversions, 250,000+ impressions
• 409% decrease in CPA vs BAU ads

The takeaway? If you’re trying to figure out how to sell on TikTok Shop, Spark Ads are a smart starting point in terms of where to put your ad budget.

And if you're already collaborating with creators, this is a low-hanging opportunity to drive sales on TikTok with content you already have the rights to.

5. Boost Visibility with TikTok SEO, Products and Creators

We've been getting a lot of questions about TikTok Shop SEO lately and we totally understand why.

With the rise of TikTok SEO, it makes sense to want to optimize your store for social search as well.

The thing is, there are a few caveats to just how much you can optimize your TikTok Shop for search:

• The TikTok search algorithm and TikTok Shop search algorithm don't have 1:1 results. That means the social media keywords you research or rank for may or may not have a notable impact on your storefront's ability to rank. We likewise don't know a ton about Shop's algorithm at this time. 
  
  
• TikTok’s guidelines limit claims that you’re able to make in Shop (ex: no comparisons to other brands, claiming your product is the “best”). This significantly reduces the number of keywords you can target.
  
  
• TikTok offers relatively limited real estate for optimization. Reading between the lines, it seems that TikTok does not want brands to over-optimize their Shops. For example, TikTok's 250-character limit for selling points reduces opportunities to weave keywords into product descriptions naturally. However, this all makes sense as the app is trying to maintain its reputation and reduce its association. 

To wrap things up, TikTok also has its own set of recommendations for increasing visibility on Shop:

• Maximize products uploaded to TikTok Shop. The app asserts that variety increases exposure.
  
  
• Increase the number of shoppable videos on your account. Specifically, the app wants native TikTok videos and not repurposed content or ads from Instagram or YouTube.
  
  
• Add your product links to relevant videos. If you have older content that features products from your new Shop, make a point to work backward to link the two.

The app isn't shy about telling us that selling on TikTok Shop is a numbers game. More positive word-of-mouth, reviews and social proof are always a plus for the sake of building trust. This highlights why brands such as Blue Bottle Coffee perform so well on TikTok Shop with a high volume of creators shouting them out.

Again, creators are going to earn you more reach and opportunities to get seen by your target audience on TikTok Shop than keyword stuffing your product descriptions or any other "hack."

How to Sell on TikTok Shop with Influencer Collabs at Scale

We'll say it again: TikTok Shop is here to stay.

And the sooner you figure out how to sell on TikTok Shop based on its best practices, the better.

The rise of TikTok shopping really reinforces the importance of having an established influencer marketing strategy. The more brand advocates you have creating UGC, the better. 

If you need a high volume of TikTok influencers creating UGC featuring your TikTok Shop products, Statusphere’s software can help. Our micro-influencer platform matches brands with creators from our vetted influencer network using 250+ unique, first-party data points.

Unlike other platforms, Statusphere provides brands with guaranteed posts from relevant influencers to support scalability. We also offer tools like Instant Spark Ads to help brands sell and advertise on TikTok Shop faster.

We’ve already generated 75,000+ pieces of authentic content for 400+ CPG brands like yours.

Want to see how our software works? Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can grow your influencer presence on TikTok with guaranteed content at scale.