How to Sell on TikTok Shop: 9 Tactics for TikTok Sellers

If you’re an e-commerce, staying ahead of the curve is not just a choice but a necessity. And if there’s one platform that has captured the attention of millions worldwide with its dynamic and engaging approach to content, it’s TikTok. But what if we told you that TikTok isn’t just a place for dancing challenges and lip-sync videos? It’s also a vibrant marketplace where entrepreneurs are discovering unprecedented opportunities. Whether you’re a seasoned e-commerce pro or just starting your entrepreneurial journey, this guide will help you on your journey to mastering TikTok Shop. 

We are giving strategies and tips that will not only elevate your brand presence but also turn those scrolling thumbs into paying customers. The TikTok Shop isn’t just a marketplace; it’s a digital stage where creativity meets commerce, and we’re here to guide you through every step of the journey. 

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to online selling? Let’s embark on this TikTok adventure together and unlock the door to a whole new world of possibilities for your business. 

Can You Sell Directly on TikTok? 

Yes, you can sell directly on TikTok. There are a few different ways to get sales on TikTok. The first way is through live shopping. Brand owners and/or influencers can go live on TikTok and sell products to their audiences live. This allows for a more interactive shopping experience similar to TV channels like Home Shopping Network. Users who are watching live can simply click the link of the product during the live and checkout with a few clicks. This option is great for sellers who have a good following. One thing to note is that you need to have a minimum of 1,000 followers to go live to your audience. Even if you don’t have a following yet, start building your following and then go live once you hit the 1,000 follower goal! Once you go live, you will get exposure to even more followers because TikTok gives more exposure to accounts that go live to their audiences.  

Another way to get exposure and sales for your products on TikTok is through Shoppable videos. These videos can be created by a brand or influencers and are videos aimed at demonstrating and promoting a specific product. The product is linked in the video and anyone who sees the video and wants to purchase the product can click the link and purchase on TikTok. These types of videos usually get more exposure and promotion through the TikTok algorithm so it’s another great way to get sales and exposure for your brand. When you create your TikTok Shop, you can create these videos and post them or you can reach out to influencers and ask them to create shoppable videos. Influencers who promote your products will earn a commission based on what you set and they agree upon. Usually when you are starting out, offering a larger commission will attract more influencers and it’s a good idea to do this to get traction when you are just getting started.  

TikTok also has shop pages that brands can create for their products that can be found on the main Tik Tok Page for the brand. This is where brands can showcase all of their products in one place for their followers to browse. Once a follower is on the brand’s page, all they need to do is click where it says shop to be taken to all of the products that the brand has listed on TikTok. 

This is what the brand page looks like when a follower clicks on the “Shop” button: 

TikTok users can also find products on TikTok through the shop tab on their home page when they login to TikTok. The below images show what customers see when they click on the shop tab. There is a search tab that can help TikTok users to find products on TikTok which is why it is important to include all important keywords on your product listing pages so that potential customers can find your products on TikTok. 

Using one or all of these methods on TikTok is a great way to get more exposure for your products on TikTok with a more targeted audience. 

Is It Free to Sell on TikTok? 

Currently, as of October of 2024, Tiktok charges a 6% referral fee for sales made on the platform. TikTok is investing billions of dollars into getting more sellers and customers on their platform so the low fees reflect their efforts to make the marketplace successful. In many instances, they will also pay for discounts you offer as well as shipping. So, if you have been interested in selling on TikTok, now is definitely the right time because referral fees are low and they still offer incentives to sellers.  

Is It Worth Selling on TikTok? 

The benefit of selling products on TikTok is that it will allow you to find and market to your target audience. TikTok’s algorithm is very good and the reason why many have said that they are addicted to the platform. They show you products and creators that they know you will like based on what you search and watch on TikTok. So, if the potential to sell thousands more or even millions more dollars worth of your products and gain more customers in your target market, then yes, selling on TikTok is worth it! 

What Are the Requirements to Sell on TikTok? 

To become a seller on TikTok Shop, individual sellers must register using either their TikTok account or providing their phone number and email. Alongside these details, individual sellers are required to submit specific documents, including a driver’s license or passport and the last four digits of their tax ID, which can be either a US Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Payment and tax information for individual sellers involve providing a Merchant Category Code and completing a W9/W8-BEN form, which includes the submission of a US TIN. 

Corporate sellers, too, can register on TikTok Shop using their TikTok account or by providing their phone number and email. The documentation requirements for corporate sellers are more extensive and include information such as the business name, Employer Identification Number (EIN), registered business address, last four digits of the tax ID (either US Social Security Number or ITIN), legal name, date of birth, and residential address. Payment and tax information entails providing a Merchant Category Code, completing a W9/W8-BEN form, and offering details on the entity type, related person’s information, and, if applicable, information on ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) within the company. Corporate sellers are also asked to specify the role(s) of the person associated with the account within the company, providing a comprehensive overview for TikTok Shop to ensure compliance and transparency in the selling process. 

How to Start Selling on TikTok Shop 

1. Create an Individual or Corporate Tiktok Account 

The first step to selling on TikTok Shop is to set up your TikTok Account. Sellers can register as either individual sellers or as corporate sellers. The documents mentioned in the above section about the requirements to sell on TikTok will need to be uploaded during the application process. The TikTok shop application process is straightforward as long as you have the above documents and make sure that all of the information that you submit is correct. 

2. Upload Your Products 

Uploading products to TikTok Shop is fairly simple and if you have experience with other selling platforms like Amazon, this should be a pretty quick process. Keep in mind that on TikTok, people can search for any product that they want in the shop tab in the search bar. So, it’s still important to include important keywords that describe your product. 

First, you need to click on the product tab in the left-hand menu and then click on “Manage Product.” 

Once you click on “Manage Products,” you will want to click on “Add new product.” 

Once you click on “Add new product,” the below view will appear where you can add all of the important details for your product such as title, photos, product details, category, and more! The more that you fill out on your listing page, the higher the chance that your product will be discovered on TikTok. 

If you are interested in selling products specifically for TikTok shops, the best way to find product ideas is to search for videos that are selling products that end up going viral. That is a great way to find in-demand products. For those sellers who already have a product to sell, the best way to start promoting your product once you get listed is through influencers and TikTok ads. 

Another method you can use to upload your products is by connecting your Shopify store to your TikTok Shop. This process is a bit quicker once you get it all set up and it will sync to how everything is set up on your Shopify store and will also sync inventory.  

3. Create Quality User-Driven Content 

If you already have a lot of great video content on other social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook that have done well to reach your target audience and get a lot of exposure, you can repost that same content on TikTok to gain an entirely new audience for your products. This is a great way to get started getting more followers and driving traffic to your page through quality content that has already proved to do well. If you have a lot of videos, create a schedule for content that you have already posted on other platforms and post at least 3 times per day. This will help you to gain followers quickly and it can also give you exposure to influencers in your niche who may be interested in promoting your product on TikTok Shop. 

If you don’t already have content to post, a great way to start is by either creating your own videos or hiring micro-influencers to create User Generated Content (UGC) videos. This will help to give you some initial exposure, although it may get rather expensive if this is your only strategy. The cost of each influencer will vary based on the number of followers and their typical engagement. 

Once you have videos that are showcasing your products, you will want to tag your products that are listed in the TikTok shop. This will give you quite a bit more exposure because TikTok Shop is being promoted in the algorithm. The more you promote your products from the TikTok shop, the higher the chances that you will gain a lot more followers because of the automatic exposure you get for using the TikTok Shop to sell your products! 

4. Engage With Your Audience 

Engaging with your audience is another way to gain exposure for your products on TikTok Shop. A great way to do this is to respond to comments on your videos. You can even create another video to respond to comments asking questions or to make clarifications. Usually, when you respond with a video, everyone who saw that first video will be shown your response video on their “For You” page. Responding to comments on your videos not only gives you more exposure but also helps you create a rapport with your followers. 

Going live on TikTok is another great way to gain more followers and get more exposure for your brand. Going live with potential customers to answer questions and show your products in real-time is an excellent opportunity to make sales and also build awareness for your products. Going live also helps you get more exposure with the TikTok algorithm so that you can potentially get even more of your target audience to follow your account. Keep in mind that you need a minimum of 1,000 followers in order to go live on TikTok.  

5. Leverage Amazon Influencers 

TikTok influencers are much easier to connect with than influencers on other platforms because the TikTok shop has created an entire area where sellers and TikTok Influencers can collaborate. One way to promote your brand on TikTok Shop is through open collaboration. To do an open collaboration, login to your Tik Tok Shop account and then click on the Affiliate tab on the left-hand side menu, and then click “Get Started.” 

Once you’re in the affiliate section, you will see that there are many options to promote your products with influencers. One of the best ways is to put your products into “Open Collaboration,” so that TikTok Influencers can select your products and ask for a sample. Once you send the sample, they can choose to promote your product with a video if they like your product and think that it is a good fit for their audience. A helpful metric that TikTok provides with the sample requests is the percentage of videos made compared to sample requests. If the creator that requests your product hasn’t really proven that they will create videos with past samples that they requested, it will make it easier for you to know that TikTok influencers are likely not to create a video for you and you can refuse their request. 

To start with open collaboration, first click on “Open Collaboration.” 

The Open Collaboration section is where you can add a link to your product listing, set commission rates, and show the amount of free samples available for influencers. The higher the commission rate you set, the better the chances influencers will find you because they can sort products by commission rate. Usually, influencers are going to go for the highest commission rate possible. If an influencer requests a sample, you will see their sample request in the “Sample Request,” tab. 

Sellers can also do a “Target Collaboration,” where you choose or target the exact influencers that you want to promote your product. You can send them a request in TikTok and they can accept or deny your request in the system based on your offer. 

7. Reshare Customer Content 

Sharing content created by customers is an excellent way to promote your products on TikTok. If you have customer videos from your website reviews or other social media platforms, you can repost the customer content on TikTok. You can also search hashtags on TikTok with your brand name included in the hashtag to see if there are any videos that customers potentially have posted without your knowledge. 

8. Run Ads (and Try Multiple Ad Types) 

When you create ads in TikTok, there are different options on the types of ads that you do as well as the target audience. To create an ad, you are going to want to go to the marketing section on your left-hand menu bar and then click on “Shop Ads,” to get started. 

Then, you are going to choose the type of ads that you want to promote. The two options are Video shopping ads which will be in the form of a video or Live shopping ads where customers can purchase products live. 

Next, you will choose the product source and most likely the source will be TikTok Shop. Catalogue is currently in Beta so not everyone will have access to this tab. 

Then, the best part about these ads is that you can choose your target audience to make sure that these ads are shown to the people who are most likely to buy your product. 

Once you create your ad, you will want to monitor performance to make sure that you are getting the results that you want from the campaign. 

9. Measure Performance to Inform Future Strategies 

Finally, it is important to measure the ROI on influencer and ad campaigns alike. Discontinue any campaigns that are not showing a good return and put more investment into those that are performing. Once you know what works, you can duplicate your strategy by contacting more influencers and creating more ad campaigns. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, our journey through the vibrant landscape of TikTok Shop has shown the massive potential this platform holds for online sellers. Beyond being a fleeting trend, TikTok has proven itself as a transformative force in the realm of e-commerce, offering a unique space where creativity and commerce converge. From crafting engaging content to building authentic connections, we’ve given strategies and tools that can elevate your brand on TikTok. Remember, success here is not just about metrics but about fostering genuine connections. As you embark on your TikTok adventure, stay agile, stay creative, and stay true to your brand. Your journey on TikTok is just beginning, so embrace the challenges, celebrate the victories, and enjoy connecting with your audience in ways you never imagined.