Brand & Creator Commerce with TikTok’s Ajay Salpekar

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – Episode on Brand & Creator Commerce with TikTok’s Ajay Salpekar

Introduction

In this engaging episode of The CPG Guys, hosts Peter V.S. Bond and Sree Rajagopalan delve deep into the evolving landscape of consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) within the realm of eCommerce. This episode features a prominent guest, Ajay Salpekar, the Head of Beauty at TikTok Shop in the US. Released on July 2, 2025, the discussion centers on how TikTok Shop is revolutionizing brand and creator commerce, fostering discovery-driven shopping experiences, and leveling the playing field for emerging beauty brands.

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Guest Background

Ajay Salpekar joins the conversation with over two decades of experience in digital commerce, having held significant positions at companies like Amazon, Unilever, and Microsoft. Before his current role at TikTok Shop, he was the Vice President of E-Commerce and Digital at Unilever, spearheading the company's eCommerce initiatives in the US. Ajay’s journey reflects a strong foundation in both technical and business aspects of eCommerce, underscored by his mantra, “learning maximization.”

Ajay Salpekar [06:10]: "Curiosity brought me to business roles at Amazon. It was actually curiosity about how brands and marketing worked and how what we sold in E-commerce was actually decided and then marketed launched."

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Transition to TikTok Shop

When asked about his transition from Unilever and Amazon to TikTok, Ajay emphasizes his inherent curiosity and desire to explore new facets of eCommerce.

Ajay Salpekar [06:10]: "I like to maximize learning. That's my mantra for life, learning maximization... I was curious about how a three-sided eCommerce marketplace would work. I hadn't worked directly with creators before and that was really compelling to me."

Ajay illustrates that his move to TikTok was driven by the compelling opportunity to work within a platform that integrates entertainment with commerce, particularly through creator collaborations.

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Discovery Commerce vs. Traditional eCommerce

A significant portion of the discussion contrasts TikTok Shop’s discovery-driven approach with traditional eCommerce models. Ajay explains how TikTok Shop simplifies and accelerates the shopping journey, making discovery more organic and less linear.

Ajay Salpekar [09:07]: "TikTok and TikTok Shop are Discover e-commerce... within the construct of this fantastic entertainment app, we’ve introduced TikTok Shop as discovery commerce."

He elaborates that while traditional eCommerce requires users to know what they want, search for it, and make deliberate purchases—a process that can take days—TikTok Shop leverages engaging content and creator partnerships to inspire spontaneous purchases within seconds.

Ajay Salpekar [09:50]: "Discovery and newness don't pop as much with traditional e-commerce. But TikTok Shop is designed to deliver discovery in a really compelling way."

An illustrative personal anecdote from Ajay underscores this point:

Ajay Salpekar [10:00]: "I came across this handheld vacuum... I wasn’t even in the market for it, but the compelling content made me want to buy it immediately."

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Strategies for Brands on TikTok Shop

Ajay outlines several key strategies that brands can adopt to harness the full potential of TikTok Shop:

1. Partnering with Creators at Scale: Brands collaborate with a wide array of creators to generate diverse and authentic content. This approach ensures that products are showcased in various creative contexts, enhancing discoverability.

   Ajay Salpekar [17:11]: "Brands are starting to figure out that TikTok Shop is an extension of their direct-to-consumer business and leverage that to jump onto trends."

2. Seeding Products with Creators: By providing product samples to creators, brands can generate buzz and authentic reviews, which in turn drive conversations and interest.

   Ajay Salpekar [17:22]: "When brands partner with creators at scale, you get tons of content from which quality content emerges."

3. Leveraging Content Beyond TikTok Shop: Successful content on TikTok often extends its influence to offline channels, creating what Ajay terms an "offline halo."

   Ajay Salpekar [18:31]: "2 in 5 users who discovered a product on TikTok later went to a physical location that sells that product."

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TikTok's Impact on Large vs. Small Brands

A crucial discussion revolves around how TikTok Shop democratizes access to market visibility, especially benefiting smaller and emerging brands. Ajay highlights that unlike traditional retail, where shelf space is a significant barrier, TikTok Shop allows creativity to drive scale.

Ajay Salpekar [25:57]: "If you're a small brand, hungry, nimble, agile, that works in your favor. They tap into TikTok Shop because for them it is sales, it is marketing, it is awareness, it is reason to be with their DTC site."

This contrasts sharply with large brands, which often struggle with agility and may hesitate to embrace platforms like TikTok due to misconceptions about their consumer base or the perceived lack of ROI.

Peter V. S Bond [14:48]: "Curiosity. Are they curious?"

Ajay stresses that TikTok Shop's environment fosters a level playing field where creativity and authentic storytelling can propel small brands to prominence without needing vast marketing budgets.

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Metrics and Success

When defining success on TikTok Shop, Ajay emphasizes the importance of a brand’s mindset over traditional metrics. He advocates for focusing on input metrics related to content creation rather than solely on output metrics like sales.

Ajay Salpekar [28:44]: "The key differentiator is mindset. Mindset is what determines how quickly you can move and how quickly you learn and how quickly you optimize."

Key metrics include:

1. Content Quantity: The sheer number of new short videos and live streams.
2. Content Quality: The effectiveness of content in driving conversions.
3. Creator Relationships: The number and retention rate of creators partnering with the brand.

Ajay Salpekar [31:08]: "The volume of content, the quality of content, and the newness of content makes the content commerce flywheel spin."

Ajay also underscores that while retail fundamentals like product quality and stock availability remain important, the primary drivers of success on TikTok Shop are the creative and compelling nature of the content and its resonance with the audience.

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Role of Creators in Brand Storytelling

Creators play a central role in TikTok Shop’s ecosystem, acting as both storytellers and influencers who bridge the gap between brands and consumers. Ajay highlights that creators prioritize authenticity and personal connection with their audience over compensation or brand size.

Ajay Salpekar [36:40]: "The number one thing that matters to most creators is, would I use that product? Is it interesting to me? Does it match me?"

This philosophy ensures that the content feels genuine and relatable, fostering trust and driving more effective consumer engagement.

Ajay Salpekar [35:26]: "Creators are central to how users or consumers increasingly make purchase decisions."

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Examples of Successful Collaborations

Ajay shares concrete examples to illustrate successful brand-creator partnerships on TikTok Shop:

1. Small Brand: Aroma Concepts

   • Strategy: Partnered with creators like Omavery and Daniel Renee Music to launch fragrance line extensions through live streaming.
   • Outcome: Leveraged creator expertise to narrate compelling stories about fragrances, driving both engagement and sales.

   Ajay Salpekar [38:08]: "They partnered with her to launch line extensions of fragrances... they did the same thing with another creator to launch net new innovations."

2. Large Brand: Peter Thomas Roth

   • Strategy: Collaborated with older creators like Sherry Doll to demonstrate product efficacy in a relatable and straightforward manner.
   • Outcome: The authentic, low-production content resonated with users, resulting in viral product demand.

   Ajay Salpekar [39:42]: "Her video... no special lighting... she applies the instant foam... the effect was apparent... visually compelling in a very simple video."

These examples underscore how both small and large brands can effectively utilize TikTok Shop by fostering authentic and creative partnerships with creators.

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Advice for Brands

In response to advice for brands, retailers, and agencies, Ajay offers practical guidance to maximize their effectiveness on TikTok Shop:

1. Adopt a Beginner’s Mindset:

   • Approach content creation and creator collaborations with openness and willingness to learn.

   Ajay Salpekar [41:41]: "It's great for brands to bring a beginner's mindset to content creator discovery, commerce."

2. Embrace Test and Learn:

   • Rapidly experiment with different strategies, learn from failures, and iterate quickly to identify what works best.

   Ajay Salpekar [42:03]: "The faster you test and learn, the sooner you'll figure out what to double down on."

3. Leverage Creator Creativity:

   • Allow creators the freedom to express their unique voices and styles, ensuring content remains authentic and engaging.

   Ajay Salpekar [42:55]: "Don't try to control every pixel of creative... Lean into the creativity of creators."

By following these best practices, brands can foster more authentic and effective collaborations, driving both engagement and sales.

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Future Trends and Search Behavior on TikTok

As the conversation wraps up, Ajay touches upon emerging trends and shifts in consumer behavior, particularly the increasing use of TikTok as a search platform.

Ajay Salpekar [44:06]: "Nearly three in five TikTok users use the search functionality in the app... 1 in 4 will go to the search bar in the first 30 seconds of loading the app."

This trend signifies a shift where TikTok is not just an entertainment platform but also a primary tool for information and decision-making. Brands are encouraged to recognize and adapt to this behavior, leveraging TikTok not only for discovery but also as a potent search and engagement tool.

Ajay Salpekar [45:15]: "It's a progression in consumer behavior where the first place you go is, oh, let me check out, let me check out on TikTok."

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Conclusion

This episode of The CPG Guys provides invaluable insights into the dynamic interplay between brands, creators, and consumers within the TikTok Shop ecosystem. Ajay Salpekar’s perspectives shed light on how TikTok Shop is reshaping eCommerce by prioritizing discovery, leveraging authentic creator partnerships, and empowering both small and large brands to connect with consumers in novel ways. The discussion underscores the importance of creativity, agility, and authenticity in navigating the contemporary digital commerce landscape.

For listeners eager to harness the power of TikTok Shop for their brands, the episode serves as a comprehensive guide, emphasizing the need for a curious mindset, strategic creator collaborations, and an adaptive approach to emerging consumer behaviors.

Notable Quotes:

• Ajay Salpekar [06:10]: "Curiosity brought me to business roles at Amazon... Essentially, curiosity got the better of me."

• Ajay Salpekar [09:07]: "TikTok Shop is designed to deliver discovery in a really compelling way."

• Ajay Salpekar [28:44]: "The key differentiator is mindset. Mindset is what determines how quickly you can move and how quickly you learn and how quickly you optimize."

• Ajay Salpekar [36:40]: "The number one thing that matters to most creators is, would I use that product? Is it interesting to me? Does it match me?"

• Ajay Salpekar [44:06]: "Nearly three in five TikTok users use the search functionality in the app... 1 in 4 will go to the search bar in the first 30 seconds of loading the app."

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Access the Episode

To explore more insights from industry leaders and stay updated on the latest trends in CPG and FMCG eCommerce, visit cpgguys.com or subscribe to The CPG Guys podcast on your preferred platform.

Transcript

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Make sure to check out our 500th episode, which was recorded in Cannes, France at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Our very special guest for this episode, Tanner Eldon, Vice President, US Advertising Sales at Amazon. You don't hear from Tanner very much other than on Amazon official events. So this is a rare glimpse and a conversation into what's going on Amazon at the preeminent retail media platform. It's available on all platforms, Apple, Spotify, wherever you choose to find your podcasts to hear. Thank you.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Hi, I'm Ajay Salpekar. I'm the head of Beauty at TikTok Shop for the US and this is the CPG Guys.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your hosts, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Bond explore how brand brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys. I'm Sree, your co host, co founder and CRO of Think Blue Consulting, your partner to growth. Whether retail Media, Omnichannel or Back to Basics in store, we're here for you. Get in touch with me at shreenkblueconsulting Co. That's again thinkblueconsulting Co not. Com unable to join me for today's episode because we are shooting this live at my home in California. And so Peter could not join us because he's in the air returning from the digital Food and Bev conference down in Palm Beach. When he's not doing this with me on the CPG Guys, he leads a client engagement at Flywheel, the E Commerce accelerated division of Omnicom. Please do listen to my older daughter Rhea Raj's music www.rhearaj.com. this week she's at MTV in the UK so more to come on that you will find me post about that. And Laraj of course my younger daughter as a member of the Geffen Records group, Cat's Eye, who of course have another worldwide super hit, millions and millions of plays. TikTok famous, Instagram famous, YouTube famous. The song is gnarly. Before we get to our guest, we want to ask you to consider following us in your preferred podcast listening app. If you already don't do so, please do give us a rating and a review on the Apple podcast platform. Why ask you to do that? The rating tells us how we're doing. The review tells us whether we're having the right conversations with the right people. So now to our guest, Ajay Saltpaker is The head of beauty at TikTok shop where he leads the growth of the beauty category on the platform. In this role, he collaborates with national beauty brands to craft their TikTok shop strategies, explore creator and content led e commerce and drive sales through the platform. With over 20 years of experience in digital commerce, RJ has held significant positions at major companies. Prior to joining TikTok a couple of years ago, he served as VP of E Commerce and digital at Unilever, where he led the company's e commerce initiatives in the US before that, he had multiple roles at Amazon in the retail organization and Microsoft's technology teams. I of course met Ajay over a decade ago in that journey on Amazon when Amazon's retail business consumables was just warming up and we had the chance to work together kind of building things from scratch, which was exciting. We were both curious and hence this episode. So let's welcome RJ to the show. How you doing man? Welcome to California. What brings you here? How you doing?

[Ajay Salpekar]

First of all, doing very well. I love a good sunny day.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Well Seattle, you don't get much of that anyway.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yes, it is perhaps the only downside. Everything else is good views.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You guys got the views like we have the views.

[Ajay Salpekar]

There are a few places you could work for pretty much any corporate or tech company and have snow capped peaks on all four sides out the window.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So wait, it's summer, we're recording this in the middle of June. You can actually see snow capped peaks.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Oh, it's right. Mount Rainier right you name now or something like that.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I think. Is it Tahoma?

[Peter V. S Bond]

Something like that. But it's, it's the tallest. Is it the tallest mountain in the.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Continental U.S. i'm not exactly sure but there aren't that many places on earth you can drive to work while staring at a 14,400 foot high active volcano with snow on it mostly.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I didn't realize it's an active volcano supposedly. What brings you to California?

[Ajay Salpekar]

So we just had a very successful and first ever TikTok Shop Seller Summit yesterday in the Culver City area. There were a thousand attendees. It was fantastic.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That's awesome man. So congratulations on. Is it a first seller summit or.

[Ajay Salpekar]

It is. We launched officially in September 2023 so let' than two years ago. And so it was, it was a great moment to share education, celebrate with sellers creators, TikTok shop partners. So it was very gratifying.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. I'm going to wish you the best for continuing to grow that hopefully five years out we're looking at 10,000 attending the actual conference. And I have a gripe. Why didn't the CPG guys get an invite?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Note to self, there we go.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So 20, 26 peoples guess who'll be at the conference? Any guesses? The CPG guys. So in the digital liner notes of this episode, of course we'll include links to your LinkedIn profile, TikTok's corporate websites LinkedIn page for listeners to access while we go on with the conversation. So obviously Ajay, the very first question I'm curious about. You know, as I mentioned, we worked together over a decade, we've known each other. You were on Amazon on the beauty side. I was working for Johnson and Johnson. Since then you moved to Unilever, you were there for quite a bit of time, you know, leading the e commerce digital efforts. Big job, not an easy one because Unilever is a legacy company. Obviously modernized today, but still one of the best at what they do from branding perspective. Then you came over to TikTok on the beauty commerce side. But what inspired your transition from Unilever and Amazon to come over to TikTok? What's the big aha?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, I think what's really core to me is curiosity. I really want to figure out how things work and I like to maximize learning. That's my mantra for life, learning maximization. And so I started as an engineer on the product side. Curiosity brought me to business roles at Amazon. It was actually curiosity about how brands and marketing worked and how how what we sold in E commerce was actually decided and then market launched. That took me over to the CPG side. And so I'm passionate about shopping, love E commerce and you know, at this point, two and a half years ago I had multiple lenses on what we do from the platform side, from the brand side, from the technology side. And so it was very compelling to try to leverage that at TikTok shop. But honestly what brought me to TikTok was just curiosity. I was curious about how a three sided e commerce marketplace would work. I hadn't worked directly with creators before and that was really compelling to me. I just had to figure it out and essentially curiosity got the better of me. And that was a little over two years ago. And I will say that every day I learn something new as we build this three sided ecosystem. Partnering with brands, partnering with creators, learning how creators make their decisions. Just that was whole net new learning for me. And then of course delivering a good user and shopper experience. And it's been a fantastic journey, no doubt.

[Peter V. S Bond]

A fantastic journey. The CPG guys were recently at Cagney and then with Nick Modi from RBC Capital. He's the darling of Wall street. That's what I call him. And cryptonoid of CPG CEOs because he's, he has many, he actually observes comments and he's the analyst for many of those stocks. So he, I asked him a question on the podcast, right. Do we feel the talent, senior talent C suite talent in CPGs today are ready for today's consumer? He said absolutely not. And let me tell you what he said is the number one thing C suites lack. Curiosity. So hello my friend, you started with curiosity. This is going to be a fun conversation. So you said before we've discussed it. A shopping journey that one took 19 days can take 19 seconds on TikTok. I certainly buy a lot of stuff on TikTok. You can see them around in the studio room. We're recording right now from the TikTok shop. But you say that the reason that shopping journey can be condensed into 19 seconds is it's the content that delivers for the brand in question over here and for the consumer. How does that happen on the brand side and then on the consumer behavioral side?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, sure. So let's start with what I think we all know as common ground, which is the traditional e commerce journey. It still tends to be a bit linear in that lots of friction there can be. But it starts with usually you knowing what you want, you searching for what you want, parsing through search results, you're making the right choice, Add to cart shows up in two days. Right. It works really well if you know what you're looking for. It works less well for newness. And this is a problem. CPG beauty, any trend driven category has had for a while. So linear search based journeys aren't the best for discovery.

[Peter V. S Bond]

They don't encourage discovery.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's right.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Unless you're overpaying for search and even then it's a stretch.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah. So that's right. And so discovery and newness don't pop as much with traditional e commerce. But TikTok and TikTok Shop are Discover e commerce. And it's important to recognize that TikTok first and foremost is an entertainment app. It's fun. People might check other apps, but they watch TikTok. Right. And so within the construct of this Fantastic entertainment app that is TikTok we've introduced TikTok shop is discovery commerce. And so let's talk about how it works. It starts with our teams partnering with Brands large, mid size, small SMBs founder led brands to teach them how to partner with creators at scale. And not in a traditional point to point influencer marketing kind of way, but in a way where brands open up their products to be to be seen and sampled by hundreds, thousands, millions of creators. And there is nothing, nothing that can rival the creativity of creators and power users of your products. Because let's not forget, creators are real people who are passionate about products in certain categories and know how to make compelling content. And so the way it works is when brands partner with creators at scale, you get tons of content from which quality content emerges. And that quality content is what drives compelling moments that you have. And they could be short video, you know, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute long. They could be live streams that can go on for hours. You could also just discover a product on what we call Shop tab, which is you browse and search for it. But what makes it compelling is that while you're looking at your for your page on the TikTok feed, you could come across something that is just compelling and hooks you and and suddenly you go from I wasn't even in the market for something like this, but I got to have it. And so this happened to me recently. I came across this handheld vacuum. It was just USB charged. And what stopped me in my school was this person was using this handheld car vac to make beautiful lines on the felt in the back of his car. And I was captivated. Was I in the market for yet another handheld van? Absolutely not, because I have two good ones sitting in my garage. But it worked so well. I just had to have it. And I went from not being in the category, not being in the market for it, not being in consideration phase, to just wanting to have it. And I'll tell you that because of watching those videos, I knew how to use it and like how to get get in nooks and crannies and I found more and more uses for it. And everyone kind of has that equivalent of this discovery moment. And that's what TikTok shop is designed to deliver in a really compelling way.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The interesting thing, Ajay, I'll comment on this one is, you know, I talk to Peter and I talk to CMOs from the largest brands in the world, both brand and retail, and they talk about how they're building loyalty, a customer base. Peter and I always ask them, what are you doing about social commerce? What are you doing in particular? We ask them about TikTok as a very large growth platform. Get your message out there, you called it an entertainment platform. And the number one answer I get back from CMOs, as they say, the security. That's why I'm not on TikTok. The second one that I get is I don't have time. And then I ask back, if you don't study the consumer, you're literally telling me I won't make time to study the consumer. And then they take a step back. My hunch is they just get intimidated by modern social media platforms. That's why they don't. And agencies are not doing the greatest job in educating brands that when you're building a marketing mix model, social commerce has just got to be absolutely a part of it. Especially what you highlighted. Discovery above and beyond anything else. So when you launch an innovation, it could be the most endemic food brand at $4.99. Totally making it up, Ajay. Discovery today is done via the handheld device. The consumer is captivated. As you just mentioned, that one is a pet peeve of mine. Why CMOs, brand VP after brand VP, they don't even have accounts on social media. But maybe it's that word, curious. Are they curious?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Possibly. What I'll add to that as context is, look, there is a generation of shoppers whose shopping habits are being formed and it's great to see that. We see that on a daily basis. This, and I, I think there's a lot to learn because discovery through TikTok is kind of core behavior for a lot of users and that user behavior is changing. What's also changing is brands coming along on this journey with us. So. And they've realized that TikTok shop is great for discovery. So I'll give you a stat. So 4 in 5 TikTok users say they discovered a product from a brand that they already knew on TikTok shop. Wow. So roughly 80%. And that insight is at the heart of why many brands want to partner with TikTok Shop. Because intuitively they see trends happening and there is a desire to be part of making these trends happen and showcasing your brand in a very digital, native, fun way.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Now, typically, when brands partner with you, are these the largest brands in the world, the smallest brands mid tier, or is it a mix? Mix of all of them?

[Ajay Salpekar]

It is absolutely a mix.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It's good to hear. So let's talk about strategies. TikTok has viral moments, plenty of viral moments. I still remember when I left corporate America for a year in 2020 and created my own supplements brand that was later sold. We had this nurse come on, she was relatively small. But she said something about one of our supplements. It was the middle of COVID and we were in the right need state, sleep, stress, anxiety, that kind of stuff. And that one evening after that viral TikTok moment that we had with her, we sold maybe 8,000 units in an hour. Normally in a startup, selling 8,000 units takes a month and that changed the trajectory of our movement period. So I'm going to put that as your backdrop, but I'm giving you small numbers here. Right, so talk to me about strategies, viral TikTok moments. How do you actually make them effective for brands? That was a moment, 8,000 units, but how do you sustain that?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, I'm smiling over here because what you just said, which is something caught fired on TikTok and next day we sold through or we couldn't keep in stock.

[Peter V. S Bond]

We did sell through. It was like we sold out.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Ah, yeah, that's right. I cannot tell you how many conversations with brands in the last two years have gone exactly that way because that is their experience. And so I'll highlight two or three top strategies that brands lean into and that I've worked for them. The first one is what happens on TikTok shop doesn't just stay on TikTok shop. I think intuitively we get this, but brands are starting to figure it out. And so what a key strategy is for most brands is when they're launching a new product, they will seed that product with samples to the right set of creators that generates the kind of content, that creates buzz, that creates hype, that makes discovery possible and then that can have offline halo. So really compelling thing we Learned is that 2 in 5 users that discovered a product on TikTok later went to a physical location that sells that product. Two in five.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So brick and mortar.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's right.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So what's the big brands are going to be very happy to hear you say that.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So me not so much.

[Ajay Salpekar]

So. Yeah. What happens on TikTok shop doesn't just.

[Peter V. S Bond]

We love everybody on the CPG guys.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Oh yeah. So offline Halo is one great. That's good to hear.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Good to hear.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Another one is I think this is.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Good for retail to hear as well because they worry about trips.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I agree. There's a lot of trends that happen online on TikTok have, you know, have impact on DTC or retailer dot com.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I want to give you another example. So about two years ago, fruit roll ups, are you familiar with them?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Of course.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know those long roll ups, that's what they are. General Mills makes them and some kid put ice cream with Fruit Roll Ups. And for the next three weeks we couldn't keep Fruit Roll Ups in stock. In Stor Point where chief merchants gave me a call. Brick and mortar. What the heck is going on? What disappointed me is General Moles didn't recreate those moments. That should have been huge learning moment.

[Ajay Salpekar]

It's interesting that you talk about recreating those moments because what the second strategy is basically brands recognize that TikTok shop is basically an extension of their direct to direct to consumer business and they leverage that to jump onto trends. So partnering with creators who have content that is relevant, launching products at the right time and so treating TikTok Shop as an extension of DTC has worked out really well for brands. And examples are they will use TikTok shop to test and learn whether certain very important work with certain creators and audiences. They will get feedback from creators and then incorporate that into their innovation process.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Are these mostly agencies or brands themselves? Agencies on behalf of brands.

[Ajay Salpekar]

So we have over a thousand TikTok Shop partners today supporting over 6,000 brands and sellers. So there is a lot of agency support as well. But we also work with brands which is directly operate their TikTok shop business businesses and treat it as an extension of direct to consumer because they know it has impact beyond just TikTok Shop. And that brings me to my kind of third point on strategies that work. I think brands that are more successful are the ones where the CMO or the chief brand officer or whoever's leading kind of brand and Marketing realizes that TikTok Shop is a platform on which you can drive GMV, which is gross merchandise value or sales and also EMV which is on media value. Because I want you to speak more.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The GMV is an obvious one. I don't think the largest brands in the world are convinced they get GMV at a TikTok Shop. But we won't debate that today because I agree with you. This is like a no brainer for me emv. I want to make sure that our audience understands what a big deal that is.

[Ajay Salpekar]

There is a ton of value to the organic content circulating on TikTok and TikTok shop. And what I tell brands often is when you partner for the right products in your portfolio with the right creators and results in compelling content that's fun to watch whether or not you shop. You may or may not get the sale on TikTok shop, but you will definitely get the conversation and being part of the conversation is really, really important. And that's what I mean by you'll achieve kind of brand growth objectives but also sales objectives.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So I'm going to give you another fun, fun example over here from literally a month ago. So again, this was given to me by Nick Modi from RBC Capital. Right. I call again, I call him the Wall street darling because he's on top of stuff. So we had his son, Sean Modi, Gen Z. He came and talked to us about TikTok. This is about a month or so ago, one of our highest performing episodes because I think it's to curiosity for even the largest brand CMOS and he mentioned about a viral trend on TikTok that people were mixing protein powder into the diet Coke.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Coke, yeah.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Depends on what you drink. Right. So to me I don't expect Coca Cola to make a protein Coke but I do expect Coca Cola or the protein powder company to co merchandise, leverage the trend, make retail happy and drive some volume. I didn't see it in store. Deeply disappointed again. I think it comes back to senior most leaders are they on the platform now? This was an actual viral trend. If you're a protein powder company and if you're a carbonated software company, why the heck wouldn't you leverage that moment? Just go merchandise, don't drive yourself crazy, don't create the next product. Isn't that what trends are? Take advantage of them for the moment.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I fully agree because that is where your consumer's mind is in particular.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know what I got as an answer why they didn't. We can never merchandise this brand equity with that brand.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Bro, bro.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Your consumer's doing it anyway. They're already moved past that.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah. Brands of brands, at least on TikTok shop have generally open mindsets about collaborating with creators, collaborating with other brands and we can certainly get.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I want to see bigger brands show up because they're missing the playing field and they're actually denying the consumer who should be our king and queen, the ability to get to see a brand truly perform. Because it's a myth that only Gen Z's on TikTok. I spend an hour and a half to two hours on TikTok every day and a lot for my audience to laugh about that. How does she do it? Because that's what I learned. I find out trends. Peter and I spend an hour and a half. It's our daily mantra that we have to.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's, that's great. You'll learn a lot.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Plus for my kids, it's life for my kids at this stage given their Musicians. So let me remind our audience that I'm talking to ajay Salpaker from TikTok shop. So let's now start talking about insights into how TikTok shop is leveling the playing field for emerging small beauty brands. Right. Yeah. So here, here's my. Here's why I ask you this question. Large brand CMOs not on TikTok don't understand. UGC scares them. This has got to be a weapon for smaller brands. And honestly, if I'm a smaller brand, I'm like, I love ugc, man. I'm gonna use this and I'm gonna drive my numbers. It should all share at the end of the day.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Got it. Yeah. I'm happy to share thoughts on just what TikTok shop means for small and emerging brands. And we, we particularly enjoy partnering with small brands to help them get discovered. And we take that mission seriously. So if you recall, I shared a stat that 4 and 5 TikTok users discover products from a brand they already knew. The interesting thing is 80%. Yeah. So the interesting thing is four in five TikTok users also report that they discovered net new brands on new brand.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So new to brand, new to brand, which is the hardest method today.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Correct. And I think if you're a small brand, hungry, nimble, agile, that works in your favor. Oh, yeah, right. And so they, they certainly tap into TikTok shop because for them it is. It is sales, it is marketing, it is awareness, it is reason to be that and their DTC site. Right. If you, you know, thinking back to kind of the CPG landscape, usually historically it's been a tussle between the scale of a large company and how much shelf space they own versus the creativity of small, nimble brands. With TikTok Shop, the equation is totally different because it is the creativity you have as a brand that drives scale.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Absolutely.

[Ajay Salpekar]

And so you are only limited by the ideas you have for your portfolio, your products, and how willing you are to partner with creators, because that's literally what they're great at. Right. They understand the product, they understand their followers, and they know what stories are compelling. And so small brands generally are fantastic at kft. Big brands can be as well, but it certainly helps small and media brands. And what goes hand in hand with it is the kind of content that's native to TikTok. And TikTok shop isn't the agency and studio produced horizontally shot, you know, TV spots.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It's, don't make me laugh.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Handheld. It feels native, it feels authentic. And not just to Gen Z. And so it tends to work really well.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Interesting thing you're noticing today is this video has actually been shot horizontally. But if you go to LinkedIn, we don't have a single video that's horizontal. So take a look. What happens is this gets edited and made into a vertical clip.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I see.

[Peter V. S Bond]

What happens is when we sit next to each other, we need the depth. That's why we shoot. But we don't make videos anymore that are horizontal at all whatsoever. Because captivation happens this way. It doesn't exactly. Nobody turns their phone unless they're watching that Netflix or something of that nature. But large brand, small brand, mid tier brands, all of them worry about metrics and what they get back. ROI is the right word. I won't say worry. It's important that they get ROI in their investments because that's how they keep coming back and doing the right thing for the consumer on the TikTok platform. Right. So can you give a quick overview for how do you define success for the world you're in, which is beauty brands on TikTok shop? And then what kind of metrics do you prioritize irrespective of brand size.

[Ajay Salpekar]

So before I get into metrics, what defines success? I'll just point out that if I think through the journey of brands that have been very successful over the last two years and brands that have had slower journeys, the key differentiator isn't analytical or metrics driven. The key differentiator is mindset.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Mindset.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Mindset is the big dial. Mindset is what determines how quickly you can move and how quickly you learn and how quickly you optimize. And so just something that that needed to be said moving into what success looks like. It varies by brands size, age and stage of brand, what their retail landscape looks like, what their consumer audience looks like, price point. But in general, brand objectives span the gamut from awareness in sales. Or they look at TikTok shop as the place to launch net new products. Or they look at TikTok shop as a fantastic way to drive halo in offline channels where a brick and mortar or online retail. There was a time when a retailer might ask a brand what the size of their direct to consumer business was, how many one to one relationships they have with consumers today. I think it's because we get this feedback from brands retailers interested in. Is it trending on TikTok?

[Peter V. S Bond]

Yep.

[Ajay Salpekar]

What does the content look like? You know how many chief merchants have.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Asked me that question, right? I know many of the Walmart, even the SVPs now. And the VPs, buyers, merchants, they actually do follow TikTok trends. I don't want to name them, but you know, because if I name them and I don't name some others, they're all my friends. I don't want to leave some. But Walmart merchants are on top of TikTok trends. If you're a brand, that should scare you into being on the platform.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Well, I think it's cool. Absolutely. And so to answer your question about metrics, so I think input metrics are more interesting than the output metrics like GMV or sales. So the input metrics that we advise brands to really pay attention to have all to do with content and creators because that is what drives how important.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Is quality of content? How do you even measure quality of content?

[Ajay Salpekar]

So metrics that matter are the quantity of short videos or live streams, new short videos, new live streams on a weekly basis.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So define quantity.

[Ajay Salpekar]

It's just sheer number.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So let's say it's a day and you post five. Is that what you define as quantity? Or is a day not the right horizon?

[Ajay Salpekar]

You can study daily, weekly, monthly. They're all valid time periods, but a number of short, new short videos, new live streams.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So the number short is 30 seconds.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I meant so we have two content formats. There's a video format and then there's live. And typically short videos are short, a few seconds, couple of minutes. Live streams can go on. And so content quantity is a metric we really pay attention to. Within content quantity, we look at quantity, content quality. How many of those short videos or live streams have high conversion because the product is compelling, the creator is a great match for the brand. It's a high quality creator. Another metric that we advise brands on is how many creators they're connected to. Yep. And how many creators do they retain? So how many creators continually post for brands? And it's basically the volume of content, the quality of content, and the newness of content that makes the content commerce flywheel spin. And this doesn't mean that retail basics don't matter. Of course, your product quality in stock, all of that matters because retail is detail. But it is truly the content and creative focus metrics that really matter on TikTok shop.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Speaking of the creator, let's jump into that world a little bit more. So how do you see the role of creatives evolving in the context of brand storytelling? Product launches. You know, you've described product launches at length here, but give us insights into the creative mindset and the ability to create long term partnerships with brands, et cetera. And then especially in the world you're in.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Beauty.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I gotta imagine that's deep, certainly.

[Ajay Salpekar]

And I'll say just personally, it's been really gratifying to learn to work backwards from the creator and speaking with creators, understanding how she or he make that decision about which brands, which products, what matters to them. That's, it's. It's been fantastic learning for me and the team. So I'll start with actually user or consumer insight? So 75% of TikTok users tell us they prefer seeing a creator show a product to reading a customer review.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Wow. Okay.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's a pretty high number.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That's a big deal.

[Ajay Salpekar]

It's because it's just compelling when it's just another real user showing you how they use a product or why they bought a product or how well or not well it works. Right.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I gave you my own personal example before. You know, I was driving my Range Rover today and it actually said coolant level low. I didn't go to YouTube, I didn't go to other platforms. I went. I don't know what drove me to TikTok, but I went to TikTok and I literally wrote engine coolant for Range Rover Sport HSE 2024. And I got hundreds of videos. I looked through five, I knew what to buy. Unfortunately, it wasn't available on the TikTok shop, but I knew exactly what to buy. But more importantly, I also discovered I never opened the hood of that car. How you actually fill coolant, because it wasn't like every other vehicle. There was a special way to get there.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That was a fun example. Well, you discovered a lot that day.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I certainly did today, man. This afternoon.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Oh, I see. So, yeah. So creators are central to how users or consumers increasingly make purchase decisions. And this really ties to the Gen Z mindset for sure. Where there's many studies about how particularly for the Gen Z demographic, there's perhaps less trust in authority or establishments, more trust in people that they can relate to.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Absolutely.

[Ajay Salpekar]

And that's kind of the relationship many folks have with creators. And so a creator demonstrating why this product worked for her is really compelling. It's also the content is native and approachable as opposed to very high production value where looking like a TV spot. And I also think that particularly in Gen Z audiences, they expect to be a part of the conversation with brands and interacting with creators, commenting back and forth, following creators allows them to be part of this. Absolutely. The ecosystem. And so I think that works really well. And creators are central to that. So when you asked about the creator mindset, so a lot of things, we actually asked the question, what matters to creators when they choose brands, when they choose what products to promote. And the number one thing they say is not the compensation or how big or small a brand is. The number one thing that matters to most creators is would I use that product? Is it interesting to me? Does it match me?

[Peter V. S Bond]

So, Aji, so another real life example, right? The band Cat's Eye that my daughter is in, they get a lot of offers, but they started picking and choosing with this exact qualification. Can I relate to the brand and will I use it if I don't use it in my daily life, I don't want to tell the story of the brand and then shortchange them either.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's right. That. That's exactly right. That is the mindset most creators have. They want to authentically be able to show how they use the product and have a credible opinion on. And so creators seek quality as well as do brands. And when it comes for comes to partnering with creators and brands, what matters is it's not just the number of creators, it's also the quality of the relationships that brands have with creators. And you know, five or 10 years ago, perhaps only the most sophisticated or digitally savvy brands had a creative strategy. Today, 100% of brands with their name have a creative strategy. And TikTok Shop and TikTok are very central to that today.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Good to hear, man. So speaking of that very creative strategy, can you give me actual examples? Maybe one from a large brand and then from a not so large brand of successful creative brand collaborations on TikTok Shop that actually drove results for the brand. Sure.

[Ajay Salpekar]

I'll give you two in a category that's, that's close to me, which is beauty. I'll start with a small brand example. We have a fantastic fragrance brand called Aroma Concepts. It's a small brand. Most people haven't heard of it unless you're on TikTok. Love the name though. Yeah. And it's a small company and they specialize in Arabic themed fragrances and they have built a fantastic model live streaming.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Wow.

[Ajay Salpekar]

And the way they did that was by partnering with creators. So they discovered a creator called Omavery. So it's O M A V E R Y. Her name is Avery and she happened to be a fantastic live streaming host and creator and really had nose and a sense for fragrances. And they discovered her through the TikTok Shop app and then partnered with her to launch line extensions of fragrances. They did the same thing with another.

[Peter V. S Bond]

All through lives.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, all through lives. They did the same thing with another creator called Daniel Renee Music. His name is Daniel Rene. He specializes in music and fragrance and he tells a fantastic story about fragrance. And so they partnered with him to also launch Net New Innovations. And so it's the agility of a small brand and the open curator.

[Peter V. S Bond]

They're curious.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, certainly. So that's a great example that we love, particularly in fragrance, which you can't really smell.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Yep, absolutely. Too hard.

[Ajay Salpekar]

It works. Right. And then a large brand example is. I'm sure you've heard of a skincare brand, Peter Thomas Roth. They've been around for decades, very well regarded and. But typically catering to older audiences because it's, you know, it's that, that, that type or that, that type of skincare. And so they were almost. They saw a resurgence on TikTok shop because one of their most viral products, Instant Formex, went viral. And one of their creator collaborations is with a creator called Sherry Doll. She's. She's an older creator and her video, she's so compelling. It's just a minute or two of her in front of her bathroom mirror, no special lighting, where she applies the instant foam X just under one eye. And it's a product that. That kind of tightens the skin up, particularly of lines and wrinkles. And I'm not specifically in that category. I wasn't looking for it, but I stopped and watched because I couldn't stop watching for about a minute and the effect was apparent. So there was no before and after. There's no claim. It's just visually compelling in a very simple video.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It's coming back to the visually compelling content is what I take away again and again and again.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, you know, whatever brand or category you're in, there is a path for you by partnering with enough creators and then identifying the ones that work with you.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Makes complete sense. So let me wrap it up with the last question here. And we always ask this question of our guests here, which is an advice question. So for brands, retailers, agencies listening to this episode, what advice would you give them in terms of best practices that you'd recommend when collaborating with creators to make sure they're both effective, but also authentic? We talked about authenticity.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Got it. I love the question because it allows me to crystallize what I've learned and share. And I'll start with advice, maybe two or three points. The first is it's great for brands to bring a beginner's mindset to content creator discovery, commerce.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Do you find that often?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Increasingly? Yeah. Yeah. That's good to hear. And those folks make the best partners. And so the beginner's mindset is assuming you don't know everything on day one. But we will figure it out and it's okay to test and learn. And that brings me to my second point. I think you're success increasingly will be determined by how fast you test and learn, how fast you fail, learn what to switch away from. And the faster you test and learn, the sooner you'll figure out what to double down on. And brands that do that routinely tend to do better. I would also advise maybe don't try to control every pixel of creative in the entire journey like kind of the old times. Lean into the creativity of creators because that's where the most compelling content comes from.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. Ajay, let me remind our listeners, you can find all of our content by simply going to a Web browser typing cpguys.com as the URL. Yes, that easy. If you or someone you know is something to contribute to this ongoing discussion on the CPG guys, drop us a line at contactpguys.com again that email is contactpguys.com to our audience. Thank you for the clicks, likes, comments, DMs, meeting us at trade shows, coming to our events, recording episodes with us, and of course our sponsors. We're always grateful for you. The show doesn't exist without all of you. You work with us all year and we're grateful to have you as our audience and partners. Thank you. Ajay, you made time on a busy week arguably here, you know, launching a conference here with creators TikTok Shop. Thank you for making time and joining us on the CPG guys.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Absolutely. It was a pleasure. And be curious.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Ajay, I just said that's the last question. But it wasn't because the last question which we actually ask is trends, the future. You know, I want to ask you personally, what trends are you following? But Most importantly, as TikTok shop grows, what gift can you bestow on them? What should they be thinking about?

[Ajay Salpekar]

Look, I'll tell you a fun one. You know, TikTok's an entertainment app where you can scroll, you view content, you occasionally shop conventionally. You don't think of it as a place for search, but let me share some fantastic data. So I was really pleased and surprised to learn nearly three in five TikTok users use the search functionality in the app, primarily an Entertainment app. Nearly 3 in 5 TikTok users use search and 1 in 4 TikTok users will go to the search bar in the first 30 seconds of loading the app.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I gave you my example of search.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Well, you are certainly those one in four.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The 50 year old dude is one in four now.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Well, you are avant garde. But I think to me, having been in kind of the commerce industry for a while, this feels like a progression in consumer behavior where the first place you go is, oh, let me try check, let me check out, check it out on TikTok. Right? Because I think there is a validity to just seeing videos from other users.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Or creators, other people like me.

[Ajay Salpekar]

Yeah, exactly. So my personal example is, look, if I have to search for a hotel for my family, I'll go check out Google. I'll go check out TripAdvisor. I'll look at Costco Travel. Most folks on my team, they just pull up TikTok. I go to TikTok and just look at videos of folks walking, guests walking through hotel rooms. And you're done. Right.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And the reason I go to TikTok and not other platforms is I want to see the short form content. I don't want the 30 minute video. Yeah.

[Ajay Salpekar]

So, you know, it's something for all of us to think about. Like, how is something core like search evolving and how should we keep that in mind?

[Peter V. S Bond]

So we're going to Con Lyons Festival. I'm actually giving tomorrow. Peter and I will be there and I wanted to see where the Airbnb we're staying at is. And I went to TikTok shop to look around. I went to TikTok to see the area.

[Ajay Salpekar]

That's great. Well, I'm glad, glad you're using it and having fun while doing it.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That's a wrap of this episode. We will see you soon on another episode of the CPG Guys.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPG Guys LLC or the individual author, hosts or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPT Guys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPT Guys, LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.