623: Why 90% of TikTok Shop Sellers Fail & How The Other 10% Make Millions With Ian Page

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou
Episode: 623 – Why 90% of TikTok Shop Sellers Fail & How The Other 10% Make Millions With Ian Page
Air Date: January 28, 2026
Guest: Ian Page, founder of Bullseye Sellers

In this eye-opening episode, Steve Chou and Ian Page dissect the harsh realities behind TikTok Shop’s recent evolution. With blunt honesty, Ian reveals why the overwhelming majority of new TikTok Shop sellers are failing, primarily due to dramatic platform changes and hidden requirements that aren’t documented anywhere publicly. Together, they examine the exact roadblocks, the critical importance of Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT), and what strategies separate successful, million-dollar sellers from those who give up frustrated.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. TikTok Shop Landscape Has Rapidly Changed

(03:30–05:38)

• In the past six months, TikTok has:
  • Significantly increased seller oversight due to an explosion of new accounts, including bad actors and “proxy” companies.
  • Instituted tougher probation, stricter account performance metrics, and additional red tape to protect consumer experience and crack down on counterfeits.
• Ian:
  “They open the floodgates and guess what you get when you open the floodgates? You get everything... So the bad actors have only made it harder for the honest sellers.” (04:58)

2. Project Horizon: Shift in Strategy

(05:44–08:25)

• TikTok now prioritizes recruiting large, established brands ($10M+ annual sales) and incentivizing agencies to bring them onboard.

• Small sellers and startups are de-prioritized, leading to longer, more difficult onboarding experiences.

  Notable Quote (Project Horizon):
  “They don't really want these tiny little startups anymore. Yeah, they want the established brands that they know that they can trust and they don't have to put through probation.” – Ian Page (06:51)

3. Probation, Account Tiers, and Performance Score Pitfalls

(08:25–17:18)

• Account probation is multi-layered: Four “tiers” (Beginner, Standard, Premium, Pro) exist, each with arbitrary and often confusing requirements (product listings, account score, etc.).

• Any small fulfillment hiccup (even carrier mistakes) can tank your shop score and result in bans.

• Manual fulfillment without FBT is fraught with risk; automated systems often penalize sellers for issues outside their control.

  Notable Moment:
  “TikTok set up way too much... The automation and the bots and the sensitivity level of their shop performance score is prohibitive of most sellers…They did that because they figured we really want guys who are in FBT, we really want large sellers. We don't really care if we screw over 3,000 mom and pops…” – Ian (10:01)

Timestamps for Tier System Discussion

• Tier structure explained (15:24–16:33)
• Example of arbitrary requirements: "You need 10 live product listings—even if you only have a hero product." (16:16–16:23)
• Visibility and order limits as you move up tiers (18:29–19:02)
• “You're still maxed out on 500 sales” for months unless you have an agency to grease the wheels. (19:05)

4. Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) Is Now Mandatory for Success

(12:01–15:14, 22:19–24:00, 24:50–26:24)

• FBT allows sellers to bypass most probation-related problems and fulfillment penalties.

• Without FBT or an agency “insider,” most sellers will struggle, be limited, or get banned—regardless of shop performance.

• FBT fees are currently far lower than Amazon FBA and include all fulfillment—making them very attractive.

  Key Statement:
  “You would not go on TikTok Shop at all unless you can get Fulfilled by TikTok?”
  Ian: “I wouldn't do it. No. It's too hard.” (15:07)

• Agencies like Bullseye can get clients into FBT quickly via internal connections, giving an almost insurmountable advantage over solo efforts.

• FBT Fee Example vs. Amazon FBA:
  “To ship a 1 1/2 pound item for $5.71 is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. You can't even get that as a seller.” – Steve (23:52)
  “My point is, Steve, why in the hell wouldn't you go into FBT? That's my point.” – Ian (24:01)

5. Affiliate System Realities

(27:07–34:28)

• Affiliate relationships are crucial, but most affiliates generate no or very little sales.

• High-performing affiliates are extremely limited; most sellers must work with low-level affiliates and “take a chance on them.”

• Building an internal “affiliate army” is essential. Agencies maintain networks and can bootstrap new brands by pairing them with beginner affiliates.

  • “85 to 90% of all affiliates have little to no GMV at all. Most level one affiliates will never even generate a sale statistically.” – Ian (33:56)

• “Chicken and egg problem”: To get affiliate sales, you need good videos; to get videos, you need affiliates; for affiliate messaging, you need sales.

  • Solutions discussed include buying affiliate videos (e.g., via services like Sellico) and leveraging agency networks.

6. Unexpected Winners and Viral Product Examples

(35:01–40:46)

• While beauty products and unique toys still perform best, outliers like poop bags and greeting cards have done unexpectedly well thanks to unbeatable offers and viral affiliate videos.
• “Poop bags” case study:
  “This guy... got four and a half million views and sold over 150 grand worth of poop bags. That's so easy.” – Ian (36:49)
• Offers that greatly exceed retail value and the presence of some brand recognition help even commodity products go viral.
• The power of affiliates to discover unintentional uses (e.g., skincare used for bikini line) demonstrates how unpredictable and potent TikTok’s affiliate content ecosystem can be.

7. Latest Strategic Advice and Takeaways

(41:06–44:54)

• Fulfilled by TikTok is now critical—don’t waste time or risk your business without it.

• Going through an agency is the fastest, safest route to FBT, induction, and viral success.

• If you must do it solo, use services like Sellico for giveaway campaigns to build shop score and streamline onboarding.

• Amazon fulfillment (MCF) is a workaround but doesn't grant platform visibility/privileges (no "3-day shipping" badge).

• Ultimately: TikTok Shop remains volatile but offers life-changing upside—if you know how to play the game.

  Ian’s core message:
  “So yes, TikTok is a nightmare, but it's also where your wildest dreams come true.” (44:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On honesty in ecommerce:
  “Part of my sales process is to tell the client everything wrong... all the warnings, all the investment costs, or the worst case scenarios... At least I know I have a team working with me that is super honest from the gate, right?” – Ian, (02:40)

• On TikTok Shop’s current priorities:
  “They don't really care if we screw over 3,000 mom and pops. Let's just focus on Adidas... Reebok.” – Ian, (10:13)

• On solo seller futility:
  “If you don’t have a guy, you’re on a wait list and you’re fulfilling orders yourself and getting banned. Have fun. Have a good time.” – Ian, (12:07)

• Why the affiliate ecosystem is broken:
  “There’s actually over a million [affiliates], but out of a million, how many people have basically enrolled... [but] never posted? ... so it just gets to slim pickings...” – Ian, (32:25)

• On the TikTok emotional rollercoaster:
  “TikTok is a nightmare, but it's also where your wildest dreams come true.” – Ian, (44:54)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• TikTok Shop Landscape Changes: 03:30–05:38
• Project Horizon & Platform Focus: 05:44–08:25
• Shop Score, Tiers, Probation: 08:25–17:18
• FBT as Requirement: 12:01–15:14, 22:19–24:00
• FBT Fee Breakdown vs FBA: 22:30–24:07
• Affiliate Ecosystem & Tactics: 27:07–34:28
• Product Virality & Outliers: 35:01–40:46
• Final Strategic Takeaways: 41:06–44:54

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Actionable Takeaways

• Apply for FBT immediately, ideally through a connected agency.
• Don’t try to “hero” ecomm solo: The system is rigged against new, small, or non-agency sellers.
• Use giveaway/affiliate services (like Sellico) to quickly build shop performance and meet probation requirements.
• Expect volatility: TikTok Shop will continue to change rapidly, but opportunity remains for those with a clear strategy.

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Episode Conclusion

Ian and Steve pull no punches outlining the steep climb TikTok Shop sellers must now undertake—but also emphasize the immense, sometimes unpredictable upside for those who play by the new rules and maximize agency connections. The future of TikTok Shop is uncertain but holds revolutionary promise for adaptable ecommerce entrepreneurs.

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For more resources, visit: BullseyeSellers.com or Steve’s show notes at mywifequitterjob.com/episode623.

Transcript

[Steve Chou]

Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e commerce and online business. Now in this episode I sit down with Ian Page of Bullseye Sellers to uncover the brutal truth about why most TikTok Shop sellers never make it past their first couple months. Ian breaks down the exact strategies and mindset shifts that separate the struggling majority from the elite few who are building million dollar brands on the platform. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] and if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you should be at. Unlike most events that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate large events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We've sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be. So if you want in, go over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket.

Now on to the show.

Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast.

Today I am thrilled to have Ian Page back on the show for the second time. And if you do not remember Ian, he is the founder of Bullseye Sellers where he helps e commerce sellers launch and succeed on the TikTok shop platform. Now, in the last episode, Ian gave us a step by step strategy on how to get launched and be successful on TikTok shop. And a lot of people tried it, but obviously we could not cover every last detail about TikTok Shop in just a 40 minute episode. So today I invited him back on the show to talk about the two biggest reasons that TikTok Shop sellers are currently failing. And what is interesting about these two reasons is that it is not documented publicly anywhere. And with that, welcome back to the show.

[Ian Page]

Ian.

[Steve Chou]

How you doing?

[Ian Page]

Thank you. Try not to be a Debbie Downer on this. On this Episode. So I'll try to brighten it up at the end.

[Steve Chou]

No, you know, I think it's better to be a Debbie Downer so that people know what they're getting into. Right?

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

I mean, the worst thing that could happen is you go and you spend all this money and it fails, Right?

[Ian Page]

Yeah. And, you know, like I think I mentioned last time is part of my sales process is to tell the client everything wrong or all the warnings or all the investment costs or the worst case scenarios. Because when I do that, the client's always, okay, that's not that bad of a worst case scenario. And what if I. What if my case isn't the worst case scenario? And at least I know I have a team working with me that is super honest from the gate, right? Yes. So I. I want to do that more on this call too, is just be like super honest out the gate and save you guys a lot of time too. I think if I teach some little tricks and tips on how to avoid these pitfalls, I could save you six months of time.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah.

So, I mean, your first episode was.

Very well received and so I want to actually dig deeper and I kind of want to start.

So.

So the last time we recorded was, I believe, June of last year. Has anything fundamentally changed with Tick Tock since then that you can.

[Ian Page]

Everything's changed. Okay. All right.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. Well, I don't know where you want to start, so let's talk about the changes first before we get into the guts.

[Ian Page]

Okay, good. Okay. So I guess the changes with TikTok in the last six months have been. There's been a lot more sellers signing up.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

So that saturation has actually increased TikTok's probation rules and probation period because their concern is they can't have people selling products that aren't actually real, genuine products, shipping from unknown origins and shipping times that are. That are impossible. They just need consistent quality on the dashboard. And with this influx of all these sellers, people from other countries, creating proxy corporations and trying to basically have these workarounds to become a TikTok shop seller. It's been a big concern for TikTok of how do we make sure the customer experience stays true and honest? So with that, yes, there's been a lot of additional red tape.

[Steve Chou]

So does that mean, like, I remember when I was on TikTok before, there were all these, like, knockoff purse sellers, you know, like the fancy brands like Gucci. Are all. Is all that stuff kind of gone now?

Pretty much.

[Ian Page]

It's cleaning up. It's Cleaning up. And that's part of the problem, right, is they open the floodgates and guess what you get when you open the floodgates? You get everything. So it's always. And the same thing happened with Amazon for so many years. It's like the bad actors have only made it harder for the honest sellers and.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, but it took Amazon like 10 years. Right? I mean this TikTok shop change is like six months.

[Ian Page]

So yeah, they're quick. TikTok's quick. They're very fast. I think. I don't know if it's, if it's just how management operates, if it's cultural, being that they're a Chinese company and that's more the speed of how they operate over there. I don't really know what it is, but yeah, they are fast.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

What about the US Purchase, has that changed anything at all?

[Ian Page]

No, I haven't seen anything change on that except for more aggressive business development strategy. So I have noticed they launched something called Project Horizon, which I feel like I'm literally like. When I say that, I feel like I'm talking about some sort of like alien program that no one knows about. Area 51 program. But Project Horizon is something that they're heavily recruiting me for. And it's basically a program. I don't know if it's public, but I guess it is now. But it's a program where they highly incentivize agencies to bring in 10 million plus sellers. So if, if the seller has to prove that they have sold 10 million-plus on Shopify or so not blended together Amazon in the last 12 months and they're highly incentivizing agencies like me to bring those sellers in with kickbacks. So this is a new thing. And the reason being is that there's. They're actually kind of. They don't really want these tiny little startups anymore. Yeah, they want the established brands that they know that they can trust and they don't have to put, put through probation. They can basically just white list them because they're like, oh yeah, we know you guys are good. So that's been a big change.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. Are the incentives still out there? Because I remember back in the day like they were handing out money left and right to get sellers to come on and subsidizing stuff.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, but you have to be, you have to be a much bigger seller to even see an incentive.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

You see where back then it was like anybody. Now it's like, okay, let's, let's make sure you are like really worth our time. And then we will give you incentives and some of the stuff that they're doing for news for 10 million plus sellers kind of unlevels the playing field. Steve, I got Interesting. So yeah, like they're basically no probation, full white list, which means your account is good to go viral right away. You're not limited on affiliate outreach. You have immediate access to FBT, which is the fulfilled by TikTok program. Yeah. Which without it you're screwed. Which we might want to talk about. Yeah. So yeah, so with those things, if you're a 10 million plus seller and you go through that kind of Project Horizon program and you're whitelisted, you're basically ready to start going viral within 30 days. Where if you're an average seller, let's say 1.5 million a year or something, a Shopify seller, you're basically going through barbed wire for about 90 to 120 days.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, well let's talk about that barbed wire actually, because we discussed a whole bunch of different ways in the last episode on how to get past that cold start problem. And I remember in order to message affiliates, you need sales. In order to get sales, you kind of need to have affiliates. And I've actually since that episode, I actually know a bunch of people who got past that initial two thousand dollar sales barrier that we talked about, got their affiliates unlocked, but then they ran into a slew of problems. So one friend of mine specifically got banned after one late shipment over the holidays. I don't even think it was his fault. And then he was just shocked that there was like no grace period for any of that stuff. And I know a bunch of other colleagues of mine, just from going to an event, they've gotten banned for what appears to be a slew of very minor things. So what exactly is going on here?

[Ian Page]

So you know the old analogy, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah.

[Ian Page]

So they're basically throwing babies out left and right right now because the bath water was so dirty. So let's go into this.

[Steve Chou]

These are legit businesses, right? I mean.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, they're, they would never screw anybody. Order over. Hey, I, I have a client that refused to do fbt. This just happened last week. And every single order that came in, they literally shipped it in under 24 hours. I'm talking if the order came in at 9am, it was out by noon. Like they were on it.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

And they still had seven orders that FedEx failed to scan at the right point. And their shop score went from 4.4 to 3.7. And it's not even their fault. It's just FedEx. So here's the deal. TikTok set up way too much in my opinion. The automation and the bots and the sensitivity level of their shop performance score is prohibitive of most sellers. This is the bad news. This is why I'm kind of being Debbie Downer here. They did that because they figured we really want guys who are in fbt, we really want large sellers. We don't really care if we screw over 3,000 mom and pops when. Let's just focus on Adidas. Let's focus on, you know, big brands. Let's focus on Reebok. So the probation period, let's talk about that a little bit. So basically right now in the probation period, you have hard requirements. You, in order to get through it. And even the probation period has four subsets. It has like starter and then it has like pro and all these subsets. So they're basically judging you across four subsets. And within those four, there's all these, like, have to have this, have to have that, and then you graduate to the next one. Okay. And a lot of that stuff is solved by being an FBT. And what FBT really is, it's basically fulfillment by TikTok. So you're sending them the inventory, they're verifying the inventory, and now they're fully responsible for fulfillment. So it removes about 50% of the BS that you deal with with them trusting or not trusting your fulfillment process. Okay. And it gets rid of all the potential violations. It gets rid of even refund potential violations because they automate it and handle it for you. So most people get in trouble with on time tracking, customer messaging and refunds. Okay.

[Steve Chou]

So the last time we spoke, getting into FBT was very difficult. Is that still the case?

[Ian Page]

Unless you have an agency.

[Steve Chou]

Really? Okay. Yeah.

[Ian Page]

Honestly, it's been good business for me. Right? It's. It's been good business for me because I have a guy. Literally have a guy. I call him, I say, here's the shop code. They're. They're approved. It's. It's not fair. But I have a guy. If you don't have a guy, you're on a wait list and you're fulfilling orders yourself and getting banned. Have fun. Have a good time.

[Steve Chou]

So does the seller score mean nothing then?

[Ian Page]

The seller score? Well, the shop performance score.

[Steve Chou]

Sorry, yeah, that's what I meant. The shop performance score. Yeah.

[Ian Page]

No, no, no. It's still important, even if you're an fbt. But a lot of the metrics that create your shop performance score, a lot of those things that they watch go away with fpt. So now you're only basically judged on other few points.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. Yeah, sorry, I interrupted you.

So you.

You were talking about tiers. Right? So you said there's four of them.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, let me see if I can find them too. I have them written down somewhere.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

And while you're looking for that, when you start, I'm assuming you're still in the lowest tier as soon as you hit $2,000. Right?

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So the $2,000 part, again, this is kind of a spider web, and I don't expect everybody to totally understand the connecting dots. But the $2,000 part solves a different problem, which is affiliate tiers.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

So there's probation period and then there's affiliate tiers. Okay. But it helps with both because in order to get $2,000 of sales, you need to receive orders, deliver the product on time, and that will automatically push you through the line on some of the probation periods because they're seeing that the product is being delivered on time and they're like, okay, that's good. You've checked off these boxes. Right?

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So we still do a lot of giveaways. We still do. We still recommend every one of our clients give away $2,000 worth of product. We still help our clients get compliant product reviews because good reviews improve your shop score. That's another thing. It's kind of a lot. But the simplicity is as long as you are basically in FBT early on, like, pretty much within the first 30 days, and from FBT, you have fulfilled some giveaways, which are very easy to do. There's plenty of giveaway services. Sellico is one of them. You're basically good to go. So I don't really want to give every nuances to the probation period just because I know that, like, it's actually pretty easy to solve between being an FBT and running successful deliveries and giveaways through your shop.

[Steve Chou]

All right, so it. You're making it sound like FTP is a. Is. Is 100 required now today?

[Ian Page]

Yes. Yeah, I wouldn't do it, really.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so you would not go on Tick Tock shop at all unless you can get fulfilled by Tick Tock?

[Ian Page]

I wouldn't do it. No. It's too hard.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, well, that's drastically changed since the last time we spoke.

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

That has. That's why I said everything. Right. Okay. It's like what? It's like everything's changed. Right. So here are the four tiers.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Okay. We got beginner. Yep. We got Standard, Premium and Pro. And as you can see in. And this client is now in Standard. There's these four subsets of how to get out of Standard. And look, they have 4.4 shop score, which is a well done.

[Steve Chou]

It's out of five, right? Yeah.

[Ian Page]

Their shop score is 4.4 out of five. That's right. And then enforced counterfeit listings. They don't have any. They don't have any counterfeit listings. So they're under four. They've pass the probation quiz, whatever that means. Right. It's probably a few questions. I wouldn't know because my team does that stuff. And then they have 9 out of 10 active liftings. So guess what? They're not graduated because they need another listing. How cool.

[Steve Chou]

They're not graduated from what tier? From beginner. Oh, from Standard. Okay. Yes.

All right.

[Ian Page]

Isn't that wild? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, because. Because TikTok arbitrarily said you have to have 10 live product listings.

[Steve Chou]

Interesting. Okay, but what if you have 10. What the, the business of like one or two hero products, that's just not going to fly anymore. You literally have to have 10 products.

[Ian Page]

We can still get you through. Okay, but if you were on your own and you weren't with an agency, what would you look at? You'd see this and be like, what do I do now? You see what I'm saying? It's like it's, it's not clear. But yes, the answer is yes, we can, we can push you through because we know that if we force enough of other things, these will fall off. But they don't say that. They just say you need these four things to move on to the next tier.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so TikTok, what benefits do you get for the next tier, though?

[Ian Page]

I don't have that tier there. But basically the benefits are you're allowed to receive more orders, your videos, get more views, your GMB Max Spend performs better.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Okay. And I want to be clear about something. This isn't different from Amazon. Amazon just doesn't tell you about it. If someone launches on Amazon today and they run ppc, they will probably be nodding when I say this. Their first couple weeks of ppc, they're not even able to spend. They're just trying to get it to spend because they're in their own probation period as well.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

Amazon has probation periods, but they don't give you the path. At least TikTok says we're ghosting you, bro. And here's why Amazon doesn't tell you that.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that.

You may not be aware of.

If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now, this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send.

You the course right away.

Once again, that's mywifequitterjob.com free.

Now back to the show. So it's just like this hidden switch that instantly gives you more visibility is what it sounds like.

[Ian Page]

It gives you more visibility.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

It allows you to receive more orders.

[Steve Chou]

Hold on.

[Ian Page]

It allows you to get payouts so.

[Steve Chou]

You can receive more orders.

That implies that they're purposely limiting your sales when you're in that tier.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. 500amonth.

[Steve Chou]

Is that new or is that all. Was that there the last time we talked about.

[Ian Page]

It's pretty new. Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Last few months.

[Steve Chou]

This is kind of ridiculous.

Okay.

[Ian Page]

So this is what I'm saying, like, and this is kind of why, and I got to admit, this is why money's been good, Steve, is because people come to me and they're really smart and they're 15, 20, 30 million dollar sellers. And they come to me and they're like, Ian, I don't know how to do this because I'm like, yeah, because it's rigged. You can't. So if you do everything right, you're still maxed out on 500 sales. And it's just like, it's a very long, tedious process that could easily deter you many, many points along the way. But they come to me and I get them right into fbt. I push some giveaways in there. I know a hack of how to get a few. I send customers to the store to do some customer messaging. We respond to the customer messaging really quickly. The point I'm trying to make is my team has all these stupid little hacks and then we're through it.

[Steve Chou]

Right?

[Ian Page]

But if you don't know the hacks, right, it's really hard.

[Steve Chou]

I imagine they're. They did that. They limited sales because there's a bunch of junk on there before. Right. And you're limiting the junk factor. I think I, I guess I get it. Yeah.

[Ian Page]

They don't, they don't want a product to go viral that is actually counterfeit shipping from an unknown origin that is not within the shipping time frame that they promise or all the other reasons why that people can get screwed over. So they're really. They're so scared about counterfeit and, and bad actors that they, they're making it very, very difficult for the rest of us.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so before we get into the fulfillment part.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

So what are the requirements? You said 10 listings.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

What about order volume?

[Ian Page]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On this one, order volume is not an issue. You just need four orders delivered or something like that. It's like really small and. Let me go back to my. I won't share, but I just want to look at my screenshot again.

[Steve Chou]

Sure.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. This one doesn't even have any order things. This one's just. You have a good shop score. You don't have any counterfeit listings. I don't even know how they verify that. You pass a probation period and then you graduate to Premium, and then from premium, you graduate to Pro. And then at pro, that's when you're basically fully. There's. You're. You're at no limits. You can go viral. You can sell 15,000 units a day. When you're a pro, how long does.

[Steve Chou]

It take, assuming you're doing everything correct, to get past that standard tier into. Into Premium and Pro?

[Ian Page]

I would say for us, we get it done in about 60 days.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. So no matter what, you're still on probation for two months, unless you're a.

[Ian Page]

10 million plus seller. That I can, that I can get you whitelisted. Absolutely.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. And then once you are. Do you know any of people not using filled by TikTok that are in those highest tiers? There obviously are, right? There has to be, right? No, there aren't.

[Ian Page]

I don't know anybody. I mean, you asked if I knew them.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. Okay. I don't know anybody, but I'm sure there are. I'm sure there's guys who figured it out and, you know, they have a good 3 PL.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

But the point is, is why would you not just go into FBT if, if you can get there? Because their fees are really good. Have I ever showed anyone in your audience the FBT fees?

[Steve Chou]

No, actually. What? Give me an idea. Compare those to FBA for me.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, well, I'll Just show you the fees right here. And then I guess you can kind of make, make a comparison if you have a mental idea of fba, but here it is.

[Steve Chou]

All right, I'll put this up on the screen and for the people who are just listening to this, I guess I'll try to narrate. Okay, so it looks like anything that's 4 ounces or less, one unit order is about 428, and anything over 4 pounds is $7.66. And if they order four units, it's basically half of that, which is way better than at first glance because I only know certain tiers. It seems to be substantially cheaper than, than fba. And I assume are there like inbound fees and like fees to ship everything out to the warehouses? This is like just the flat fee including everything.

[Ian Page]

It's all included.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. Way cheaper than. Way cheaper.

[Ian Page]

There are storage fees, but their storage fees are actually pretty reasonable and you can, you can avoid them because they're, you know, their check in process is pretty fast. So. Okay, we, we haven't had a huge amount of storage fees, but yeah, like, come on, to ship a 1 1/2 pound item for $5.71 is ridiculous.

[Steve Chou]

It's ridiculous. You can't even get that as a, as a seller. So this, this reminds me of like old school Amazon back in the day.

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

Which means, but so my point is, Steve, why in the hell wouldn't you go into fbt? That's my point. Right, yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And if they lose stuff, is it the same thing? They refund you the selling price? Okay, just.

[Ian Page]

There's a bunch of refund, There's a bunch of refund services popping up. We have a whole nother ecosystem of get it is popping up for TikTok right now.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. And in terms of limits, do they limit you what you can send in?

[Ian Page]

Yeah, you get, you get a square footage. They give you a square footage amount when you're on.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

I'll try to find a screenshot because I actually have clients, obviously a lot of clients on, but they basically show you, they show you like a little bar of like you get up to 50 square feet and you're using 15, so you have 35 square feet available.

[Steve Chou]

Got it. Okay. So the current strategy today is you get someone on fulfillment and you have a guy that you call. And so you start that from day one, basically.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So literally we, we, we bind them to our agency portal. Okay. And we're actually finding the moment we bind them. It's like Grease's wheels, that kind of thing.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

And then we give that shop code to our guy. He clicks a button. I don't think it's much more than a button. And then FPT shows up on the dash and it says, welcome to fbt. It's like literally. Right.

[Steve Chou]

And then all of a sudden all those fulfillment issues totally go away. Like all the penalties, like my friend wouldn't have gotten banned, right?

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

It's okay. And then refunds, how do they work? So if someone Automated. Automated. So does that get sent back to you or does that go back into inventory? Do you get to decide that?

[Ian Page]

Yeah, yeah, you can definitely decide that. But the automated approval process, when you're an FBT, TikTok doesn't mess around with you having options. It's like Amazon, they're kind of like, you're not going to decide whether we are going to refund or not. We're just going to. You just let us know where you want to send it. That's it. And the refunds haven't been bad. We have a lot of clients that are under 2%, a lot of clients between 1 and 1 and a half. And they've actually said that their refunds have been lower on TikTok than on Amazon. And I think that's because Amazon has made it so easy with UPS pickup and that kind of thing that we're kind of in a nice honeymoon period. Tick tock on that.

[Steve Chou]

Who covers the return shipping?

[Ian Page]

It comes out of your fees.

[Steve Chou]

Comes out of your fees. Okay.

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Okay. And then you pay the fulfillment fee no matter what. Just like the old school Amazon.

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

All right. There's a lot of old school Amazon esque factors here. Okay, let's see here. If I can find. Through my. I'm looking through my agency portal to see if I can find my FBT button, but it's not showing when I log into my account, so I can't show you. But yeah, I was going to show you the whole square feet thing.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, that's okay. It probably works similar to Amazon, right?

You get.

Except Amazon does it by units based on your size. Same thing.

[Ian Page]

Yep, that's right.

[Steve Chou]

All right, so assuming all of those hurdles are gone, has the strategy for communicating with affiliates and getting them to make videos and all that stuff, has that changed at all?

[Ian Page]

No, not really. I mean, the good thing is the actual human to human relationship is still. Is still a very primitive thing, actually.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

And that's probably the one thing that's never going to change is how is. Is if you have a really good offer and you have a really good product, then you're going to get a higher response from, from better affiliates. I like to say the brand does basically earns the affiliates that it deserves. And because they can look at your metrics, you can look at their metrics. So if you can see that an affiliate is making $50,000 in sales a month, they're going to look at you and see that your entire shop makes two GS a month. You think they're going to want to work with you? Yeah, no chance. It's no different than a, you know, me trying to call Dwayne Johnson to do my TV commercial. Same thing. So what we have to do with every new brand that comes in at Bullseye is we have to build an affiliate army that's the same size as the brand coming in. So if the brand is, let's call them a level one brand, we're really going to look for level one, two affiliates and we're going to basically pair up equal levels.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

And then we're going to have to coach the hell out of those affiliates because they're pretty raw, they're pretty green. But what's fun, and I can show you some viral examples is we've had many, many examples now where we have been the big break for these brand new low tier affiliates. And that's fun.

[Steve Chou]

One thing you told me a while back was that those initial sales that you get, those have to be from affiliate videos.

[Ian Page]

Yes, they have to be affiliate gmv. That's right.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, so that makes it a lot harder, right?

[Ian Page]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

Because you have your classic chicken and egg problem. So does that imply that. Well, do you guys get around that because you have this network of affiliates that can make the. Okay, make the videos?

[Ian Page]

No, we get around it from Sellico. Celico is basically a shopper buyback program. That's really all it is. And we, we recruited some of those affiliates to work for Celico.

[Steve Chou]

I see.

[Ian Page]

So when someone's setting up a campaign in Celico, you can say, do you need an affiliate video to even run these giveaways too? Right. And if they say yes, they just pay us. I think, I think they're cheap. I think we're selling them for 50 bucks a pop, usually only need one. And that that affiliate video, there's a way for us to basically connect your shop with the affiliate manually send them a sample. They do the video and then the Celico video. And then the Celico campaign automatically happens when that video posts to your account. It's all automated for the seller. It's pretty easy.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, but I'm just saying like without a service like that, I mean it sounds like the classic chicken and egg problem. Right? I mean you need to get sales from an affiliate video, but you can't even get any affiliates in the beginning or it's hard to. Right. You get some limited messaging, right?

[Ian Page]

Yeah. You get a sample pack. It's like, hey, welcome to TikTok. Here's a thousand messages and you're like, okay. But the typical shop gets on average, a new shop gets on average 2 to 4% response rate. Right. So if you're a ousand, you're getting 20 to 40 responses and you're probably going to say yes to all those people regardless of who they are.

[Steve Chou]

Right, Right. And then that video has to generate a sale, I guess you that then you can artificially do it, I guess, right. From there you can get someone to buy it.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, like you could just literally, you know, have your, have your sister buy from that video. So it's not that big of a deal. Seller code just speeds it up. Instead of like going through a thousand people and messing around and sending them samples and all that, I mean, you.

[Steve Chou]

Could in theory, I guess be your own affiliate, right? No.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, if you have an affiliate account.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, if you have an affiliate account. Okay.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. Because your affiliate account's not tied to your brand account, right? Yeah. It's two separate things. So yeah, back to the affiliate thing. And what, what we're getting better at is we're getting better at cross pollination. And I think that's the thing that agencies do have a, a leg up is that we take all of our successful affiliates, we put them into a VIP group which is an internal WhatsApp group that we manage. So now we have our, now we have our best guys. Now we have everybody who sold at least a thousand. Some of them have sold 10,000, some of them have even sold 25k. So when we're launching a new shop and we got something to immediately tap into, and that's another advantage of working with an aggregate agency model versus you're just completely on your own out there in the cold with no leverage.

[Steve Chou]

I remember you said something to me a while back regarding the number of affiliates that generate X dollars. I can't remember what the amount was.

[Ian Page]

Something like 2,000 affiliates that sell over $10,000 a month. Right.

[Steve Chou]

And then there's, there's some $5,000. 5,000 affiliates make over a thousand or something.

There's not.

My point is it doesn't seem like there's that many affiliates out there.

[Ian Page]

No, there's very little. There's actually over a million. But out of a million, how many, how many people have basically enrolled in the program have never posted?

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

Yeah.

[Ian Page]

And then, you know, you have probably about 150,000 that are active. I mean, it's just, it just gets to slim pickings. Right? So I actually have some numbers here about the affiliates, and it's pretty fascinating. And about how little they are and why it's really important. This is the key here, is why it's really important to build your own level one affiliates and not come in cocky. You have to come in humble. And those level ones, you have to take a chance on them, just like they're taking a chance on you. And that's what TikTok essentially needs. It needs more sellers that are like, everyone gets a car, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car. So that, that way we have, we can build up these, this affiliate audience. It's too small.

[Steve Chou]

So has that. I remember you quoted that statistic to me several months ago. So that hasn't changed. So TikTok has like an affiliate problem, essentially.

[Ian Page]

Look, I can't verify my number today.

[Steve Chou]

Sure. Okay.

[Ian Page]

I just can't. But that, that number always stuck with me. And so, so check this out. 85 to 90% of all affiliates have little to no GMV at all.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

Most level one affiliates will never even generate a sale statistically. Okay.

[Steve Chou]

Yep.

[Ian Page]

Level two affiliates make up roughly 8 to 12% of the ecosystem. Okay. Level two is 5,000 bucks, right? They're at 8 to 12%. Then I think it goes into level three. Here, hold on, let me see. Level three and above represent only 1 to 3% of affiliates. And that's where you get into the 10 GS, right? A month, 1 to 3%.

[Steve Chou]

I mean, even 10 GS doesn't sound like that much. It's not because I'm looking like I'm an affiliate, but I'm not an affiliate for physical products, more for services. And like, those numbers are minuscule, right?

[Ian Page]

Yep.

[Steve Chou]

Compared to the affiliates. So. Okay, can we just take a step back then and just kind of talk about like the Tick Tock shop opportunity? So you worked with a bunch of level ones. I, I kind of cut you off when you're about to tell that story. But can we, can we delve deeper in that one story you're about to tell?

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So basically and this doesn't look good on video, but I'm going to try because my web guy has been messing with my website. But let's share share tab. So here's some examples of videos that have gone viral in the last three months. We like to update our carousel here. Every one of these, and this is what's cool to me is every one of these sellers was level one and level two. Okay.

[Steve Chou]

So people listening in the pod, I'm looking at three videos. One got 4.1 million, one got 1.31 million, and the other one got 7.8 million views.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. This guy fully. This guy in the right selling this pop up greeting card fully cleared out my client on Amazon and on TikTok. Wow. And his manufacturer is scrambling. You know it's always a shock when it happens to you, right? Yeah. This girl's got 9 million views. She's a rock star. She was nothing when we started. I mean, she was like 500 bucks when we started. Right now we've paid her over $30,000 in commissions in the last 60 days. She's kicking butt. So this is why basically what TikTok really needs is more of these relationships to, to. Because everyone has to have a big break, right? You know, all these high affiliates. This one here, 2 million views, she's killing it. She created a bunch of copycats for herself that are coming in and copying her videos, which is always fun. This guy, all that this guy did was a point of view video, meaning his hands, 30 seconds of his time. He got four and a half million views and sold over 150 grand worth of poop eggs. That's so easy.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. Okay, so I just wanted to comment for the people listening. It seems like most of the products I'm looking at here are creams or some sort of consumable or skin or something like that. Right. Beauty product, maybe. There was one that was a really cool pop up greeting card. And then the last one that you just mentioned is literally poop bags.

[Ian Page]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this toy here crushed it over the Christmas season.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Ian Page]

This is, this is a fun toy. It's really hard hand eye coordination toy. It does really well on video. Yeah, poop bags. Yeah, I know, I know. And I actually tell people if I can sell poop bags on Tick Tock, I can sell anything.

[Steve Chou]

Well, I mean, the outlier here is poop bags. Because the last time we spoke you said beauty products, maybe unique toys, but there's nothing unique about poop bags.

[Ian Page]

You know what, there was a third component I don't know if I told you that. But a really good offer.

[Steve Chou]

I don't care how good the offer is on a poop bag. I mean, why did the poop bag work?

[Ian Page]

It was a good offer. It was a really good offer. It was basically like a huge, like one year supply of poop bags with this awesome poop bag holder that you see right here in the corner of the video.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah.

[Ian Page]

It's also a name brand that everyone knows. Right. So, you know, these guys are in every PetSmart target in the United States. So you get a little bit of extra. And when you have a little bit of a brand name and it's a great offer, people just kind of go for it.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

And those two kind of have to happen together.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

I mean, what's most interesting is that outlier, actually, because if someone went up to me and said, hey, I sell poop bags, should I go on TikTok shop? I probably would have said no. Right. And you too. Okay.

[Ian Page]

I've learned a lot in the last six months.

[Steve Chou]

Any other outliers like that?

Because I know a lot of people listening out there. They're not selling beauty or, you know, lotions or anything like that. Right?

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So at the end of the day, TikTok surprises me all the time. Like, I say stuff and I'm pretty excited when I say it, and I'm pretty definitive. And then a month later I'm like, wait, you know what I'm saying? I missed something. Or maybe I didn't think of that. But when I say it, I'm 100% sincere and honest at the time. But what happens is I'm evolving and I'm learning because we manage almost 100 brands. So I'm shocked on a daily basis. Did I ever think that a year ago I'd be selling greeting cards on TikTok? Hell no. I would never would have thought that these guys are going to do $1 million this month. It's crazy, you know? And they were at $4,000 in December.

[Steve Chou]

Crazy.

[Ian Page]

$4,000 in December to a million dollars in January. That's the power of TikTok. Okay. So I'm learning a lot. So, yeah, a good offer is probably my third pillar. You know, my, my. And my first two are still true. You got to have a really good, demonstrable video, like a, like something that shows well. And you have to have a unique selling proposition. Right. Which is what I said earlier. Something that, like, shows before and after shows that it solves a problem. A good example is this, this girl here selling the serum. This might be a little X rated. So I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it PG 13. But she found a use for this product that really helped make downstairs look a lot better in a bikini line.

[Steve Chou]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Ian Page]

And this isn't what. This isn't what it's for. It's actually for back acne. It's for body acne. But she is an affiliate. She does what the hell she wants. Okay. She takes our script and throws it out the window and says, no, here's what this does and I'm going to prove it to you. She does a video that shows before and after. She kind of like blurs things out and it's actually amazingly compelling. It's like, wow, your bikini line before and after actually looks a thousand times better. And that video goes viral. Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

So I get it.

[Ian Page]

You know. You get it, right? That's why it works. And then on the poop bag one, we were shocked. We didn't think it would work, but this guy was like, bro, I buy poop bags every day. These are like half the price you're going to get in the store. It's an amazing deal. You know, you're going to buy poop bags anyway. Everyone needs poop bags, so you might as well just get them at a deal. People went, you're right. Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

All right, so let's. Let's sum up what we've. What's different, actually? So number one, it seems like fulfilled by tick tock, in your opinion, is required.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

To not deal with any of the BS that's happening with, like, my friends, for example. Right.

[Ian Page]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And then in order to get into that, to grease the wheels, an agency partner is the fastest way to do that.

[Ian Page]

Yep. And I know you.

[Steve Chou]

You would say that sincerely. You wouldn't just say that just because you run an agency.

[Ian Page]

No. And honestly, I'm gonna say no to probably some people that call me and, and be, you know, and tell them other agencies to work with if, if, if we're a little bit busy. Like, I'm not just doing it so that I get. I get the close. You need an agency and you need one that has connections at TikTok.

[Steve Chou]

And then TikTok is going through this phase right now where they're just trying to take away fraud because it did go crazy nuts. And there was all these negative press. And so maybe that's why they're reacting the way they are. So right now, at least, it's hard to get anywhere without an agency partner to help vet you.

[Ian Page]

That's a good way to put it. And for someone who wants to do it themselves, go to sellico.com se l l I c o.com do a giveaway campaign. It'll take you three minutes to set it up. I'm telling you, it takes three minutes. And just run giveaways to your shop. And that's going to handle 50% of your problems. Just because you're going to be able to say, look, I fulfilled the orders myself. They're successful. Improve your shop. And TikTok looks at those orders like the real orders.

[Steve Chou]

Okay.

[Ian Page]

And then get on the FBT waiting list the moment you can. And then if you're going to fulfill it, have Amazon fulfill it. Amazon and TikTok are somewhat jiving right now. So just do MCF and you. You'll have a. They have a better cadence than some 3 PL who doesn't know TikTok. So just have Amazon fulfill it for the first few months until you're approved. The second you're approved fpt, cut that Amazon thing off as fast as you can and run over to FBT and you'll pay about half the price.

[Steve Chou]

Is there a harm in. In sticking with fba?

[Ian Page]

Yeah, it's so expensive. Mcf.

[Steve Chou]

Aside from that, I mean, there's also logistical issues. Right. You're splitting your inventory and there's no fulfilled. There's no MCF for TikTok shop. Right.

[Ian Page]

Yeah. So there is a harm. Tick Tock now has a badge if you're an FBT on the product page that says three days shipping fulfilled by Tick Tock. It's prime versus non prime now.

[Steve Chou]

Exactly. Exactly. And you don't get that badge with Amazon. Right, mcs.

[Ian Page]

Yep. So, you know, I think a lot of this is going to chill out. I think the pendulum swings that are going so crazy on both ends are gonna eventually chill out. But just it. Tick Tock's such an opportunity. I've never seen anything that's changed lives like Tick Tock has. I got off a call with the owner of that serum with the. With that black girl that did that video.

[Steve Chou]

Yep.

[Ian Page]

And the owner was just like almost in tears, just thanking me. And it was like so moving to me that to see someone that was like. So her life was changed. She was like, my Amazon's up 30%. My tacos are down. My. I can't keep my stock in. I have access to capital where I didn't. It's just like it. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning is when I have those conversations. So yes, TikTok is a nightmare, but it's also where your wildest dreams come true, Ian.

[Steve Chou]

Where can people reach you?

[Ian Page]

Bullseye Sellers dot com. Yeah, and you can, you can book a call there and, and I might not be able to join every call, but if I like your product and, and I see that it has potential and I don't care about your revenue. I don't give a if you're doing 50k a month. I don't care if I like your product. I think it's fun and it'll be good for TikTok. I will book a call with you after you call it, after you book a call and I will have a one on one with you because I love the journey.

[Steve Chou]

Awesome. Yeah, well, I will link that up in the show notes. But Ian, thanks for coming on again and being so honest about TikTok shop. Like I'll never get a rah rah TikTok Shop interview out of you.

[Ian Page]

You know, hey, did I end on a high note though?

[Steve Chou]

I was gonna end on a high note. You did end on a high note. You brought me down and then you brought us all back up and at the end.

[Ian Page]

So, and, and, and on the next episode, Conspiracy Corner, we'll go into those aliens and bigfoot and we'll go down that rabbit hole in the next episode. Steve.

[Steve Chou]

Well, cool, Ian, thanks a lot, man. And I will see you at seller summit in April.

[Ian Page]

I will be there. I, I, I'm, I'm gonna do a my, I'm gonna give you my 45.

[Steve Chou]

Minutes and hopefully you won't depress the audience. You, you'll bring them back up at the end. But yeah, bring them all back up and I'm sure by then things will change again. So if you want the latest, make sure you guys stop by the event as well.

[Ian Page]

All right, Thanks a lot, Steve.

[Steve Chou]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you plan on selling on TikTok shop this year, I highly advise that you at least send Ian an email, even if you plan to go about it yourself. For more information and resources, go over to mywifequitterjob.com episode 623. And once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event.