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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to TikTok Shop Insiders podcast, your source for actionable news, trends and strategies.
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If you want to build a thriving.
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Brand or Creator presence on TikTok shop.
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B
This is your essential listen. Let's get started. All right, welcome everyone, to TikTok Shop Insiders podcast, your source for the latest news and strategies for TikTok shop. I am your host, Ivan, and we got my good friend Pat here. What's up, Pat? How you doing?
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A
What's up, Ivan? Welcome back from your trip.
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B
How was it?
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A
I still. I'm amazed you took three kids through Europe. Yeah.
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B
How was it? Yeah, it was amazing. A lot of people thought I was crazy taking three kids to Europe. Eight, five and two. It was great. You know, the struggle bus was getting them up at 3 o'clock in the morning to catch some flights, which was not fun and. But they did a great job. You know, I told them, hey, it's travel time, you know, we gotta. Yeah, buckle up and do it and just grid it. And they. They did, which is amazing. And then on the other side, like, seeing them kind of look at the Eiffel Tower, it's priceless. Or, you know, visiting the Louvre or, you know, Big Ben and just taking pictures and just seeing their awe is amazing. So would it. We would definitely do it again. My wife and I always say, like, you know, would we do it again? We. We would do it tomorrow if we could. So. Yeah. Awesome, awesome trip, man.
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A
Yeah, people always say, like, you shouldn't travel with kids that young because they won't remember, but you kind of forget that you'll remember it, right?
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B
Like, yeah. Oh, for sure, for sure. Many more to come, hopefully. But yeah, it was a great trip. But, you know, on your side, I know you were sick a little bit earlier, you're feeling 100% now.
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A
Whole family got sick. Yeah, we. We all. There's a surge of COVID happening in California and we were part of it. My kids went to like, a Filipino camp for. At their. At their church. And so, you know, it was a bunch of kids, obviously, all together for three days and it was bound to happen. So, yeah, we're on the mend. I was the last one to catch it. You know, might still be able to hear it in my voice, but I'm definitely better than I was two days ago.
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B
So. Getting there, man. Glad to hear you're okay. And yeah, just kind of like two dads with three kids kind of talking about their journey a little bit. That's part of it, right?
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A
Got three. Three weeks until School starts again, so it'll be back to.
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B
Okay, yeah. To get your house quiet during the middle of the day versus waiting around. Yeah. All right. So, as always, we like to start our episode with some kind of news latest in TikTok shop. It's been a minute, right, since we dropped. But first, our agenda news is like, I found this super interesting. So on. On Reddit, I saw a post in the TikTok shop subreddit, and it basically is about the seller who was selling a expensive computer, I think to the tune of like $2,500, I believe, or $2,600. And they sold the computer on TikTok Shop, thinking it's all gravy. You know, I have this computer selling it, someone bought it. But what happened was that buyer went ahead and did a return, and in their return, it was a 1 ounce envelope, or that's what they marked down, or that's what was being shipped back to the seller, which is obviously incorrect. Right. It's a whole computer. It's, you know, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, and it doesn't match up. So essentially all to say the seller sold the computer and the buyer returned an envelope and kept the computer and got refunded the money, and now the seller is kind of out of luck, like, Sol, there's nothing you can do about it. Appeal, appeal, appeal. Talk to X, Y and Z. And they can't do any. So kind of crazy. Like, what do you think, Pat?
- [03:51]
A
Yeah, I mean, we kind of heard stories of this in the early days of TikTok shop too.
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B
Right.
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A
Like when people were just buying things and then like closing or canceling the order when the order is, like, in route. Yep. And then there was no recourse for. For the seller. I think it's TikTok shop still kind of. It's. It's evidence of them moving so quickly and growing so fast that they have to, like, tackle these issues as they come.
- [04:14]
B
Yeah. So this is obviously like a bad buyer. Right. And, you know, we. Everyone that's kind of listening to this podcast, I'm sure has experienced a roadblock or two coming from TikTok shop. Right. So creating your account TikTok would be like, no, this is not good. You have to validate X, Y and Z. And they're putting you through like a ringer. Right. And I think this is all in the effort to make the marketplace cleaner. You know, we're seeing it on the seller side, but also as a buyer, like, there's bad buyers out there, and so hopefully they do something to kind of clean that up. I know they will. Yeah.
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A
Every, every marketplace has its bad, bad actors.
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B
Right.
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A
Even Amazon, the biggest, biggest ones. There's always going to be a small percentage of bad.
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B
I.
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A
So, yeah, it's up to TikTok to clean it up. If they want this to be a trusted marketplace that people shop.
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B
Right. And sell like, I'm not going to sell if I know I'm going to get scammed. Right. If I'm.
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A
Exactly.
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B
All right, so up next, here is GMB Max rolled out to all sellers and advertisers.
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A
Yeah, I mean, it's been a while since we've, we've chatted on the podcast. This news came out, I think about two weeks ago. July 17, I think, was the date that GNV Max rolled out. For those that don't know, you know, they had two versions of TikTok shop ads, right. Is one through the, the ad platform. And then GMV Max is kind of like a more simple set it and forget it type of solution where, you know, you, you allow TikTok's algorithm to pull in the videos that have tagged the products to sell the products. Best I know that. You know, Ivan, your experience with GMB Maxes, it's performed better than like the manual campaigns that one of your brands has done.
- [05:57]
B
Yeah. So essentially, GME Max, a little bit of explanation is you have your Spark code that these affiliates have generated, right. So you get to the tune of a hundred, let's call it Spark codes and videos that you can test. You take all those Spark codes, you put it into a bucket, and TikTok will go into that bucket and distribute your dollars, your ad dollars accordingly to what they think is going to move and, and perform the best. Right. So you select your product, you select your target ROAS, you know, to ROAS of 2 row as a 4 row as of 8 to get more conservative, and then you kind of let TikTok do its thing and pick out the, the videos that work. So kind of trusting TikTok's algorithm a little bit more, but essentially it's, it's, it's been pretty fruitful. And it kind of, the way I look at it is, you know, when you compare TikTok shop today versus like three or four months ago, you could go viral with a organic video. Right. So an affiliate creates a video, it kind of gets its boost and, you know, all gravy. But nowadays I think what you need to do is accompany that organic video with some paid ads. Right. So you, you, you you get that extra boost of views. Right. There's more organic videos. So you kind of have to stick out with paid ads. What do you think?
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A
Yeah, that's, that's kind of been the trend that we've seen. I mean even with, with the content that we're getting back for our clients, a lot of the organic views have been down overall. And I think we've seen that in even the affiliate groups that were a.
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B
Part of a lot of people complaining.
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A
About just they're not seeing the organic views they used to three, four months ago. And it's probably exactly how just way more people creating TikTok shop content out there. So there's only so many eyeballs that TikTok can spread this out to. But I remember you having a few complaints about GNV Max, right? Like in terms of reporting, can you go through like kind of how they report GMV as far as being attributed back to GMV Max ads?
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B
Yeah. So GMB Max talks about gross gmv. Right. So it's not necessarily like you put in this $10 and you start three campaigns on this $10. And what did that $10 give you as a result? Right. Did it give you $10 or did it give you $20 with a 2x roas? What it does is I have to restart this. Well, I have to pause here because I really don't know. I mean I would have. Yeah. Okay, so eight minutes or nine? So we're going to cut this. I would need to figure it out.
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A
This was when you were talking about GMB Max attributed all sales back to the ad, right?
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B
Yeah, like, but then there's a nuance in there of like when did you start the GMV Max?
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A
Oh, I see.
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B
Like when did you start the ad dollars? Right. Because that campaign, like let's say it was running heavily on its own organic and then you put it into a GMV Max campaign. Now the results are going to be after the GMB matter. Well, what happens to the organic results prior and I'm not quite sure like how to expertly talk about it. Got it.
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A
Okay. I mean we can move on from it. Yeah, I think we stopped at a point before that.
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B
Okay, cool. So let's say we'll then continue. Up next on Our news is TikTok Shop Co funded shipping program. So I know that's news new update. I know it's not in, it's active. It's not active right now, but go ahead and give us a quick update.
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A
Of what's up to come. Yeah, this was a big announcement from, from TikTok last, I believe it came out last Friday in an email to, to all sellers essentially. So what it is is you know we've been talking about that free US shipping incentive program that TikTok has had forever since basically since they launched and that's this, this new co funded shipping program is replacing that. So it's big news to sellers because it's going to be eating into their margins. That shipping cost that TikTok used to help fund for orders over $30, now they're only funding $2. I think there's a special period where they're funding up to $6 but only for like the first 500 qualified orders. But going beyond that, TikTok will only cover if you're using TikTok shipping or seller shipping, TikTok will only cover up to $2 of your shipping costs. So imagine you know, your orders $30, you're offering free shipping to the customer. Your shipping cost is $5.
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B
Right.
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So you would pay the $5. Originally in the old program you would pay the $5. TikTok will cover that cost through a reimbursement.
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B
So gave me five buck.
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A
Yeah. And it still offers the customer free shipping. Now TikTok will only cover $2 of that five dollar shipping cost. So now you still have to pay that. You have to co fund the $3. Yeah.
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B
Another thing, it's like maybe unclear but it says TikTok will cover up to $2. Right. So it's not even saying it will cover $2. Right. What if it's 50 cents or whatever? So essentially we knew this day was coming. TikTok is not going to fund your shipping forever. It's a way to attract sellers to get on the platform and make it more enticing, which it has and now it's transitioning. So I think another thing here, it's like TikTok has been known to pull back on these fees. Right. So an example of that is their platform fee right before or it was 6% actually currently at 6% but there was an article that came out that in July it was going to go up to 8% and it's stayed at 6%. Right. And so kind of like, you know, it's a lot more wild wild west and not as reliable information like they could change at any moment to come.
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A
Yeah, yeah. I mean same thing with the three day or two day sla. They gave a grace period right to where they weren't actually penalizing people on missing the 2 day SLA. They were still using the 3 day time period. This might also be a push to get people to go over to fulfilled by TikTok. That's been a new kind of up and cominging topic that fulfilled by TikTok essentially is you sending your inventory of your products to TikTok to help for them to hold in a warehouse and they handle the fulfillment for you. Very the same program you know Amazon rolled out for with Fulfilled by Amazon they are trying to expand this I think in the US and so they're offering a little bit more incentive for people. So for this co funding shipping.
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B
Right.
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Is they're allowing I think the order to be only $20 to get allow for free shipping and then they're co funding up to 70% of the shipping cost.
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B
So it's a better deal per SE than TikTok or your cash and what you've been doing but.
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A
Correct. So they're doing these like small things to incentivize people to go to fbt. How it's rolled out, I don't know. I know you've had some, you know, conversations with people on FBT and it's, it's kind of been rocky.
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B
Yeah. Just like any new huge initiative you're going to have your kind of like kind of hiccups or speed bumps and some of the feedback I gotten was majority of it was good but some of the times you're going to get you know, late shipments and you know, unhappy customers because it didn't ship out. Correct. I know shipping inventory in there's a couple mix ups of you know, having to validate what you units are getting received. So yeah, kind of just we're advising our clients not to enroll into FBT until we kind of know that it's a lot more kind of sound and ironed out. Yeah, exactly.
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A
So yeah there's, I mean they're trying to play catch up with Amazon. Amazon has years in this space kind of then Amazon had their own hiccups in the beginning and so this is TikTok kind of go doing the same motions.
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B
I think I'm googling how much does FBA make Amazon. Right. How much of a business is FBA to Amazon? Yeah.
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And then look at.
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B
But anyway so go ahead.
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I mean even the benefits of FBT aren't going to last forever. Same with Amazon. Amazon's continually raising their Amazon fees. The referral fees.
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B
Yeah.
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Amazon sellers. So yes, maybe take advantage of it. There's benefits of being early into the program because you get these incentives and probably lower costs before TikTok raises it. So it's kind of one of those things to look into, maybe ask about it, ask other sellers who have, you know, sold on FBT before. But I think our recommendation is kind of wait it out and see until they iron out some of these. These cakes.
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B
Exactly. So cool. Up next, we have record breaking live streams. We have two examples in the last couple of weeks of kind of just people killing it with their livestreams. One is from a brand, kind of brand livestream and the other is from a creator in the Philippines. So the one I'll review is $1.4 million in GMV from a James Fonte. He's a creator in the Philippines. Right. So he, you know, just kind of did his things with the live. Right. So he, you know, he does product videos, but he also had a live where he generated 1.4 million in gov. And I guess we're just noticing more and more lives, a focus on lives and the production of them in the success of them. So that's pretty cool. Another one is in the UK market. I believe so. P. Louise makeup generated 2 million in GMV in a live that they did. And so essentially it's just like lives. Right. Like one session of a person talking for a couple hours is generating millions of dollars in revenue. Kind of crazy, but. Yeah. What do you think that.
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A
I mean, it's so funny that I know we age ourselves when we talk about like qvc, but QVC was around for a long time for a reason.
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B
Right?
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A
It worked for some reason.
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B
It's still going on. It's still pretty profit for sure. Yeah.
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A
I mean, Amazon does it during prime day. They do do their own live sessions to sell products during. During Prime Day. So there's obviously, you know, maybe it's the interactive engagement that happens when you're selling products. You can ask questions during the, you know, during the live programs and it makes it easier for. And if the person is a good salesperson and.
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B
Right.
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A
Well, they could sell the product like those. Like when you go to the county fair and they have those, you know, demonstration booths.
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B
Right. On the same thing. Like using a knife, like cutting, cutting, cutting.
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A
Yeah. You know, the crazy one I saw was like that mop. They poured a bunch of like green. Yeah. Liquid water on the tiles and the mop like mopped it up in one pass. And it's like amazing to see why the actual.
- [16:40]
B
Yeah. The before and after. That's exactly what I was gonna say is the kind of how the creator can captivate the audience Right. It's more entertainment than it is selling. Right. So it's like as a person would watch a Hallmark movie, a person will watch QVC to get entertained by that person using the product, talking about the product. Right. So, you know, I think that's kind of the model that they're going after for sure. And just great success. Like, the proof is in the pudding. Like, you're getting millions of dollars in sales. So it's like, definitely, absolutely be on your radar.
- [17:13]
A
Yeah. TikTok knows it, so it's pushing it too, I think, into people's feeds.
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B
So, yeah, for sure. All right, so up in the meat and potatoes of this podcast, we wanted to cover something that we've a question that's been asked frequently from a number of our, you know, potential sales calls, client calls, and that is what makes for a great TikTok shop product. Right. I don't think we necessarily reviewed that, but everything out there, you know, kind of you see in Target and everything. But like, what really is kind of moving the needle for the TikTok shop audience. So we'll dive into that a little bit. But Pat, I guess I'll start with you putting you on the spot here. But like, what's the last thing you or Suze have bought on TikTok shop? Or do you remember what was it that we bought?
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A
Probably that giant bubble gun right before the summer started. The one that does like a million bubbles. Because, I mean, the reason why is because the videos are so compelling. When you like blast a gun, billion bubbles come out and you see the reaction of the kids faces.
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B
Right.
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A
And that's like, it speaks to us because we want our kids to have that same reaction.
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B
Right.
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A
That looks so much fun. And so that was like an instantly thing that sold us.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Being parents that like, spoke directly to our demographic.
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B
Right.
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A
We have kids and then, you know, we're kids that love toys. I mean, we're growing kids that love toys too.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So that's probably the latest thing that.
- [18:33]
B
We bought mine, I can speak to me and my wife. But, you know, we went to our Europe trip and we were doing a lot like Europe research and travel research and getting travel videos, hack travel hacks, etc. But the items we bought. So I bought a battery pack that attaches to, you know, my phone, you know, through lightning or I'm sorry, for the magnet in the back. And also it's like it was convertible to charge iPads as well. So my son's and my kids iPads. Right. So not only my Phone, but like iPad. So it's like prepping for that long, you know, haul, which was extremely valuable. If my iPad went out of battery, that was a big kind of problem. But it all good. So that, that was in preparation for that. And then also what came in handy similarly was summer in Europe is very hot. In Barcelona, I think it was like 80, 80, 90 degrees. And so my wife bought a portable fan and we used that thing 24, 7 until it ran out of batteries. So it was a portable fan and you're like, you know, beat the heat, et cetera. And great story. Right. Like, I'm traveling, I need the portable fan for me and my kids. And it came in handy. We're so glad we bought it. So. Yeah.
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A
So you saw probably a product that you can use in a timely manner.
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B
Right.
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A
It was something that was a lead relevant. The videos. Yeah, the videos showed that exact probably scenario that you were about to go through.
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B
Yep.
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A
You're like, oh, this fits. I need this because I'm about to go through the same thing that's happening in this video.
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B
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So. Well, I guess one of maybe like the. The number one characteristic of a successful product on TikTok shop is that you're able to tell a story through a video. And maybe another way of looking at is like can a influencer, can a creator create a video about the product, selling it to other. Specifically house moms? Because they're the number one buyer on TikTok. So can this product be sold to a house mom in a. Within a video? Right. So that's one thing. It's like every single product has to kind of check that box. It might be obvious, but also like it might not be. So just kind of want to, you know, as you're looking at your product catalog as a brand or a seller, you're thinking about product creation. Like can this product be sold, you know, third video, does it have a great story before and after all that good stuff?
- [20:50]
A
It's funny that both of our examples naturally had. Had to do with like fixing problems for our kids.
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B
Yeah.
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A
That's exact market you talked about.
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B
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Another thing we have here is like price. Right. One thing I like to share is that it's. If you're. If you're existing brand, it should be cheapest on TikTok shop versus other channels like amazonrator.com and I'll explain why. So when they, when a user sees a video and they see your product and they're intrigued, they're inevitably going to go to your website or Amazon and see reviews. How to talk about it now, if it's cheaper on Amazon, they're going to go and buy it on Amazon, right? Naturally, because it's easier. They have accounts, you know, easy returns. But what happens now is like, okay, they see the video on TikTok, they go to Amazon and buy. All in all, great. But what happens now is TikTok does not know that that sale happened and it doesn't have that sales signal. And so it doesn't push that video as much as it probably should if it did see the sale. Right? And so essentially what you're doing is you're taking away that flywheel effect that you would get on TikTok shop and slowing it down. So what I like to say, especially in this first testing period of TikTok shop, is make it cheaper on. On TikTok shop versus your other channels to get that sales momentum going on TikTok shop. So super important there as far as the pricing is concerned. Some other factors are healthy inventory, right? Like, for you to promote a product, you don't only want 100 or 200 units, right. You want thousands of units to make sure that you're kind of in stock for when those items do hit. Right. So not to say that, like, it wouldn't work, but, like, you want to be prepared. Like, you don't want to go in and seed out hundreds of units of inventory if you only have a thousand, Right. So you want to kind of. These are. These are all just kind of like suggestions, right. And best practices. But, you know, you can definitely test it out, run out of inventory and restock. But, you know, what do you think.
- [22:53]
A
Are some, like, guidelines that you. So you've done some product development or, like, yeah, product research. What do you think would be your guideline as far as, like, your initial order? So you find a product, what's your initial order of how many units you order? And of those units, how many are you dedicating to samples?
- [23:09]
B
Great question. So I'm actually doing this now for a handful of products. The answer to your question is between 2000 to 3000 units and 1002 affiliates. 1000 units dedicated to affiliates. Right. And a factor in this is how. How long is your manufacturing process? If it's 60 days, you're going to want to buff up that inventory on hand outside of affiliates. If it's 30 days, you know, you can make it lower. But taking that into account, like, you know that you don't want to overstock and buy too much and this test not work and you're stuck with inventory. But for me, it's, you know, to 2 to 3,000 units. My specific order that I did recently was 2,500, and then I have earmarked between 800 and 1,000 units to sample to affiliates.
- [24:00]
A
Amazing. Because this is, I mean, this is why it's so important to know the elements of a good product. Right. Because you're going to be investing in 2,500, 3,000 units off the bat. So, you know, it's good that we're going through this topic of what are those elements that landed you to be so sure that you can purchase 3,000 units of this?
- [24:19]
B
Right, right. Another factor in there, you touched on it a little bit about shipping to the affiliates. Right. And so you're paying for that shipping. Right. So, you know, not only is it 2,000 units that you're paying for, but you're paying for 2,000 units to be shipped. And as everyone knows, shipping to in America or in the US has gotten extremely expensive, maybe even doubled. Right. So you want to pay attention to that. Right. You know, low product costs, low cogs. But also, is it a big item? Is it expensive to ship? Is it $10 to ship or is it $1 ship? Well, $3, whatever the lowest amount is. So you want to take that into account.
- [24:54]
A
So that's part of your calculation as far as like deciding what product to pick.
- [24:58]
B
Exactly. Exactly. Like, you know, a mug is kind of expensive to ship. It's a little bulky, but like, you know, you know, what's a phone case is relatively cheaper to ship. Right. It's not as bulky. You can probably put it in an envelope and it's lighter, et cetera. Right. So, yeah, I take those things into account.
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A
Yeah. So when you talk about cogs, you're talking about like you're doing calculation on margins, right? Your cogs, your ship. So the other factor would be how much you could sell it for, right?
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
You're taking that into account as well.
- [25:31]
B
Yeah. One thing that I was looking at was, okay, so let's say I have five different products. I'm buying them all for a dollar, let's say a dollar each, Right. That's my comps. That's production of those, those products. I'm looking to see what the sale price can be. Right. Some of them are $9 and some of them are $30. Obviously, you want to go with the one with the best cause. Right. The buy it for $1, sell it for $30. Right. So for me if it's $1 and I sell it for $10, that's not a big enough margin for me, 10x is great, but for me, it's not a big enough margin. Like, you want to focus on ones that have bigger margins, right? So the one that I'm going with, buy it for a dollar, sell it for $25, $19, but you can even go lower. So that's kind of like where you want to live as well as, you know, is, are your. So that, let's put a pin in it. Like, you want to have great spread, but also low cost of goods, right? So my product that I, I put an order on was a $1, but, you know, and that has like a 3x or 3.30x, you know, sale price, right? So $1 to $30, let's call it. But if you have a $3 product or a $5 product and you need to sample, you know, a thousand units, that's a ton of money that you need to put up front just for sampling, right? So you want to make sure that your individual unit costs are cheap as well or not as expensive, because you're going to have to shell that out through sample costs, Right? It's a big bet. So we, I do have a product that's in the $5 in the unit range. And then, you know, it's, it's. It's 50, $60 as a sale price. And I'm pausing on that because it's a big investment. I want to be sure, you know, or maybe I will do it, but, you know, when comparing the two, you want to have the lower price per unit.
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A
And then as far as, while you're doing product research, what are you using? I mean, I know the answer to this, but what are you using to find the pricing of products? Are you just searching on TikTok?
- [27:37]
B
Are you using tools? Yeah. So TikTok mainly and then Amazon, you know, what are some of the other products out there that are being sold, like other products in that category being sold at competitors. TikTok's a good one because, you know, I spoke with a brand and they sell a lot of units of glasses. Let's call it Glasses on Amazon. Just killing it. You know, they rose the ranks of SEO and now they're just printing money on glasses, and it's a great business. But what happens now? It's like, is it a great TikTok product? I would say no, because when you go to TikTok shop, it's very. A commoditized product. It's a very commoditized product, so anyone can pretty much sell glasses. It's, there's no, there's not a high barrier to entry. There's not a lot of design involved on these type of glasses. So it's like it's a race to the bottom. When it becomes commoditized, the price becomes a race to the bottom. And you're doing a search on TikTok, you're getting $1 to $3 price points on that same exact product. So it's like, that's not a great product to have on TikTok.
- [28:48]
A
Makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I remember having these same conversations about Amazon years ago when we started looking at products and what to do. And so it's, you know, it's kind of funny that it's full circle again and it's happening again on, on TikTok shop.
- [29:01]
B
For sure. For sure. So, you know, like, like we were talking about before, the product that I'm developing, like one of the questions you asked me earlier today was like, how did you find the product that you're, you're. You want to work on? Right. And so I answer you. I was like, well, I was browsing Facebook one day and I saw an ad for a product and I was like, okay, this is a cool product. And then I clicked on it, I was like, oh crap, there's thousands of comments and thousands of likes and looking on the product page, there's thousands of sales or reviews. And I was like, okay, this is a product. You know, I kind of have an idea of like, this is how much it's going to cost. And then I went on TikTok top and I was like, oh, wait a minute. There's not a lot of competition. There's actually no competition. Like, let's see this through. So yeah, that's how I stumbled upon it. And then I did everything you said above. You know, what's the, you know, cogs to sales ratio? You know, what's the shipping? You know, can I improve on the current design on it, make it better, you know, packaging, you know, unboxing. Is there, you know, a greater effect? Right. Because a lot of videos on TikTok are unboxing and how does that look? You know, so yeah, that's kind of how I stumbled upon my product.
- [30:15]
A
Nice. I mean, so the elements we've covered so far are like the pricing, obviously your cost of goods sold. I think shipping cost is so huge. Especially with that news that we talked about earlier with co funded shipping now being the model. I know a lot of brands out there are having to raise their price to make up for that margin now. So having that definitely it's a factor. What do we have else? Talk product story. Does it have a good story?
- [30:41]
B
For sure. I think that's number one.
- [30:43]
A
Yep. Number one thing is definitely the story. What else are we missing? Is there anything else that we. Oh, differentiation, right. Yeah. You mentioned talking about sunglasses, how it's a commoditized product. How do you look at a product and identify whether it can be differentiated or not?
- [31:00]
B
So sometimes it can't be differentiated because that's just how a product is. But doing what you can to differentiate is in your behalf, in your favor. You know, can you change the color, can you change the material? Can you, you know, introduce like a new breathable technology for a waistband? You know, like, you know, this is just kind of like marketing. Can you market it better? So those are things you got to think about, like is it going to improve the product or the perceived value of the product to the end user.
- [31:33]
A
Makes sense.
- [31:33]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Cool, man. Yeah, we're kind of at time. I was going to go over some products on calla data of what are some high selling products and why they are doing. But I think we can do that for another time. Yeah, man. Thanks. That concludes it for today's episode. Anything else you want to add?
- [31:55]
A
No, it's. It's kind of, this is a fun like refresher of like our old days of talking Amazon and it's, it's funny that we're having the same conversation on TikTok Shop because we're seeing kind of that same pattern happening again. So it brings back memories. When we were developing our first product, we were talking about this same thing. So it's exciting to see. I mean, I'm excited to see what products you come up with and I'm sure we, you know, might take that path again on Tik Tok Shop as far as coming up with another product.
- [32:18]
B
Yeah, man. And if you're a brand out there and you're not sure, definitely give us a ping and we'll kind of give our expert opinion. Done that pretty frequently recently. So yeah, we're glad to do it. And till next time, thanks for tuning in, B.