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TikTok Shop Insiders
What Makes a TikTok Shop Product a Winner? 9 Key Factors You Need to Know
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Ivan
Welcome to TikTok Shop Insiders podcast, your source for actionable news, trends and strategies. If you want to build a thriving brand or Creator presence on TikTok shop, this is your essential listen. Let's get started. All right. Hey everyone. Welcome to TikTok Shop Insiders podcast, your source for the latest news and strategies on TikTok shop. I am your host, Ivan. So glad to be here today, you know, sharing some news. I've been kind of hot and heavy on the TikTok shop side of things and lots of, as always, lots of moving parts on TikTok shop and yeah, just kind of want to get into it and share kind of the last couple weeks, this podcast a little delayed just because I wanted to see what would be the result of the kind of latest ban news happening. And yeah, I guess I'll just start off with that. So great news. The, the ban has been lifted for another 90 days. There wasn't a kind of deal to be had, but yeah, you know, Trump extended The lifeline of TikTok and TikTok shop for at least 90 days. Right. And so this is the beginning of April and you know, 90 days, three months from now. So great news there. Another kind of big item and pretty, pretty cool thing that I'm doing is LinkedIn lives. So I've noticed, I mean, I get a ton of questions, hundreds of questions a week, probably from all over the place. And I think a great way of sharing that knowledge is through LinkedIn lives and kind of just one hour a week or every other week, setting aside a time to kind of answer everyone's questions. We did our kind of first kind of impromptu one last week and it was great. Answered a lot of questions on strategies and you know, people found it very beneficial. So yeah, kind of another way for me to give back, share my knowledge that I've been, I'm getting so LinkedIn you can find me there. And I'm not quite sure how it shows up, but if you look at my post, then there should be kind of a registration for the next LinkedIn Live. So I think we're planning one next week on Wednesday or Thursday. So may kind of the. Today's the 10th, so next week, another thing I want to do and share this idea and maybe get some feedback for you from you guys is a hundred days of Tick Tock Shop tips. Right. And so short form video obviously is, you know, Tick Tock. Tick Tock Shop is doing well, but as far as, you know, educating other sellers on TikTok Shop, so, so you know, I've heard of people doing sprints on, you know, creating one piece of content every day, and this is kind of my way of doing that, right? So I was thinking about creating, you know, short video TikToks, LinkedIn, LinkedIn videos about how to sell on TikTok. So just tips and tricks and basically everything I share on this podcast, but a different format, right? So keep a lookout from that. And if you have feedback or questions that you want me to answer, go ahead and reach out to me and I'll get them answered. So cool. Keep an eye out for that. Another thing, I think I talked about it once or twice in the past, but pretty big project that we're working on and that we've been working on is Affiliate Academy hq, which is my other podcast where I interview the top TikTok shop affiliates, right? And some of these affiliates are amazing. They've got, like, millions of dollars of gmv, hundreds of thousands of dollars of gmv. This. You know, there's this one college student that I interviewed, right? So she's early 20s, like maybe just turned 20, and she was doing TikTok on the side, and she's figured out a way to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month through TikTok shop affiliates, right? And so I interview her and dozens of others to kind of get their story and strategy and hopefully extract some things that will help a beginner affiliate, right? And so, you know, I'm creating that community, that free community for people to join and be better affiliates. So I'll have a link for that below. And, you know, kind of speaking from the seller side and from the agency side, as I was onboarding clients, you know, I would basically start from scratch with every client, right? I'd do outbound outreach for affiliates, get them in the system, get them making videos, and it was great, right? It was still proving itself, but I was doing the same thing for every onboarding client, right? And so I'm like, well, how can I be smarter about this? Well, let me go ahead and create a community that I can reach out to again and again and again so that we can cut that middle or that kind of that. That. That starting point out, right? That. That rough starting point for brands, right? Onboarding a client. Now we have direct relationships with affiliates so they can onboard faster. And maybe the better side is that they're vetted. You know, when you do your outreach for the first time, you kind of have a wide net and you kind of, you know, there's good affiliates, you know, bad Affiliates and great affiliates, right? And so now we kind of have them in our system, we have them classified and we can reach out to them, you know, accordingly. Right. So yeah, kind of speeds up the process as well as, you know, that level of affiliates generally higher than if you're kind of start out, scratch and reach out. So Affiliate Academy hq, kind of check it, check that out. If you want to connect with some affiliates, reach out to me as well. Yeah, it's great for the affiliates as well, right. Because we have brand deals, right. And so not only are they working for commission, but we can give them a dollar per amount of videos, right? So I'll give you a thousand dollars for 10 videos or 500 for 10 videos, whatever it may be, right. And so it's kind of win, win for everybody, right? Win for the brand. They can kind of speed up their process, get high quality affiliates. The affiliates kind of have, you know, that flat fee commission, right. You know, a problem in their world is they get, they make a video and it doesn't sell, right? So you put in the work. But if they already get a flat fee up front, it kind of helps with that. And then they have the option of kind of, you know, the upside of possibly getting viral with the video, right. And then, you know, for me it's, it's beneficial because it kind of lessens the headache of trying to find affiliates for those brands. So yeah, Affiliate Academy hq, keep an eye out for that, Reach out to me if you want to connect. So yeah, I think another, you know, piece of news and the last, aside from the, the extension of, of the lifeline of TikTok is partial refunds, right? And so TikTok Shout TikTok Shop now allows sellers to issue partial refunds, a full return ideal for like damage or low, low value items. And so that's, that's pretty awesome, right? And so the thing I take away from this is customer satisfaction is number one, two and three. It's the most important thing, right? And I say that because if you get an unsatisfied customer, they're likely to leave a negative review, right? And you want to avoid as many negative reviews as possible to, you know, obviously for kind of conversion rate purposes, et cetera. And so this is a way, and most products in general, like if there's a return, they're not likely to reuse it, it's kind of trashed anyway, right. So there's no need for them to do a full return or kind of do that whole process. So if you can offer that refund right away you can, you know, take over that customer support hat and just say, hey, you know, we want to support you as much as possible, give you what you need. You know, in turn, would you consider leaving us a good review or leaving us a review? And so, yeah, it's kind of, you know, before you have to wait for the customer to return the process and then it's kind of like a lengthier process. So that's a kind of positive there for, for sellers. I think my next piece of news was a Tick Tock ban kind of getting extended. And, you know, I think everyone was a little bit less scared this time around just because it happened before and it, you know, didn't turn into a ban. I had my reservations just because of all the, you know, trade tariff and hopefully, I know my thought was like, what if they dragged TikTok into this? You know, back and forth, right? Like, yeah, we can, we'll tear a few, you'll tear off us, but you can't have Tick Tock or we won't buy Tick Tock, right? So I saw it kind of maybe getting dragged into it. But you know, fortunately now we have a 90 day extension on that and hopefully there's a deal that can be made and still optimistic that a deal that can be made. So, yeah, we have another lifeline. We can delay our worry a little bit longer. And yeah, brings us to our main part of the podcast. I've been in a ton of client meetings. I don't even remember kind of how many per week, but. But yeah, just talking with clients all the time, right? Brands of all different shapes and sizes, products of all different shapes and sizes, and I kind of see it all. And you know, one of the, you know, I met with a brand owner who was excited to launch on TikTok shop. But after looking at their product and looking at their kind of, you know, their product and their brand and their positioning, I just, it was clear to me that it wasn't the right fit. And also like the number one question that I get from all these brands that interview, it's like, what's my likelihood to succeed on TikTok shop? Or is my, do I have a product market fit for TikTok shop? That's the number one question by far. And so, you know, I wanted to dedicate a podcast to kind of help, you know, share my thoughts on what's a great product right on TikTok Shop. And so, yeah, I'm sharing eight tips that turned kind of eight tips to kind of classify what's a great TikTok Shop product. And yeah, it kind of, it starts with like the price range you'll see on TikTok that you know the, it's typically an impulse buy, right? You're not going to get $1,000 product under, you're not going to get kind of multi hundred dollar project. Although there is, but you know, rarely, right? And so for me that sweet spot is in that 10 to 40%, 10 to $40 range, under $100 for sure. And then yeah, kind of like you're thinking about an impulse buy, right? Someone who's browsing, they see a product, they're intrigued, right? And they kind of maybe put it in their cart, they see other videos and they're like okay, what the heck, it's on sale, I'm going to buy it, right? So you know, when that happens, you know, 10 to $40 range is pretty good. Another kind of pricing metric that I look at is how are you priced versus your competitors, right? And I say that because if you're priced double what your competitors are, even if you have, you know, products that are high quality and you know, made with better materials, if your products double the price, that's, that's a losing battle and I'll, I'll tell you why. So let's say you know, you're fortunate enough, you get the affiliates, you get those popping videos, right? And they're, they're great, they get millions of views. That person that sees that video is still in consideration phase, right? So let's say you have a, a serum, like a face serum, you know, skincare serum and you know it's a, it's a higher end serum at like 50 bucks. Most serums on TikTok shop, I guess higher quality ones as well are like 20, $25 and you'll even see some, I guess, no quality, no name ones for like $9, right? And so if you're looking at a nine dollar serum and a 20, $25 serum and then a 50, $60 serum, it's like kind of a no brainer, right? And so let again you're, you're fortunate enough to get a pop in video, you see your $50 serum and like oh man, people are like oh I think I need a serum. They see that serum video. But TikTok's algorithm is so smart that it's going to show other serums, right? Other face serums that like are in the same, you know, category but they're cheaper so they're gonna get more of your videos, right? Your other affiliates, they're gonna get more of your competitors videos or even gonna get the cheaper ones. And so you know, if your price is kind of out of, kind of realm of, of a normal buyer, it's. They're likely to buy, you know, someone else that's cheaper, right? If you know, you got them to the idea of serums with your initial video but you know, you weren't able to convert because it's. You have a lower price competitor, right? So again, not end all, be all. There's definitely people who are on the higher side of products pricing that do do well. But that's kind of, we're talking generalities here. So up next is demonstratable and TikTok worthy. This is maybe kind of no brainer, but if you're able to demonstrate the product, if you're able to use it, put it on your face, right? These affiliates, you know, in my affiliate Academy HQ podcast, you know, one of the, I was interviewing someone yesterday and she said every item she gets, she's a skincare person and she wipes it on her face and she kind of demonstrates and like look at the before and look at the after. And so yeah, and you know, tons of the top products are, you know, a hairbrush or a vacuum or a makeup brush, etc, so it's really demonstrable through a video like here's my before, here's what I'm doing to use it and here's my after. One thing that kind of not necessarily puzzles me, but maybe not as demonstrable, but that's killing it is supplements on TikTok Shop, right? And that's more so like telling a story, right? So TikTok worthy, like telling a story like it's again, before and after, you can't demonstrate it. Maybe maybe you could like take the pill but like you can't, you know, it's not a immediate understanding of what's going on, right? But you do have storytelling as part of that, right? So if you have a product that can tell a story, right? Like Nello's like huge on TikTok shop right now, they did 2.85 million in the last 30 days, which is crazy. It's a super calm drinking mix. So kind of like liquid IV plus supplement to kind of make you feel better, right? Magnesium, et cetera. But yeah, so they, you know, it's not necessarily demonstrable, right? You're just drinking but you could talk about how you feel, right. And all that, right? So yeah, demonstrable TikTok worthy, showing a story, you know, kind of satisfying to watch as well. Right? A big product is, you know, peeling masks and lips liners. Right. And so, you know, that's very appealing and entertaining to watch. So something that you can kind of see on a video and tell a story with. Up next is number three is trend driven and seasonality. So a big kind of recent news story is like the elections and you know, the polarizing kind of elections that were going on. And I saw this super popular product that was, it was talking about a, it's a newsletter that was mailed out to people and it said congratulations for supporting Donald Trump or congratulations for supporting Kamala Harris. And so what it would do is kind of a prank gift and it would, you know, you, the person would get that mailed to your, to your, you know, person of interest, like let's say your grandpa and he was a Trump supporter and you mailed him a Kamala Harris, like, thank you for supporting Kamala Harris. He's like, what the heck is going on? Right. And so that product made hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so it's capitalizing on the seasonality of, you know, the election process that happened. Additionally, I know some things that are popping off recently is Easter. So Easter's right around the corner. It's actually here soon. And you know, pre made Easter eggs are huge. Right. So thinking about seasonality, you know, I'm pretty sure as summertime comes around, you're outdoors and swimming and as school time comes around after that, you know, kind of back into kind of school mode, maybe some like lunch, lunch items or thermos or you know, school preparation items. So seasonality is also pretty huge. Right. And if you're, let's say a summer brand, you don't necessarily want to start in May or June. You know, you want to start as early as possible to get those affiliates, to get those, affiliate those videos made and kind of gain that momentum prior to the season. Right. So number three was seasonality. Number four is solves a problem or has a unique feature. Right. So this is kind of, I don't say every item, but one that I've kind of noticed this with and I mentioned earlier, but kind of like support, right? So like back support. I have backaches. I use this now. I don't have a backache. Right. Another one that I've seen is like shoe insoles. Right. So you're, you know, I'm on my feet all day. My feet hurt. I have these, my feet don't hurt anymore. Right. So solving a problem that you might have. I alluded to this earlier, but supplements, right? If you have, you know, I can't sleep at night while I take this gummy. It helps me sleep at night. So like solving a problem. And what's great about TikTok Shop is that you can tell a story. That's why, well, that's what makes good affiliates is they can tell a story within like a quick period of time, like less than a minute, right? And so they can tell that story using your product and solving a problem with your product. So that's number four, solves a problem and has a unique feature. Number five, higher profit margins and affordable shipping. Lightweight and easy to ship, low cost to produce. I think first step of this process is you as a brand don't know if your product's going to succeed, right? And so if you have a big product like a bed, it's going to cost a lot of money to ship that to the affiliates, right? And you're going to need hundreds of affiliates to make that happen. Although your product costs might be large, the shipping cost might be large and that's kind of a sunk cost that you need to think about, right? And so, you know, if you have a barbell set, that's going to be expensive. But like if you have an envelope like my, my example before it was a sheet of paper that showed support to a political party, well, that's cheap shipping, right? And so you can send out a lot of those. Right. Your product cost is. And your shipping costs are relatively low. So I would say, you know, higher profit margins to kind of is, you know, no brainer, of course, but you know, like skincare, you know, you can. Your higher profit margins give higher commissions. So those affiliates are then enticed to make videos for you. More videos, higher quality videos, right? And so, yeah, like shipping is huge that I found, you know, smaller the better. Lightweight is going to go further. Another item is already performing well on TikTok shop. You know, look at your category and see is there someone in the space that is killing it already and how are they doing it, right? And taking a look at their viral videos and seeing, hey, this, this is kind of like my category and I think I could do this and I have this, you know, differentiator that, that's better. Another thing I've been thinking about pretty deeply recently, it's like there were pop. There were last year, rewind last year. This time when Tick Tock is relatively new. There are items and categories that were popping and Products that were killing it with million dollars a month and like they're not to be found now. Right? But who's to say that that category and item can't pop again, right? And an example for me is like colostrum. There are certain brands are at the top of the game. Last year on TikTok shop, they were doing millions a month on TikTok shop. But this year they're not. The competitors are taking over, right. For whatever. I think my biggest kind of idea of why that's happening is they stop their affiliate, right. Their affiliate outreach and stop filling that top of the funnel. And so it kind of went down and they're not able to get that momentum again. Right. And so all to say, like, is there a product in your category that's killing it? That's already proof of concept for you, right? Maybe if they did it, I have a chance and here's I'm going to do it better. So yeah, kind of already performing well on TikTok shop is number six. Number seven is strong affiliate appeal. Easy for the affiliates to promote with storytelling and demonstration and high commission rates. Right. And so this is maybe a little bit of, maybe repeating of what I said earlier, but more of the affiliates side, right? How is your brand, how is your product kind of making the affiliates excited to use your product? Right. And so you do that through high commission rates. I mentioned before, high profit margins, but also that in turn high commission rates to affiliates as well as, you know, your, your product is easy to, to storytell and demonstrate, right. So if a affiliate has a product like, you know, kind of something that's not so sexy, right? They're, they're less to, to, to, to, to make a product about that or to make a video about that. Right. And higher commissions is always what they're looking for as well. Another item that's kind of awesome in the DTC world is replenishable repeat purchase value. Skincare supplements, consumables are huge, right. You know, typically on TikTok shop you'll see your kind of P and L, your profit loss be, you know, slim or close to zero in that first purchase. But if you can get them, you know, if it's a repeatable product like a supplement or skincare, you know, it just makes that value even more. Right. And so that makes for a great, you know, we're getting to number eight now so that these, this is like not necessarily a non starter but definitely, you know, adds to the value of like What's a great TikTok shop product, right. And so to recap we have number one which is impulse buy, you know, price range of 10 to $40, demonstratable. TikTok worthy, tells a story, unique, you can see it on a video very well. Trend driven seasonality. Number three, making sure that you know, if there's something during the summer you prepare for it early. And number four, solves a problem or has a huge feature, right? Being able to storytell and problem solution. This is why you should buy it. Number five, higher profit margins and shipping, right? Keep shipping and profit margins so you can give higher commissions so you can kind of sample out more. 6 already performing well on TikTok Shop, right? Competitors doing well. No reason that you can't. Here's my added benefit, you know, they were popping, they're not popping anymore. Here's my chance, right? Already performing. Number seven, strong affiliate appeal, right? How do you make sure that you stick out to the affiliates? What's the story that you can tell them? How do you know if it's a Kim K brand versus kind of a no name brand? They're likely to do a Kim K brand, right. So how do you promote your story to the affiliates? Giving them higher commissions as well. And then number eight, kind of like nice to have but in totality of the DTC world is replenishable repeat purchase. Right? That's, that's a great kind of characteristic of a TikTok Shop product. That, that's killing it. And actually after looking at this list of, you know I have callow data, data analytics tool for TikTok Shop, the top products. I'm looking at the top like you know, 100 products and characteristics that I, I just thought of when I'm looking at this is, I'll give you a bonus. A bonus characteristic of a TikTok Shop product is, is your primary buyer a mom, a house mom, right. I would say taking a look at these products on the top, you know, 20, 25, it's a house mom can buy it, right? So like yerba mate tea, skin care supplements, cake circles, which is like a boob cover, a brush, more supplements. But like 19 out of 20 items on here are like made for a woman to buy. So yeah, I guess number nine is can do you see a woman buying this either for themselves, mostly for themselves but also for their family. Right? So yeah, yeah. That concludes it for today's episode 8 Common characteristics of 9 Common characteristics of a successful TikTok Shop product. Again, you know I have LinkedIn lives. You get, I think my LinkedIn bio is going to be in in the show notes. You can find me on there and ask me any questions that you have. We also have a free community on Slack. You can reach us at tiktokshopinsiders.com find the link there. And yeah, that concludes it for us. And kind of I'm grateful that we've got an extension on our timeline of 90 days. And that's awesome. And I'm here to kind of continue that. So, yeah, thank you for joining in today. Don't forget to leave a review, please. You know, I'm doing this and it'd be great to hear some feedback and what you guys think and help promote this show. So appreciate it. Catch you guys next time. See ya.