I’ve been playing around with Tiktok shop for about a week, and I’m really encouraged. I think this has A LOT of potential.
I’ve been hearing rumbling about trying it…and how people were getting similar results to facebook marketplace a year ago….which obviously peaked my interest.
But I delayed looking into it for a while simply b/c I didn’t fully understand how it worked and how viewers and potential customers on tiktok would purchase your products.
I primarily look for websites where I can list my products on (where buyers are ALREADY looking for products). My main goal is not to need ads in order to acquire customers. I’d prefer to spend my up front effort…and then be the beneficiary of organic traffic and sales that occur on those websites.
And for tiktok shop, I was under the impression you either needed to go live to sell your products… or you needed to make videos pitching them (which sounded like a lot of work).
…and that IS the case. However, it actually seems like it could work pretty well (if done properly).
So here are a few things I’ve learned after a week of launching 2 different shops, listing several hundred products on those shops, building 2 pages that integrate with each shop, and creating dozens of videos for them…
#1 This isn’t a place where you can take the volume approach and just upload thousands of products to see what sticks. The volume approach has been my bread and butter on pretty much every other dropshipping site (etsy, facebook marketplace, poshmark, mercari, etc…)….mainly b/c I can hire cheap VAs to list for me…and then it’s extremely easy to get an ROI on their time listing.
But this DOESN’T work for tiktok shop. Because buyers aren’t organically searching for products here. So just listing a bunch of general products isn’t going to help….and in fact, it actually might hurt you b/c the viewers of your tiktok page that’s connected to your shop can click over to your shop tab…and see all the products you have listed.
And if you have hundreds of random products, it’s not going to look like you’re very trustworthy and have a brand they want to buy from.
Instead, this is a place where you NEED targeted, niche specific, tiktok pages…then you can dropship products seamlessly through those pages.
So for example, you could build painting fan page…and then dropship products that specifically appeal to painters.
Or you could build a running or fitness fan page….and dropship fitness products and workout equipment to your audience from your connected shop.
It works REALLY well. Because everything is happening natively on tiktok…and you can subtly pitch products in your videos that you ALREADY know appeal to a large segment of your audience (since you’ve built a page that specifically speaks to that target market).
I’ve found that Gary Vee’s jab jab jab right hook strategy works very well with this. Create a few normal videos for your audience (the jabs)…then throw in one product video pitching a dropship product here and there (the hook).
People have been preaching this “organic traffic dropshipping” on tiktok for a while now….the only different was you used to have to send people to a shopify store and use the link in your profile.
NOW, it works A LOT better b/c there’s less friction. You can link products directly in your tiktok videos…and then when customers see the video and are interested in the product, they can just click the product and purchase immediately.
They don’t need to go to an external website they aren’t familiar with, be sold again, and then give their credit card information to a random company.
#2 Another thing that’s really cool about what tiktok shop is doing….is that you can find affiliates (with high follower count pages already) to promote your dropship products too.
