Do you remember that feeling of satisfaction when you are scrolling through TikTok, and you chance upon a video about “Amazon Products That Just Make Sense?” There truly is that satisfaction we get when we understand deeper how certain products were masterfully crafted by their creators and how they were really into the details of how they can benefit the users and consumers.
Well, we felt the same thing browsing through the features of TikTok Shop. Aside from TikTok having a potentially massive customer base for your online venture, the integrated e-commerce systems in arguably the world’s hottest social media platform today can be handy for startups, and established brands alike. TikTok changes the way we market, but it does not stop at that. It also seeks to shape the way we shop online.
In this article, we discuss 10 TikTok Shop Tips That Just Make Sense, a set of friendly advice from your trusty friends in the e-commerce world to give you a head start on how to make the most of TikTok’s interface and shopping features for your venture’s advantage.
Learn and maximize short-form marketing
TikTok prides itself on re-inventing short-form videos and adapting them to smartphone screens via the vertical orientation of content. As it introduces its users to an immersive experience wherein you scroll from video to video, you get a greater chance of landing on the news feed of your targeted market audience.
TikTok’s inventive interface has both its strengths and weaknesses. But once you get the hang of it, you get to adapt, adjust, and use its beauty to your advantage. A notable strength is its immersive experience and the variety of content that you can dabble in to introduce your product. You can do demonstrations, showcase products, introduce content to your newest promos, have influencers try out the products, and whatnot.
A limitation of short-form marketing is that it is, yes, short. Within a limited amount of time, usually ranging from a minute to five, you must send your message. Now, not a lot of us are natives of this kind of marketing but think of it as doing elevator pitches, but this time, to the whole TikTok world. If you unlock the diverse ways that people on TikTok maximize and overcome this limitation of the interface, you will get to look more like a content creator, than a marketer. And mind you, user-generated and native-looking content sells better than branded, polished content. So, you might want to consider those aspects as you plan your social media calendar.
Populate your storefront
Once you sign up for a TikTok shop, of course, your products cannot yet be seen at the storefront. If you are already a bona fide online seller but you have your products listed on another platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce, the good news is that you do not have to go the long way of migrating all your product listings one by one. Through the Shopify and WooCommerce integration options, you can now reflect all the products you have in your online store via your website to your TikTok shop.
Once you have set up which channels you want to link and integrate and have proceeded with the necessary authorizations, you will see all your products presented neatly in your own TikTok Shop storefront. Your customers and followers will also see these right away and they can begin their shopping spree, and you fulfill their orders! Easy-peasy as 1-2-3!
Get official and get brand authorization
TikTok has this feature of an official TikTok Shop account. This works better, and you’ll see it more clearly in play when you begin to have your shop enrolled in the Affiliate program and get your own affiliates to do marketing and selling for you. When you are the official TikTok Shop, basically the storefront is integrated with your TikTok Business account, allowing you to have full control over the activities that concern the TikTok Shop. Think of it as the main branch of your shop, while your affiliates serve as franchisees or product dealers. At the end of the day, you don’t want things getting out of hand, so you’d better be hands-on.
On the other hand, if you are, let’s say, a storefront selling a variety of products originating from assorted brands, you will need to get brand authorization with the concerned persons or entities before the products associated as “branded” are reflected to your TikTok Shop.
Categorize products neatly
Within the Shop Tab is a search bar. And let us tell you a secret: it will open a lot of great opportunities if you learn to unlock it. One tip we’d like to always reiterate is that you must categorize your products accurately. Doing this for each of your product listings increases the chance that your video content, and your product listing, shows up at the top of TikTok Shop’s recommendations when a user searches for a keyword related to a certain type of product.
Also, when you’re naming your products, be aware of the character limits, usually 34 characters. In that small space, you must encapsulate and create a unique tag for your product which will let you land on search pages but at the same time let your product stand out for what it is (its color, fabric, usage, or other specifications.) There are resources available online on the best practices when it comes to product listings.
And don’t forget clear, high-resolution, and presentable photos showcasing your product from different angles, and in a situation of practical use.
Don’t forget to embed product listings in video content
TikTok has this very intuitive feature that lets sellers embed links to product listings onto video content, be it coming from videos made by the brands themselves for their marketing and promotions. Or it can be an influencer or an affiliate marketing recommending a product that they like to their followers.
Ensuring that the video content of your products has links to pages from where your customers can order and check out the items provides a smoother, faster shopping experience and can bring your brand an overall boost in conversion rates from viewer to buyer. In addition to that, you can even embed multiple links in case more than one product is featured in a single video content.
Monitor and track orders, and respond to customer queries
Through the Manage Orders panel, you will be able to view an overview of how your deliveries are doing, where they are, and whether they have been received in good condition by your intended recipient. TikTok offers two types of shipping: Ship by TikTok and Ship by Seller, the first is a setup wherein your packages will be handled by TikTok’s partner couriers, and the latter is when you partner with a third-party logistics provider of your choice. Either way, you want to go, all your delivery status updates can be seen through the in-app panel made possible by TikTok’s shopping interface. The only difference is that TikTok will pull up information from your 3PL provider, in which case you might have to do some setting up before it can work smoothly.
Nevertheless, these bits of information on your TikTok shop deliveries can be a great advantage for you when you are responding to customer queries about the status of their orders. Some get anxious when their orders are delayed, fearing loss or damage. Knowing in real time where the packages are, and how they are being handled can save you a lot of trouble. Besides, general responsiveness by sellers is a big green flag! Customers just love it when a seller is very welcome and attentive to any question they might have, be it about product specifications, choices or variants, available payment methods and promos, and of course, delivery status. Make it a habit to allot a portion of your time in a day to attend to customer questions, and we assure you, you will get return benefits that are a hundredfold the effort you exert.
Partner with influencers
Influencers or experts in their respective niches are sort of celebrities within the TikTok universe. When someone has established themself as a go-to person or some sort of guru, chances are customers will look up to them. This is something that we want to be able to avail ourselves of. The influence of these multi-follower TikTok accounts can give your brand that much-needed boost.
There are a lot of niches on TikTok: beauty, education, tech, gardening, food, and whatnot. You must determine one or more of these niches and investigate who wields the most influence among the celebrity-status TikTok users. When you zero in on who you want to become your marketing partner, shoot them a message, and maybe offer some complimentary packages of your products for them to try. Just be wary that you don’t push too much, and that you may look like you’re soliciting positive reviews in exchange for bribes.
We partner with influencers because we have confidence in our products, and the reason we send them those packages is for them to have that experience that they can share with their followers and with the world. Building good relationships with the most powerful influencers and taking care of those can bring you great rewards over a longer period than you expect.
Give out customer perks
Well, aside from influencers, your greatest marketers will be your solid, loyal, and satisfied customer base. Nothing beats word-of-mouth marketing, even when we are in the age of social media and AI. And nothing can stop a satisfied customer from repeatedly recommending your product to their friends, family, and followers. As a way of boosting presence, we can offer limited-time promotions such as bundles, and free shipping vouchers. We also must be mindful of opportunities for moment marketing which we can maximize. For example, the carpentry tools in your catalog can be given more prominence in your storefront in the period close to Father’s Day. Or your TikTok shop selling the best jewelry designs can be boosted with wedding rings at the time of the year when people are more likely to prepare to get married.
Run TikTok Ads
If you really want a boost outside your customer base, if you have the budget, and you have someone to manage, it might be a clever idea to run TikTok Ads. Within your TikTok control panel, you can create simple compilation videos just with some photos of your best products, put them in the Creator Tool and run ads based on your target audience. You can also adjust the duration, location, target demographic, and other specifications of your ad. Of course, there’s an option in which TikTok suggests the best customization that suits your budgets and goals best.
Eventually, you might want to diversify the Ads that you run with more complex and sophisticated content, so you might want to hire a content creator or videographer to do a project or two for your brand, or you can wield TikTok’s social media powers by prompting user-generated content aligned with an event or promotion. People using TikTok just love challenges. They’re here to beat them!
Challenge your users
As we said, TikTok is all about engagement and people love to participate in conversations. We advise you to immerse yourself in the TikTok world by allocating some time just scrolling and learning how people interact and what kind of content prompts these interactions. Since its inception, TikTok has been home to a series of what users call “challenges” which is some event (might be a dance craze, song challenge, or athletic activity) that people are called to try.
As a seller and marketer, you can launch your own challenge, and throw in some cutesy prizes or freebies to spice things up a bit more! The plethora of user-generated content that will give you the free promotion, and you can convert in the future as branded content will be overwhelmingly worth it!
In case you didn’t notice, we’re telling you to go on and sign up for your TikTok Shop account so you can experience firsthand these possibilities that we’ve just told you. Good luck, dear seller!