Olivia
Online
John Zhao | TikTok Shop from 0
@JohnZhaoLog
Ex-engineer. 3 years of drawings and spreadsheets. Now building on TikTok Shop from zero, in public. Every product, view and order goes in the log.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined November 2020
29 Following
16 Followers
52 Posts
Pinned Tweet
A lot of beginners assume free samples are all about follower count. Sellers are checking a bunch of other stuff too...
One guide written for sellers lists what they look at: audience fit, recent content in the same niche, how often you post shoppable videos, how you show the product, comment quality, and whether you finish the collabs you agree to. Past sales only count "when available"
What I'd take from it:
- Stay in one niche. A seller with kitchen products wants to see kitchen videos on your page
- Post shoppable videos regularly, even before samples. Buy one cheap product and review it so there's something to look at
- Finish every collab. Free and refundable samples have different posting windows, so check the deadline when you accept one
Your page is pretty much what they're judging you on
@joshelizetxe quick math check, 4M views at 1.5% is 60k orders, x $35 is $2.1M not $210k. but 1.5% of views buying is really high for short form, most videos are way under that. the 2 out of 90 videos part is the realistic bit
@calderships that's super useful, appreciate it. gonna keep that in mind when i start filming
A lot of beginners assume free samples are all about follower count. Sellers are checking a bunch of other stuff too...
One guide written for sellers lists what they look at: audience fit, recent content in the same niche, how often you post shoppable videos, how you show the product, comment quality, and whether you finish the collabs you agree to. Past sales only count "when available"
What I'd take from it:
- Stay in one niche. A seller with kitchen products wants to see kitchen videos on your page
- Post shoppable videos regularly, even before samples. Buy one cheap product and review it so there's something to look at
- Finish every collab. Free and refundable samples have different posting windows, so check the deadline when you accept one
Your page is pretty much what they're judging you on
TikTok Shop changed its creator enforcement rules in June, and there's one part worth knowing if you post a lot...
If you get the same violation 6 times within 90 days, TikTok Shop can pull your e-commerce access and freeze your commissions, even with a high Creator Health Rating. You get 30 days to appeal each one (per PPC Land's breakdown of the June 2 update)
A few of the categories the policy names:
- Medical claims and weight management, stuff like saying a supplement "cures" something or a cream "melts" fat
- Misleading promos. Fake "last day" deals, prices that don't match the listing
- Unoriginal content, which is basically reposting someone else's video or barely editing it
Have you ever had a video flagged?
@calderships yep. when a creator requests one from you what's the first thing you check
A lot of beginners assume free samples are all about follower count. Sellers are checking a bunch of other stuff too...
One guide written for sellers lists what they look at: audience fit, recent content in the same niche, how often you post shoppable videos, how you show the product, comment quality, and whether you finish the collabs you agree to. Past sales only count "when available"
What I'd take from it:
- Stay in one niche. A seller with kitchen products wants to see kitchen videos on your page
- Post shoppable videos regularly, even before samples. Buy one cheap product and review it so there's something to look at
- Finish every collab. Free and refundable samples have different posting windows, so check the deadline when you accept one
Your page is pretty much what they're judging you on
@Hanzala35546311 1,223 orders before 7am is crazy. is most of that coming from lives or affiliate videos?
do your first show is the whole thing. first one's prob gonna be like 3 viewers lol, that's fine
Wake up this morning 🌞 and do your 15 hours of homework - eBay live, TikTok shop, whatnot,
Fanatics live, district live shopping and more … learn the space .. and do your first show …
Shit … sell stuff from around the house … 🏠
Start now
Making a sale on TikTok Shop and getting paid for it happen weeks apart...
Commission isn't released when someone buys. From a few creator payout breakdowns, it gets confirmed after the order is delivered and the return window closes. Settlement is usually around 15 days and can stretch to 31 during policy or security checks (check the current timing in your own affiliate dashboard, it changes)
What that means if you're starting:
- Pending and settled show up separately in your dashboard. Pending isn't money yet, so don't count it
- Returns cancel the commission on that order. TikTok Shop also just added box-free returns at around 10,000 US drop-off spots, so keep an eye on your return rate
- Expect a gap between your first sale and your first payout. That part is normal
Making a sale on TikTok Shop and getting paid for it happen weeks apart...
Commission isn't released when someone buys. From a few creator payout breakdowns, it gets confirmed after the order is delivered and the return window closes. Settlement is usually around 15 days and can stretch to 31 during policy or security checks (check the current timing in your own affiliate dashboard, it changes)
What that means if you're starting:
- Pending and settled show up separately in your dashboard. Pending isn't money yet, so don't count it
- Returns cancel the commission on that order. TikTok Shop also just added box-free returns at around 10,000 US drop-off spots, so keep an eye on your return rate
- Expect a gap between your first sale and your first payout. That part is normal
TikTok Shop did about $500M in US sales over Black Friday weekend last year, roughly $125M a day...
That's from Tubefilter's report on the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2025. The year before, Black Friday alone was around $100M
If you're starting now, here's how I'd use the next 5 weeks:
- Pick products that make sense as gifts, since that's a lot of what people buy in late November
- Get samples in early. Sellers get busy in November, and it takes time to receive and film
- Post more in late November, that's when people are actually scrolling to buy
What are you planning to push for the holidays?
for creators this is prob the time to ask for samples lol. brands are sending them now, by mid nov everyone's slammed
If you're not doing these 3 things right now on TikTok Shop you will not see the results you're looking for on BFCM
1. Ramping up sampling
You should be front loading a ton of samples right now so that creators have product in hand ahead of the busiest time and can make tons of videos ahead of BFCM and going into BFCM
This is going to be the most competitive time on the platform and tiktok is going to be pushing lots of boosts to your shop so you need to make sure you have as many creators as possible posting for your brand
2. Competitions
You should be running a competition incentivizing volume ahead of BFCM to get as many videos into the algorithm and then you should be running another competition during BFCM to keep the volume going. The goal is to 2-3x the amount of videos you're getting into the algorithm.
3. Community
You should be getting your affiliates into a community and managing them inside of their with coaching, announcements, inspo, etc...
BFCM is a extremely busy time for everyone especially creators as literally every brand is begging them to post so you need to take away all the friction for these creators to post a video by giving them inspo, briefs, coaching so that don't have to do any research
MAKE IT AS FRICTIONLESS AS POSSIBLE!
Start preparing for BFCM now on Tiktok Shop if you want to succeed, and if you are not seeing the results you want and want helping scaling up your Tiktok Shop, let's chat!
TikTok Shop did about $500M in US sales over Black Friday weekend last year, roughly $125M a day...
That's from Tubefilter's report on the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2025. The year before, Black Friday alone was around $100M
If you're starting now, here's how I'd use the next 5 weeks:
- Pick products that make sense as gifts, since that's a lot of what people buy in late November
- Get samples in early. Sellers get busy in November, and it takes time to receive and film
- Post more in late November, that's when people are actually scrolling to buy
What are you planning to push for the holidays?
Brands are reportedly losing money on TikTok Shop, and honestly that's a decent sign for creators right now...
One founder shared data from 100+ brands this week. Their average TikTok Shop margin this year was -7.5%, while the same brands made 32.8% on Amazon and 23.8% on Shopify. Another brand owner posted 4.6% on TikTok Shop vs 50.2% on Amazon
So why do they keep spending:
- A lot of it is for the videos. Creators make hundreds of them, and brands rerun the best ones as ads on Facebook and Instagram
- That's probably part of why samples and open collabs are as easy to get as they are right now. They're basically paying for content through the commission
- Good time to build a track record. When brands get pickier later, creators who already have videos that sold will get picked first
Overall, point is brands want videos they can reuse, so make ones they'd actually want to run
Would you let a brand run your video as an ad?
numbers via @drewfallon12 and @pauljauregui btw. tbh it might not last either, if margins stay negative brands could just start cutting samples and commission
Brands are reportedly losing money on TikTok Shop, and honestly that's a decent sign for creators right now...
One founder shared data from 100+ brands this week. Their average TikTok Shop margin this year was -7.5%, while the same brands made 32.8% on Amazon and 23.8% on Shopify. Another brand owner posted 4.6% on TikTok Shop vs 50.2% on Amazon
So why do they keep spending:
- A lot of it is for the videos. Creators make hundreds of them, and brands rerun the best ones as ads on Facebook and Instagram
- That's probably part of why samples and open collabs are as easy to get as they are right now. They're basically paying for content through the commission
- Good time to build a track record. When brands get pickier later, creators who already have videos that sold will get picked first
Overall, point is brands want videos they can reuse, so make ones they'd actually want to run
Would you let a brand run your video as an ad?
@calderships makes sense, appreciate you sharing all this
honestly 100 good ones > 1,000 random ones. most affiliates post like once and disappear lol
If you had 30 days to recruit 1,000 creators for a popular health product on TikTok Shop, how would you do it?
My first instinct would be to take a different approach and put the budget behind 100 top creators who can get their audiences involved, using UGC to bring everyday customers into the conversation. I’d rather see real people sharing their experiences than scroll past 1K creators all promoting the same thing.
Curious… what route would you take to drive $1.5M in TikTok Shop sales in 90 days?
@calderships gotcha. 2 bucks tho? are you using ai for the hooks or paying someone per clip
@calderships makes sense bro. so if the first 3 sec looks bad do you reshoot the hook or just move on to the next product
Trends for you
Most Popular Users
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
241.5M followers
Barack Obama
@barackobama
118.8M followers
Cristiano Ronaldo
@cristiano
114.5M followers
Donald J. Trump
@realdonaldtrump
111.8M followers
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
107.1M followers
Rihanna
@rihanna
98.7M followers
NASA
@nasa
92.3M followers
Justin Bieber
@justinbieber
91.8M followers
KATY PERRY
@katyperry
90M followers
Taylor Swift
@taylorswift13
84M followers
Lady Gaga
@ladygaga
75.5M followers
Virat Kohli
@imvkohli
73.5M followers
Kim Kardashian
@kimkardashian
70.9M followers
YouTube
@youtube
68.8M followers
Neymar Jr
@neymarjr
66.5M followers
Bill Gates
@billgates
65.3M followers
Selena Gomez
@selenagomez
63.1M followers
The Ellen Show
@theellenshow
62.2M followers
CNN
@cnn
61.7M followers
X
@x
60.7M followers