How To Make Money Selling Products On TikTok Shop

Kicking off sales on a new social media platform – or on any e-commerce site – can be a big lift for a small business. Forbes gathered advice from several e-commerce pros who have years of combined experience on TikTok Shop, one of the newest and hottest online platforms, particularly when it comes to garnering attention for an upstart brand.

You can read more about individual business’ experiences on TikTok Shop and how it compares with ecommerce giant Amazon here.

• Learn the App. TikTok Shop has a dedicated page with frequently asked questions and other bits of advice for new sellers considering joining: seller.tiktok.com. Along with a step-by-step guide, it offers $11,900 in incentives for new sellers to join TikTok Shop, including up to $10,000 worth of free ad credits. “We’ve made getting started on TikTok Shop as simple as possible,” says Patrick Nommensen, head of strategic initiatives at TikTok Shop. “Businesses can register right from their phone or computer.” TikTok also has what it calls a “Seller Academy,” which provides even more training, tips and tools for e-commerce pros.
• Go all-in on video posting. Brandon Himmel, the founder of pet brand Ruff Liners, says he “tried and failed three times” to get his brand up and running on TikTok Shop, and even hired and fired two different TikTok consulting firms, until he figured out the simple secret: “You need to go all-in on TikTok,” he says. “If you try to test it, it’s never going to work, because you have to get past a certain volume (of content) before you really reap the benefits.” Himmel says sellers need to be “aggressive” with creating and posting content on the app in order to get enough consumer engagement for the effort to be worthwhile. Last year, his team posted only about 600 videos, but by this past June, he had ramped that up to a 2,000-a-month posting rate. Now his goal is to post more than 10,000 videos a month in 2027, including those generated by creators working on commission.
• Stick with it. Be persistent, even if there aren’t any visible results for a few months at the outset, Himmel says, because after perhaps half a year, the formula of what hits with consumers will become more apparent, simply through trial and error. During this period it may look like you’re losing money posting on TikTok, Himmel adds, but you might not be, because the brand awareness you build could be driving more sales to other platforms where you sell, including Amazon. “Across the board, our net is higher than it’s ever been,’’ says Himmel. “So I’m willing to just dump money into TikTok Shop. Even if we’re losing 10% on everything we’re earning on TikTok, because we’re pushing so much sales to Shopify and Amazon, it’s worth it.”
• Seek help from seller trade groups. Michael Corrigan, the CEO and founder of travel pillow brand Trtl, agrees there’s a six month learning curve. Along with being patient, Corrigan says, new sellers should look for experienced mentors through e-commerce trade groups, such as Million Dollar Sellers, a loosely-affiliated trade association of e-commerce professionals. “We launched in earnest in April-May 2025, and it wasn’t until October or November that we started to really see traction,” Corrigan says. “I probably would’ve went faster and been further along if I’d been part of certain groups.”
• Give product samples to creators to build a network. There’s also a lot of value, Corrigan says, in giving away plenty of product samples to TikTok “creators,” for them to try out and potentially then deliver valuable product review videos to post on TikTok Shop. “It’s like, you give it to a thousand people, and 200 will post about it,” Corrigan says. “Definitely an 80/20 type thing.” That sort of networking will then lead to a buildup of creators that a brand can turn to when it needs content, Corrigan advises. He said he’s built up a network of roughly 1,000 social media creators on the Discord app specifically as a batch of easy-to-reach freelancers that he can lean on whenever he’s in need of more videos for TikTok. “That is by no means the biggest, by the way,” Corrigan says. “I’m sure there are (brands) out there that have tens of thousands of (creators)… It’s really about building relationships.”
• Build relationships with customers. Sellers also say there’s a completely separate skillset needed to succeed on TikTok, which is far more driven by direct consumer engagement than Amazon. “TikTok allows us to interact, especially with the live streams,” says Jared Mortensen, the CEO of Real Men Apparel Company, which actively promotes its underwear brand on TikTok Shop. “You can actually build a relationship with the customer, and you can’t do that on Amazon. On Amazon, there’s this barrier. Amazon views that customer as their customer, and we’re just a supplier.”
• Film without embarrassment. If you don’t have the budget to pay staff or affiliate content creators, the best move is to simply start filming and posting without fear of embarrassment, says Mortensen, who has been operating on TikTok Shop since 2023. “I’d just say, don’t be afraid to post, and just be authentic,” he adds. “Literally a 15-second video shot with your phone can be amazing. Most of our videos are five to 15 seconds, just shot with a basic phone. And don’t be afraid to be on camera. People want to see a connection with the (brand) owner.” Mortensen notes he once invested $20,000 into high-end videos for TikTok, only to see those spots flounder, while some far lower-cost quick videos performed much better. “I’ve made more sales on a 15-second video on my cell phone, dancing around in circles with a mannequin, than I have with $20,000 worth of high production quality videos,” Mortensen says.

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