How To Sell On TikTok - A Guide To Getting Started (2024)

TikTok is changing how we market and sell on social media. Did you know that 78% of small businesses received a positive return on investment (ROI) through TikTok, and about 75% of them got the returns within six months? If you’re looking to use TikTok for business and learn how to sell on TikTok, this blog is your go-to resource.

We’ve put together a clear, step-by-step guide on selling through TikTok. You’ll learn how to start a TikTok Business account, create content that grabs attention, use influencer marketing effectively, and connect with e-commerce platforms like Shopify. Our goal is to give you practical strategies to draw in your audience and boost your sales.

This guide is for anyone ready to tap into TikTok’s potential. It gives you all the TikTok Hacks you need to boss up your biz!

Are you ready? Time to Tik-Tok.

What Does Selling On TikTok Mean?

Selling on TikTok means using the platform’s unique features to market and sell your products directly to its massive audience. This process involves:

1. Setting up TikTok eCommerce: Sync your eCommerce store to TikTok to seamlessly import product details, prices, and photos.
2. Creating a Product Tab in Your Profile: Make it easy for users to explore and purchase your products without leaving the app.
3. Featuring Products in Videos: Add your products into your videos creatively, enhancing product visibility in a user-friendly manner.
4. Tagging Products in Videos and Livestreams: Enable viewers to purchase products directly through your content with just a few taps.
5. Running TikTok Ads: Use Promote and Spark Ads to increase your video views, drive traffic to your website, and grow your audience.
6. Collaborating with Influencers: Use TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to find and collaborate with influencers who can promote your products effectively.

Simple Steps To Begin Selling On TikTok

Based on what we have learned above, a structured and simple approach to selling on TikTok has been shared below:

1. Understand TikTok’s Reach: Learn how the platform and its community can help you boost your sales.
2. Prepare for Sales: Identify your audience, set up a TikTok Business account, use TikTok Shop and other TikTok E-Commerce features like product tagging, live shopping, etc.
3. Create and Share Content: Produce genuine content, use product tags, collaborate with macro and micro-influencers, and use user-generated content.
4. Promote Your Products: Use TikTok’s Promote feature and explore digital product promotions.
5. Monitoring and Optimizing: Regularly assess your sales performance on TikTok, using the platform’s analytics to improve strategies and enhance your sales approach.

This approach gives you a starting point to start selling products on TikTok. But if you want to know more about this, the following sections will help as we have discussed them more.

With that, let’s take the first step to build a solid foundation for your TikTok sales strategy.

Preparing for TikTok Sales

The answer to the question ‘how to sell on TikTok’ starts with the first and foremost step: creating a TikTok Business account.

Setting Up A TikTok Business Account

It is a straightforward process that unlocks various tools and insights for brands looking to engage with the TikTok community. Here’s how one can do it:

1. Download TikTok: If you haven’t already, download the TikTok app from your device’s app store and open it.

2. Create a Personal Account: Start by setting up a personal account if you don’t have one. You can sign up using an email or, for convenience, log in with your Google, Twitter, or Facebook account.

3. Access Profile Settings: Go to your profile by tapping the profile icon in the lower right corner. Then, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner to access settings.

4. Switch to Business Account: Inside the settings menu, find “Account” and select “Switch to Business Account.” This change allows access to TikTok’s Business Suite, which includes advertising tools, insights on video performance and follower engagement, and more.

5. Choose Your Category: You’ll be prompted to select a category that best describes your brand. This helps TikTok customize your business experience.

6. Update Your Profile: Finally, add an email address to your profile to complete the setup.

By switching to a Business Account, you gain valuable insights and access to features designed to enhance your brand’s presence on TikTok.

Note: Business accounts have restricted access to music options to avoid issues with copyrighted material, ensuring your content stays compliant with platform guidelines.

With that, you have successfully set up your TikTok Business Account! You’re now ready to explore the platform’s capabilities for businesses, from engaging organically with the TikTok community to leveraging paid advertising options to grow your brand!

But for that, understanding your audience becomes important as it will help you prepare your content strategy effectively.

How To Understand and Engage Your TikTok Audience?

There are some simple strategies that can help you quickly tune into your audience’s preferences and engage them more effectively on TikTok:

1. Explore Your Community: Start with observing the platform to get a feel for the content that resonates with users. A TikTok Business Account can offer insights and resources to fine-tune your strategy​​.
2. Use Hashtags: Hashtags help discover interests and trends. Search relevant keywords to find popular hashtags and understand audience preferences​​​​.
3. Analyze Competitors: Look at what similar creators or competitors are doing. Note their successful strategies, hashtags, and how they engage their audience​​.
4. Experiment with Post Timings: Post when your audience is most active. Use TikTok’s analytics for business accounts to find optimal posting times once you start posting​​.
5. Leverage Other Platforms: Use your presence on other social platforms to gauge your audience’s TikTok interests through polls or questions​​.

Stay on top of the TikTok game by vibing with your audience’s faves and moods. Make your brand the talk of TikTok Town!📱

This concise approach helps in effectively targeting and engaging your audience on TikTok from the get-go.

Tip: Use TikTok Audience Insights to see your followers’ details like age, territories/countries, follower tab metrics, and more! It helps make your posts more appealing to them.

But why is understanding your audience on TikTok so important? Well, because it offers some clear benefits, discussed in the section below.

The Importance of Understanding Your TikTok Audience

1. Targeted Content Creation: Knowing the demographics of your audience (age, gender, location, etc.) allows you to create content that resonates with them. For instance, 54% of TikTok users are female and 46% are male. Around 17% of the platform’s audience are men between 18 and 24 years old. Customizing your content to these demographics can increase engagement and conversion rates.
2. Optimized Posting Times: Understanding when your audience is most active on TikTok can help you determine the best times to post your content. This increases the likelihood of your content being seen and interacted with, leading to higher sales.
3. Product Selection: Knowing the interests and behaviors of your audience can guide you in selecting products that are likely to sell well on the platform.
4. Use of TikTok Features: TikTok offers features like TikTok Shopping, which allows users to browse, select, and purchase items securely without ever leaving the app. Understanding how your audience uses these features can help you leverage them effectively.
5. Connecting Deeply with Your Audience: TikTok’s milestone of reaching 1 billion active users in 2020 highlights the platform’s potential for engagement. This user base presents opportunities to connect with people looking for entertainment, learning, and discovery. Engaging effectively on TikTok means tapping into this audience with targeted content that resonates personally.

Tip: Tools like TikTok Insights help gain a deeper understanding of audience engagement and content performance. Keep an eye on trending topics and popular content formats to align your strategy with what resonates with your audience.

With that, let’s take a step further and learn how to set up a TikTok Shop to convert mere views into a lucrative stream of sales.

Setting Up TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop is a shopping tool that can be accessed directly from the TikTok platform. It enables merchants, brands, and artists to showcase and sell things on TikTok directly. Product sales can be made by sellers and producers via in-feed videos, LIVEs, and the product display page.

This feature provides an all-in-one shopping experience without needing to leave the app.

Setting up a TikTok shop involves several steps:

1. Create your TikTok shop: Sign up at the TikTok Seller Center and provide the necessary details.
2. Provide your information and documents: If you’re an individual owner, upload pictures of your passport, ID card, or driver’s license. If it’s a company, upload a photo ID of the main person in charge along with your business license or relevant documents.
3. Link your bank account after uploading documents.
4. Add new products: Continue adding products to your TikTok Shop in the Seller Center.

Please note that to use TikTok Shopping, you must fall into one of these four categories: Sellers, Creators, Partners, and Affiliates. Each category has specific requirements.

For example, if you are a seller, you must be located in the UK, Mainland China, Hong Kong, or Indonesia. You must also be able to prove it with a phone number from that region, a certificate of incorporation for your business, and identification.

If you are a Creator, your account must be active and compliant with TikTok’s policies. Plus, you have to have 1,000+ followers, have 50+ video views in the last 28 days, be 18 years old, and have posted a video on TikTok in the past 28 days.

Hopefully, the steps above helped you understand how to sell on TikTok shop.

Next, learn how integrating e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc., can enhance your TikTok sales strategy.

Integrating E-Commerce Platforms With TikTok

Integrating e-commerce platforms with TikTok allows for a seamless connection between online stores and TikTok Business Accounts. This enables direct sales through TikTok. Platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce can be linked to TikTok, simplifying product catalog synchronization and advertising.

For Shopify’s integration with integration, the process includes signing up at the TikTok Seller Center and connecting the Shopify store. This allows for direct product management and order processing from the Shopify dashboard.

Similarly, WooCommerce’s integration with TikTok streamlines store catalog syncing. Plus, it also enhances ad targeting with the TikTok Pixel. Ads can be created within the WooCommerce dashboard, improving the shopping experience on TikTok and driving sales through engaging content and ads.​

BigCommerce also offers an efficient TikTok integration with features like catalog sync, shopping tabs, and TikTok marketing tools. This integration is free of upfront and recurring fees. Plus, it includes setting up the TikTok Pixel, connecting the BigCommerce store to TikTok, and streamlining the management of ads and content on the platform.

Now, let’s look at some compelling content creation and marketing strategies that can further amplify your sales on TikTok.

Content Creation and Marketing

It’s essential to master both your content creation and marketing strategies to achieve success on TikTok and boost your sales. Below are some tips that can help you accomplish this:

1. Be Authentic: Show what’s unique about your brand in your content. Being real draws in more people.
2. Mix Learning with Fun: Keep things interesting by blending cool facts with entertainment. This keeps your audience glued to your content.
3. Go Behind the Scenes: Share what goes on in making your brand work and who’s behind it. This helps your audience feel more connected to you.
4. Get Your Audience Involved: Ask your followers to join in by using polls and responding to your calls to action. This makes them feel part of your brand’s community.
5. Follow the Latest Trends: Make sure your brand stays in the spotlight by getting in on the latest TikTok trends and challenges.
6. Make the Most of User-Generated Content: Feature stories and feedback from your actual customers to build trust with potential new customers.

Next, we’ll look at how to step up your game by using TikTok ads to get your brand noticed by even more people.

Leveraging TikTok Ads for Better Visibility

TikTok’s ad platform offers a variety of formats, including In-Feed, Spark, TopView, Brand Takeover, Branded Hashtag Challenge, and Branded Effect Ads, catering to different marketing objectives.

By signing up for a TikTok For Business account, brands can access TikTok Ad Manager to set up campaigns with specific goals like reach, awareness, traffic, or sales and precisely target their desired audience using filters like age, gender, etc.

This approach allows brands to effectively enhance visibility, drive engagement, and boost their TikTok sales.

Beyond simply increasing visibility, TikTok ads bridge the gap between brand exposure and tangible user interaction. By targeting users based on detailed preferences and behaviors, these ads integrate products directly into the TikTok experience, creating a system where views can easily convert into purchases.

Using TikTok’s E-Commerce Features

To streamline your sales process on TikTok and enhance your strategy, it’s essential to use TikTok’s e-commerce features to their fullest potential. These features include:

1. TikTok Shopping

This blends entertainment with the convenience of shopping. Brands showcase products in the same space where users are entertained. It inspires action, leading to direct purchases.

2. Product Tagging

Sellers can tag items in their TikTok videos. This direct link from content to purchase simplifies the buying process for your audience. Add tags to your products in the TikTok Shop dashboard, and you’re set.

3. Shop Ads

Different ad types, like Video Shopping Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads, drive users to your store. They turn viewers into buyers right from the For You Page. To start, register for TikTok Shop, set up your ads, and track performance to refine your strategy.

4. TikTok Live Shopping

TikTok Live Shopping not only simplifies the process but also effectively answers the question of how to sell on TikTok.

TikTok Live Shopping makes selling on TikTok straightforward. It lets businesses show products live, directly talking to viewers. This method increases both brand visibility and chances of making sales.

Live events on TikTok are engaging. They actively connect brands with a large audience with high interaction. This live format is much more effective than regular online selling.

Data from McKinsey & Company shows live events can have high conversion rates, nearly 30%. This is way more than typical online sales. It proves TikTok Live Shopping’s impact on boosting sales effectively.

By using these features, you can develop a TikTok sales strategy that entertains, informs, and facilitates easy product discovery and purchase.

Integrating your Shopify store with TikTok can further enhance your reach, allowing users to find and buy your products easily. Let’s learn how to achieve this in the next section.

Boosting Sales through Shopify Integration

Integrating Shopify with TikTok enhances your ability to sell directly on one of the most engaging social platforms today. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up this integration:

1. Install the TikTok App: Go to your Shopify store, find the TikTok app under “Add apps,” and install it.

2. Setup Process: Add TikTok as a sales channel within Shopify and follow the prompts to set up your account.

3. Link to TikTok for Business: Connect your Shopify to an existing TikTok Business account or create a new one.

4. Data Sharing Preferences: Choose the level of data sharing – from Standard, Enhance, and Maximum – between Shopify and TikTok to optimize your ads.

• Complete Setup: Finish the setup process, and you have connected Shopify and TikTok.

This integration bridges your Shopify store with TikTok’s vast audience, enhancing your sales potential by making your products easily accessible to TikTok users.

Syncing Shopify Products to TikTok

After connecting Shopify to TikTok, setting up your marketing catalog is the next crucial step. This process synchronizes your Shopify products with TikTok, enabling the use of engaging ad formats.

• Initiate Setup: Begin by selecting “Start Setup” in the Marketing catalog section. This action prepares your Shopify catalog for TikTok integration.

• Connect with TikTok Business Center: Link your product catalog with a TikTok Business Center Account. If you’re already connected, ensure you have administrative access to your TikTok Ads Manager.

• Catalog Location Selection: Define your catalog’s primary location based on your Shopify settings. Additional locations can be chosen if they share the same currency and language.

• Select Products for Ads: Decide which Shopify items to feature in your TikTok advertisem*nts. Any modifications to your Shopify products will sync with TikTok automatically.

• Product Status Monitoring: Once your catalog is set up, keep an eye on the Product Status within TikTok to track which items have been approved, are pending, or rejected.

After going through the process, you may have realized that adding a product catalog manually can be quite complex and time-consuming. To simplify this process, using a Shopify product feed management app like AdNabu can be helpful.

Wondering how? Let’s learn about that in the next section.

Syncing Products to Shopify With AdNabu

AdNabu is a ‘Built For Shopify’ product feed management app that helps merchants connect their stores to different marketplaces like Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, X (known previously as Twitter), Bing Shopping, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok.

It helps you connect your TikTok Marketplace feeds with Shopify effortlessly.

The steps to do so include:

1. Open the app, and in the Marketplaces section, select TikTok Feed.

2. Choose countries, languages, and currencies.

3. Next, if needed, customize UTM parameters. Adjust source, medium, and campaign settings.

4. Enable and Save: A unique Data Feed URL is generated for each selection.

5. This URL is your TikTok Marketplace data feed link.

6. If required, merchants can also regenerate Data Feed URLs with the refresh option.

Adding the Data Feed URL to TikTok Marketplace:

1. Go to TikTok Business Center.
2. Go to Assets, then Catalogs.
3. Add catalog by providing catalog details like name and currency.

4. Set up the catalog. After creation, add products to your catalog.

5. Choose the ‘Data Feed Schedule’ option and proceed.

6. Match the URL with your selected currency.

7. Set feed details and start the import process.

Upon completion, your Shopify products will appear on TikTok according to the scheduled updates, thereby simplifying the whole product management process.

And this is how those products will appear on TikTok:

Syncing your Shopify store with TikTok via AdNabu opens up powerful advertising opportunities. This setup lets you quickly launch Collection Ads, putting your products directly in front of TikTok’s engaged users.

It simplifies shopping for your customers, who can discover and buy products without leaving the app. With up-to-date product feeds, your TikTok Shop always reflects your latest offerings, boosting sales by connecting with the audience effectively.

And AdNabu isn’t limited to just Data Feed URLs. It also offers AI-powered optimization for your product feed, where you can optimize different product attributes like product highlights, product titles, etc. Plus, you also get support for multilingual and multicurrency Google shopping feeds, which can help you boost your multichannel marketing!

Wrapping Up

To summarize, learning how to sell on TikTok revolves around its unique features and vast audience. Set up your business account, create out-of-the-box content, and make the most of TikTok’s shopping tools.

Remember to use TikTok ads for wider reach and integrate e-commerce platforms like Shopify for easy product management. And in case you do, don’t forget to use AdNabu, which makes sending your Shopify products to TikTok very easy!

With all this in mind, you can effectively sell on TikTok, and you’ll see your brand not only With all this in mind, and after your brand passes the vibe check, you can effectively sell on TikTok, and you’ll see your brand not only reach numerous people but also experience significant growth.

FAQs

• How do I set up a TikTok Business Account for selling?
• To sell on TikTok, start by downloading the TikTok app and creating an account. Then, switch to a Business Account in the app settings, choose the category that best fits your business, and complete the necessary details about your business​​.

• What are the steps to integrate TikTok with a Shopify store?
• First, install the TikTok app from the Shopify App Store. Then, connect your TikTok Business Account to your Shopify store. This allows you to sync your product catalog, manage orders, and create ad campaigns directly from Shopify​​.

• How can I create engaging content to sell on TikTok?
• Focus on creating captivating, authentic, entertaining videos that resonate with your target audience. Use trending music and hashtags, and participate in challenges to increase your content’s reach and engagement​​.

• What are TikTok shopping options for selling products?
• TikTok offers multiple shopping options like live shopping, shoppable videos, product showcases, shoppable ads, and a Shopping Center tab (in limited markets). These features help users purchase products directly through the app​​.

• What is the TikTok Pixel, and how does it help in selling?
• The TikTok Pixel is a tool for tracking user behavior on your website. It helps in optimizing ad campaigns, measuring performance, and understanding user interactions, which are crucial for targeted marketing on TikTok​​.

• What are the differences between a TikTok for Business account and a TikTok Business Account?
• TikTok for Business is a comprehensive platform for managing ad campaigns and marketing on TikTok. A TikTok Business Account is a specific profile type that provides tools for businesses to build their brand and engage with customers on TikTok​​.

• How can I measure the success of my TikTok selling strategy?
• Use TikTok’s analytics available in the Business Account to track engagement rates, audience demographics, and the performance of your content and ads. This data can help refine your marketing and selling strategies.

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