00:00.85
Scott Austin
everyone, Scott Austin here. And a lot of my clients and a lot of the audience has been asking about TikTok Shop. And being a 58 year old man, I know nothing about TikTok. So I wanted to invite somebody in that knew about TikTok.

00:14.02
Scott Austin
So I found Alex Rossman. He's an expert in the TikTok space. He owns Rossman Media and he's here to help us understand TikTok Shop and the opportunities it provides for Shopify brands.

00:24.48
Scott Austin
Welcome, Alex.

00:25.95
Alex Rossman
Thank you, Scott. Good to be here.

00:27.82
Scott Austin
Can you tell us a little bit about your expertise and and why we should listen to you when it comes to TikTok?

00:33.59
Alex Rossman
Sure. there's There's a lot of people you should listen to. I'll be one of the the many, but Rossum Media is my company. We actually specialize in social media for brands, particularly e-commerce. So we have a lot of brands that are on Shopify. So perfect for your audience. And really what we do is we come in a basically outsourced social media department. We handle everything from your organic social and content to your paid social, to your influencer marketing, really looking at things holistically. But TikTok and TikTok Shop honestly has been probably our key focus over the last few years. And we developed a really great

01:12.23
Alex Rossman
corporate partnership with TikTok where you know we come in and we're the first ones beta testing TikTok shop and providing feedback directly to TikTok corporate. We built out a custom strategy with TikTok corporate and kind of co- you know created a proposal that now we're implementing with our e-commerce brand. So it's a really cool relationship that we have with them. And I think your audience is going to get a lot of just kind of the nuts and bolts on you know, how you can really take advantage of TikTok as it stands today.

01:44.79
Alex Rossman
lot of the momentum that we're seeing in this channel and, And I think honestly, we'll probably dive a little bit deeper into social commerce as a whole, which I think is really kind of at the starting point of where it's gonna be, you know, two, five, 10 years down the road. So really excited for this conversation.

02:02.42
Scott Austin
Makes a lot of sense. Now, I think most of our audience here understands TikTok or at least know what it is, but they may not understand what TikTok shop is. Can you give us a little 101 on what is TikTok shop?

02:13.85
Alex Rossman
Absolutely. So it's exactly how it sounds. It it allows a brand basically to sell their product directly and natively in the app. And it that buying experience, basically TikTok's trying to model an Amazon buying approach, right? Where you see something, it's high intent, you buy it, easy checkout, don't have to go to you know another landing page to make the purchase.

02:39.14
Alex Rossman
It's all native. So it allows... Brands of any size, you know, from when we work with brands, Fortune 500s, all the way down to super small e-commerce shops are just getting started where now they can take their product and now have a reliable new revenue stream.

02:54.81
Alex Rossman
So TikTok is great for that. I mean, it basically creates a a marketplace for products to be found and sourced.

03:02.04
Scott Austin
Now in the TikTok shop, you know it's in the TikTok ecosystem. They're not leaving, as you mentioned. Is the credit card stored by TikTok? Is that information saved there? does the Is the customer creating one TikTok account that they shop through regardless of what store it is?

03:15.41
Alex Rossman
It can be. It can be. Yep. So really, it it depends. Just if if you were to save your credit card on file for easy checkout, that is something that that most people do that are active consumers of TikTok shop.

03:29.78
Alex Rossman
um So absolutely.

03:31.69
Scott Austin
And how long is TikTok shop been around and what is the, you know, the engagement and the revenue numbers in the time that it's been there and what trend are they on? they going up, down? How's that looking?

03:41.40
Alex Rossman
Yeah. yeah that's a great question. So I've been around for about two and a half years. It went through kind of a beta test period that I think anybody that is on the brand side has had some challenges kind of navigating TikTok shop. and It had a lot of issues early on and it almost...

04:02.24
Alex Rossman
candidly deterred a lot of brands from wanting to jump onto the platform. um you know Buying experience was a little clunky, um getting your your catalogs integrated was a little clunky. And so now they've really got into a place where it's a full functioning machine. I mean, there was, I think end of 2024, it was a little over $33 billion dollars generated.

04:25.06
Alex Rossman
And that's just gross merchandise value directly on TikTok shops, global marketplace. And that number is is growing exponentially and expect that to be significantly higher end of 2025. So we feel you know TikTok Shop is kind of leading the charge in terms of social commerce. We do see that there's going to be other social platforms going to adapt a similar type of approach.

04:51.62
Alex Rossman
So get used to, you know, if you see a product on an influencer, being able to click that image and check out directly, natively on the platform, that's going to become what I believe the new norm.

05:04.07
Scott Austin
Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I agree with you on that, right? I don't think it's some of the be all end all but I think it's gonna way more impactful than many people think. Now you've used the expression a couple times I want you to define it for the audience, social commerce.

05:16.37
Alex Rossman
Sure.

05:18.91
Alex Rossman
Social commerce, you know, it's is as simple as a social media platform that has e-commerce functionality. Right. So instead of, you know, the days of, you know, which is still very much relevant today, you run an ad, right? That call to action directs somebody to a landing page or website, Shopify storefront.

05:40.50
Alex Rossman
And then that that purchase happens on the website. Social commerce, the way we look at it from a transactional standpoint is now that purchase, right? That that consumer behavior is happening natively on the app.

05:54.90
Alex Rossman
And social commerce now also, you know it and involves being able to have the functionality of you know clicking an image, clicking a video, a button living natively within that piece of creative and being able to have this interactive shopping experience. And you're even seeing now, which is kind of crazy,

06:13.27
Alex Rossman
and kind of a return to the infomercial, which is, you know, for a long period of time, it was like QVC.

06:16.01
Scott Austin
Mm-hmm.

06:19.47
Alex Rossman
And now TikTok shop has kind of adopted that with TikTok live. So that plays into social commerce as well, where, you know, now if you're, let's say you're creating a product, you have a new product launch, people love buying from people on that app.

06:34.53
Alex Rossman
So if I'm the, if I'm the creator of the product, you know, I'm the business owner, i can literally get in front of a camera, take, you know, show my product, not sponsoring Spindrift here, but you you basically get my point where you can directly speak to your audience, right? And then in that video, direct people to make a buying decision while you're talking about your product.

06:56.51
Alex Rossman
That's something that's very different because for a long period of time, it's been very static, right? You create an ad, you put it out on Meta or YouTube or Google, right? People find you, they go to the website and make a purchase. Now we're seeing kind of more of an interactive marketplace where people are driven by content that most of the time it's actual business owners. I mean, some of the top performing TikTok shop businesses businesses right now are small mom and pop shops.

07:26.76
Alex Rossman
These are people that have taken their hobby and they've turned it into a real business and ah and they're crushing it. Right. And these are typically products that have, you know, I'd say kind of a lower price point. These aren't huge luxury items that are thousands of dollars. Sometimes they are, but oftentimes it's, you know, they're smaller, you know, price point items, easily digestible. If somebody buys it, they get it, may not be exactly what they thought it is, not the end of the world, but they're willing to experiment. They're willing to buy from other creators. They're willing to buy from small businesses. And so we've really seen a resurgence in small business on these pages versus it used to be

08:07.85
Alex Rossman
these big brands that are almost having a monopoly over the media space. Now this has kind of opened up a new lane for small businesses, which personally i love to see.

08:17.78
Scott Austin
Yeah, and I think there's an authenticity with small businesses and, you know, everybody's getting savvier and savvy. The more we get inundated with all the content we're inundated with, the more savvy we get and can tell what's ai what's BS and what's authentic, right?

08:24.92
Alex Rossman
Yeah.

08:31.45
Alex Rossman
True. True. Yep.

08:34.08
Scott Austin
Now, when you look at TikTok and TikTok shop, if you were to you know take a crystal ball, where do you think the trends are going for them? and And before you answer that, just want to say I spent my first 30 minutes last night on TikTok getting ready for this conversation.

08:48.12
Alex Rossman
I love it.

08:48.39
Scott Austin
And I was amazed at how few dance...

08:48.46
Alex Rossman
Yeah.

08:51.97
Scott Austin
videos I saw, and how much it was all commercialized and ads and affiliates and all this kind of stuff. And I could make a couple of assumptions about where I think things are going, which may or may not be wrong.

09:03.47
Alex Rossman
yeah

09:04.11
Scott Austin
So i want to get your you know feeling ah about how you think it's going to progress.

09:09.35
Alex Rossman
Yeah, i love that question. Even in the first 30 minutes of you on TikTok, I think you you have a good understanding of what's going on right now. So good for you for doing that. I think you know the reality is 2020 was kind of the days of the you know the dancing TikToker, where it was vile trends every you know two days. It was like something new popped up and everybody's shooting their content in their living room you know or their bedroom.

09:34.91
Alex Rossman
Those days are over and I think what we're seeing is it's because the age demographic is starting to get a bit older, just as any platform did.

09:42.39
Scott Austin
Mm-hmm.

09:44.43
Alex Rossman
Instagram did the same thing. Facebook did the same thing, started in a college dorm room. Now it's, you know, it's your grandparents that are on Facebook, right? Or Meta. ah it's It's just it it's starting to evolve.

09:57.00
Alex Rossman
And when that happens, that is where TikTok, from a corporate level, they so they you know their eyes light up and it becomes money signs, right? Because they know that the kids that were originally on TikTok in 2020, now it's their parents on TikTok. And maybe they're just moderating what their kids are doing, or maybe they're actually engaging with other products. Sometimes you find a bit of both.

10:19.87
Alex Rossman
They're on TikTok because they're kids and now they're spending time on the platform engaging. And so what that's led to, and you asked where i see things going, Affiliates is becoming huge. So now, you know, these creators who got big in 2020, built millions of followers and have great engagement, they're they're not dumb, right? They're recognizing I have ah business and it in myself, which is if I can go and market different products as an affiliate, I basically become a digital marketer. I can find a product that I like on TikTok's affiliate network and I can go out and promote it and get a kickback on everything that I sell.

11:00.11
Alex Rossman
So we're seeing a lot more of that, which is, you know, how do we kind of turn my hobby, turn my influence into something that is revenue generating? I'm not saying that's all what it is. I think TikTok still is a very, compared to other social channels, very authentic. You you got people on that channel that are just pulling up their phone and they're shooting content raw, it's not overproduced.

11:23.90
Alex Rossman
Sometimes they're talking for minutes, if not even hours on the platform, just directly to their audience. It's kind of become you know a lot of you know younger kids kind of safe space in many ways, and that's how they're finding new products. But we're we're definitely seeing you know a shift in terms of age demographic, which is now starting to change kind of the the behavior of the app.

11:48.30
Alex Rossman
and And I think brands, TikTok itself is is taking note of that and making the appropriate changes.

11:56.40
Scott Austin
Yeah, now, I actually think that, because I think it's over-commercialized at the moment, and I may be wrong in that. And I think if it is, I don't think that's the end of it. I think they'll just they'll adjust the algorithm.

12:06.88
Scott Austin
and These platforms are really, really smart.

12:07.99
Alex Rossman
Yep.

12:08.48
Scott Austin
i remember you a couple of times where Facebook went in a couple of directions where they went too far in certain things and just were really smart and looked at the metrics and and reeled it back.

12:12.13
Alex Rossman
Yep.

12:17.24
Scott Austin
Now, you mentioned a moment ago the TikTok affiliate program.

12:17.68
Alex Rossman
For sure.

12:21.96
Scott Austin
I had not heard of that.

12:22.21
Alex Rossman
Yeah.

12:23.04
Scott Austin
Can you explain that one for me a little bit?

12:26.04
Alex Rossman
Yeah. So TikTok launched an affiliate program where if you're ah you're a business, you can now tap into this affiliate network, which is you know hundreds of thousands, if not at this point, millions of creators that have signed up as an affiliate.

12:42.94
Alex Rossman
They have to meet certain parameters. to basically go and market products that are available. So yeah affiliates are able to kind of choose the products that that they promote. Same with the brand. They can basically go out to the entire affiliate network and and promote their products.

12:58.99
Alex Rossman
um So just as you would think of any affiliate network, TikTok has now kind of tapped into their existing creator network and turn it into affiliates. um And it's, you know, I would say probably it's early infancy, but it's,

13:13.20
Alex Rossman
progressing pretty quickly. You're starting to see a lot of brands who are thinking to themselves, okay, i used to do these micro-influencer campaigns where I'd send a ton of product out to hundreds of influencers, you know, maybe one or two hit.

13:27.50
Alex Rossman
With affiliates, it's a little bit of a different mindset, which is, you know, these are kind of my my boots on the ground, foot soldiers that are going to go and and market my product and they're incentivized truly to get a result from their their efforts, right? Not just a pay per post, but you know if they're posting regularly, I mean, they could post maybe once a week, twice a week. Some of them are posting every day about a product.

13:51.48
Alex Rossman
And to your point, that's where it becomes a bit more commercial. you know We're starting to see a bit of that. It it will be interesting how TikTok adjusts because you know People don't go on social media just to be sold all the time.

14:05.09
Alex Rossman
So I think it is about finding that balance, but with affiliates, they are incentivized really to promote these products and get some sort of kickback. And that can be done also through you know whitelisting where a brand can work directly with a creator and run ads through the creators page instead of the brand. So that now that comes across a bit more authentic because you know if I'm scrolling and I see you you know a brand ad versus a creator ad, more often than not, I'm gonna click on the creator because it's a person buying from a person versus a person buying from a brand. And so we do see, particularly on TikTok, that being effective.

14:44.44
Alex Rossman
So it plays into that that kind of behavior.

14:47.74
Scott Austin
Yeah, i I am nothing but impressed by the the top quality content creators, just how amazing they are. And, you know it's a skill and a trade that they they've worked really hard and they they hustle and and can totally add value to the content creation for any brand from what I've seen.

14:55.30
Alex Rossman
Yeah.

15:03.66
Alex Rossman
Yeah. And they know their audience, too. And I always tell brands and and really this is for your audience, too. If you're thinking about working with creators on TikTok, which, you know, depending on your industry, I would fully recommend.

15:17.94
Alex Rossman
You know, make sure that you're allowing the influencer or the creator to have the autonomy to to create how they normally would create their videos. Where I see things really fall short is when a brand tries to control the creator into kind of fitting into their world where it's like, hey, we're going to send you a product.

15:38.37
Alex Rossman
You know, here's the do's and don'ts. We want you to say this. We don't want you to say this. Instead, say, hey, we like your, you know, be intentional. Find the influencer that you you think really represents your brand and product and let them do their thing because these creators know their audience. They know what they're going to click on. They know what they're going to engage with.

15:59.60
Alex Rossman
So the worst thing you can do is try to, you know, direct them into creative that really doesn't feel authentic. And that's where we see efficiency, particularly when you're running ads, or you are working with influencers, you know, where that efficiency kind of falls short.

16:14.67
Scott Austin
So their judgment is one of the value adds that they're providing as part of their services.

16:18.61
Alex Rossman
Absolutely.

16:19.96
Scott Austin
Now, in TikTok Shop, you know, there's, you know, millions and millions of Shopify stores. My guess is there's probably three million of them now out there. um Is there any sort of profile of brands that TikTok Shop is a no-brainer for?

16:33.12
Scott Austin
And the exact opposite is, are there brands that it's a no-brainer? They should not be on TikTok.

16:39.71
Alex Rossman
That's a great question. You know, it's so funny. We've seen so many different types of products on TikTok that work, some that you just wouldn't think would work that do. And and so my recommendation, and this is probably a a pretty broad stroke here, is, you know, if you have a product, you know, that's anything, you know, let's say $250 and fifty dollars an under,

17:06.43
Alex Rossman
i would I would test out TikTok Shop. I really would. it It doesn't hurt to have another revenue channel and really test it. um We have seen products, you know one that's a you know now one of the top brands on TikTok Shop, which is a supplement brand, which we actually help from ground zero to get to where they are today. They're, I think, top three in terms of revenue generated on the shop.

17:32.91
Alex Rossman
It's a supplement brand, right? So their you know price point ranges anywhere from $9.99 to, you know if you get a full pack, $100, right? And so that price point seems to do well, but really what it comes down to is the content that's driving people to that page.

17:51.21
Alex Rossman
So my recommendation is get on TikTok Shop, you know you know promote the product through you know content that's authentic. you know if If you're the owner, I recommend just getting in front of the camera and selling it yourself. Like I said, the the days of kind of the infomercial are back in a way that's authentic because again, you're you're selling to your audience from business owner to the end consumer. You have that direct connection, which you really haven't had you know, until, you know, the QVC kind of infomercial days. So really any product I would test um that's under 250, anything above that, we do see that the the cost to acquire a new customer, you know, can be can be tough.

18:38.01
Alex Rossman
um you know Typically, you're so you're still seeing folks on the on the channel that you are looking for reasonably priced items, you know cheaper items, ah you know ones that might have some virality. right There was a lip balm that went crazy right when TikTok shop launched and you know they sold out of their product overnight because you know one of the pieces of content that the business owner did went viral. right So it's it never hurts.

19:04.80
Alex Rossman
you know Another great example is... you know We had a ah client that created basically a like a makeup bag. So it expands. Let's say you're traveling. It expands and opens up like a trade. I'll throw it out. It's Blade Tray. It's the name of the company.

19:21.65
Alex Rossman
And when she went to go launch, what was really cool about this is that she found different niche categories of her customer that she didn't think were there. So like for example, she was like, you know I think my audience is going to be you know younger women who travel a lot, maybe they're travel bloggers.

19:39.62
Alex Rossman
What she ended up finding out is these gamers were buying her product and putting all of their their gaming stuff, I'm not a gamer if you can't tell, ah like in her product. And they were the ones that were using and buying the product. So it's always good to test see what works, see what doesn't. But I totally recommend if you're a small business on Shopify, get on TikTok shop, check it out.

20:06.82
Alex Rossman
ah It never hurts. and And more often than not, what we're seeing is it's a really happy surprise that you know you end up doing very well on the channel because something takes off. ah Also start with your top performing or your your your best sellers in terms of your product and SKUs. So, you know, I always recommend to kind of start with not your whole catalog, but, you know, maybe some select products that you know, you know, would be suitable for TikTok. So if you do have, let's say a, you know, $250 product, and then you have a $10 product, start with the $10 product and and go from there.

20:48.26
Scott Austin
So I'm gonna have to jump on my soapbox for a second, cause you said something that I totally agree with and I just wanna scream at my audience about this, right?

20:48.88
Alex Rossman
What action is?

20:56.40
Scott Austin
Cause have problem with all my clients and that is, you know, most of the clients that I work with, i would say half of them, yeah know, I always tell them I want an about page and I want pictures of every single person on your team.

21:08.33
Scott Austin
And I want you to film a video where you talk to your audience, right? That's just to start. And we're gonna go from there, right? And half of them are like, oh, i don't like my photo taken. i don't want my video up there. And I tell them flat out, like, then you're not going to be as successful, right?

21:23.06
Scott Austin
and And I love the way you said it, where it's like, just just make a video. Just shut up. Stop complaining. and Stop whining. Just shoot the damn thing. You should be embarrassed by it. That's okay. Everybody's first video on TikTok is dumb.

21:37.76
Scott Austin
Just do it and just start getting comfortable with it.

21:37.83
Alex Rossman
yeah Totally.

21:40.12
Scott Austin
Because what you have that no influencer is going to have is the authenticity of the passion behind your brand. And influencers are great. Absolutely love them.

21:49.16
Alex Rossman
Totally.

21:50.28
Scott Austin
But they're not going to get the same level... of audience and they're not gonna help you build your brand for as long as you're gonna help you build your brand for.

21:57.01
Alex Rossman
hundred percent I love the, I mean, music to my ears too, because I share that with our clients as well, specifically specifically the ones that are the face of the brand or or really created and was the inventor of the product.

22:10.17
Alex Rossman
So I love that you said that everyone overthinks things. um you know I would say Gen Z is you know a great example. They come in, they can take out their phone, they just shoot everything in they in just raw format and they get it out there. They don't you know rewatch it, they just they post it.

22:27.08
Alex Rossman
And it's for like my generation, a little bit more challenging to do that because you you know you want to kind of scrutinize everything. Do I sound right? Do i look right? Am I saying the right things?

22:38.80
Alex Rossman
But the reality is on TikTok, what they've kind of done to culture and kind of consumer behavior is, like you said, the authenticity of a business owner talking about their product.

22:51.89
Alex Rossman
And sometimes, like I said, even, you know, it started with short form content. Now you have creators and business owners who are talking on camera for sometimes and hour, two hours to their audience in these TikTok lives and they're building genuine connections.

23:07.45
Alex Rossman
So I couldn't agree more with you. i think that everyone should get, and I'm not always great at this because I get sucked into work stuff and it's sometimes hard to find the time.

23:18.51
Alex Rossman
But I would just say anytime you have something that comes up, get in front of a camera. try to get it out there on TikTok in real time. And sometimes what's even good is batch create content. So like maybe once a month, you block off a couple hours, come up with different concepts that you can shoot and and try to get it all cranked out. And like, you know, sometimes that that does work, you know, it's just kind of batch creating content, getting into a rhythm and cadence of posting more regular on the channel. That's something we see a ton of is, you know, the business owners that are posting more regularly,

23:53.88
Alex Rossman
you know It's sometimes easier said than done, but you know one time a day on the channel versus one that's maybe posting you know one every couple of weeks or one every month, huge difference in terms of engagement and and just overall purchase orders, everything. So just something to think about, but i just I want to give you credit to what you just said because it's something that I harp on too with my clients is You know, get in front of that camera. It may not feel great, but but just do it and be yourself as much as you can as well. I know in front of a camera, you sometimes shift, but try to let your guard down and and just be you.

24:30.16
Scott Austin
Yeah, and and I would add to that, because you you kind of alluded to it, right, of the quality bar and how the you know different generations can just do it kind of thing. The way I explain it to people is the more signals your content sends to ah the consumer, the more forgiving you can be of imperfections, right? So think about in three buckets.

24:47.30
Scott Austin
You've got words, photos, and video, right? Words have the least amount of signals. It's just the text. So the text has to be more perfect.

24:53.35
Alex Rossman
Right.

24:55.30
Scott Austin
If you're doing spelling errors or grammatical errors and you know capitalization, people are less forgiving of them because they have no other signal to judge you by. In a photo, you've got you know ah the visual signal, but it's just one still image.

25:04.12
Alex Rossman
Yep.

25:07.89
Scott Austin
So it's a little more forgiving. It doesn't have to be as perfect as your words. And then video, you've got all sorts of signals, right? You've got the motion, the video, the audio and all that stuff.

25:15.63
Alex Rossman
Yep.

25:17.40
Scott Austin
And a lot of people are now putting subtitles across the bottom. So you've got three or four different you know inputs coming into the consumer at the same time, which means anything can be wrong.

25:25.41
Alex Rossman
Yeah.

25:26.50
Scott Austin
So if you're miss saying a word, but the subtitle has it said properly or spelled properly, it's all good. Video is super, super forgiving because it's giving so much information to the consumer.

25:34.29
Alex Rossman
Exactly right.

25:40.04
Alex Rossman
Perfectly said.

25:41.78
Scott Austin
All right, now we're going to move on to you've sold everybody. They want this TikTok shop thing. They've got a Shopify store. How do they connect the two?

25:52.13
Alex Rossman
Yeah, that's the ah you know that's the part that you're going to want to probably bring in unless you're building out the Shopify store yourself and you're the technical person behind the brand as well, which a lot of people are.

26:04.48
Alex Rossman
ah TikTok has actually made it pretty easy. So for a while there, it was pretty challenging, honestly, um to connect the two. It wasn't you know sometimes reading between Shopify and TikTok.

26:16.64
Alex Rossman
But it has gotten a lot better. it's It's almost as simple now as how it used to be where there's a button for TikTok shop. You can correct you know connect directly by putting in your username and password or your business ID or identifier, and and then you're you're done. I mean, it's it's really that simple. So it's it's gotten a lot better.

26:36.16
Alex Rossman
um You know, some of the things that you have to be kind of weary of or at least have some checks and balances on early on is returns and how those connect, because sometimes certain orders will go through some you know, if there's a return, you know, there's, you know, some issues and things that they're still working through.

26:53.51
Alex Rossman
But in terms of integrating, it's ah it's pretty seamless now. So TikTok shop now has its really its own app within Shopify that you can integrate and you're up and running.

27:04.99
Alex Rossman
um So basically what it does is the API pulls your entire catalog or select few, which again, I recommend to kind of pick and choose the SKUs that you want on TikTok shop. And then that pulls everything into into TikTok shop.

27:18.88
Alex Rossman
um What's great now is also once you're on the platform, and you have some momentum going, if somebody lands on your business page on TikTok, the first thing that they will see is the TikTok shop page versus your feed.

27:34.40
Alex Rossman
So they're starting to kind of prioritize TikTok shop in terms of the first thing that people see, um which is, again, making it easy for people if they see a video, you know they see piece of content from an influencer to be redirected back to shop and have a you know very easy user experience.

27:52.88
Alex Rossman
So um Yeah, and that's it. And if you have any questions on you know how to do it, we're happy to help you as well. But you know once you're up and running, you know it's really all about consistency of posting.

28:05.01
Alex Rossman
it's you know We highly recommend running Spark ads directly to shop, which is basically like a boosted post. So every time you're posting, put some dollars behind it if you can, even if it's as little as 15, 20 bucks.

28:18.44
Alex Rossman
ah And particularly the ones, you the content that performs well organically is always going to perform well as an ad. So just you know kind of the rule of thumb, if you have a ah post that you know has 5,000 views versus one that you know has a couple hundred views, always prioritize the one with more views in terms of you know putting ad dollars behind it, because that will you know typically perform a lot better.

28:43.22
Alex Rossman
So that's really the kind of the 101 of getting it set up. But again, Shopify and TikTok now speak really well together. ah Very easy. So

28:52.70
Scott Austin
So you you go into the app store, you add the TikTok online sales channel or sales channel, and then and it's just like the Google one, you know, where a few years ago, getting your products into Google merchant was a nightmare.

28:58.06
Alex Rossman
that's exactly right.

29:04.67
Scott Austin
And now the app just takes care of it all for You don't have to think about it anymore, which is really, really nice.

29:09.83
Alex Rossman
it It really is.

29:10.19
Scott Austin
ah

29:10.95
Alex Rossman
Like it it was for a while there. It was we had a lot of brands that were coming to us just so frustrated with how do we get on there and how do we make sure that all of our products are over there. And so it just.

29:22.74
Alex Rossman
Yeah, became, you know, ah kind of a sticky point, but now it's gotten a lot, a lot easier. So yeah, just basically you're going install the TikTok sales channel in Shopify, connect your TikTok business. Again, you'll have kind of your business ID and then you're you're good to go. It'll sync all the products. It'll sync all your inventory.

29:42.67
Alex Rossman
um And then you're off to the races.

29:45.34
Scott Austin
Does TikTok handle accounts better where there's a business and in users underneath that business better than Facebook does? Because I think Facebook business is a f freaking nightmare to manage. Does TikTok do a good job at that or is it still a pain?

29:56.57
Alex Rossman
or For business ads manager, are you talking about, or for what specific?

30:01.67
Scott Austin
Well, in TikTok, I assume you're creating a store entity or a business entity for your account. And then you're going to have people that have access to that as individual users.

30:06.89
Alex Rossman
Correct.

30:10.23
Scott Austin
is that Is that easy to manage inside of the TikTok tools?

30:10.62
Alex Rossman
Yep. I think it is. you know I think everybody you know has a different level of technical ability, but i it's it's better than meta, I would say at that.

30:15.19
Scott Austin
Okay.

30:23.58
Scott Austin
Yeah, because like I said, I, you know, can't, you know, cannot swear enough at Mark Zuckerberg about how awful that experience is.

30:23.96
Alex Rossman
It is. Yeah. Yeah.

30:30.97
Scott Austin
So

30:31.94
Alex Rossman
I agree.

30:32.37
Scott Austin
so in In the world of TikTok Shop, once you've connected the Shopify store, how does the transaction work? Who is the credit card processor? How does the money flow? How do orders, how does the store get notified of orders? How do they get filled? How does the consumer get notified of the fulfillment and the the delivery details and all that kind of stuff?

30:52.03
Alex Rossman
Yeah. so I mean, there's, ah you know, starting with, if I was just to look at you know, the the processor, you know, it's directly through TikTok. So, I mean, you know, again, they have kind of their own, you know, partners on that front, but everything is direct there.

31:07.71
Alex Rossman
you know If you are you know purchasing something through TikTok Shop, you know the the business is being notified of that purchase both in-app as well as in Shopify. Everything, like I said, is synced over there.

31:22.58
Alex Rossman
ah You know, the, like I said, inventory is all synced. There is a split between TikTok and the advertiser or the the business.

31:34.25
Alex Rossman
And, you know, I got it. They keep changing it. I honestly have to go see what it's, if it seems like changing by the day, but there is a split there. So there is a kind of transaction fee that TikTok takes.

31:48.37
Alex Rossman
um They've been running some deals. you know If you're a new ah you know advertiser, a new business owner on TikTok shop, they they do have kind of an interim period where basically you're you're collecting the entire profits of each ah product sold.

32:06.02
Alex Rossman
So you know they go in and out of that really to incentivize new businesses on the platform. But yeah, it's you know at this stage, really it's a one-click business.

32:16.48
Alex Rossman
you know, pixel integration yeah and you're getting all of that fed into both TikTok and Shopify. would say TikTok's, you know, dashboard from an e-commerce standpoint is is ever changing. So, you know, again, you're probably going to see better insights directly through Shopify.

32:36.20
Alex Rossman
um But again, it does give you kind of, you know, back of the envelope data points that, you know, can be helpful. ah But, yeah, Yeah.

32:46.36
Alex Rossman
Did I answer all the questions?

32:48.13
Scott Austin
No, there's one more. So when an order is placed, where does that order come?

32:49.49
Alex Rossman
yeah

32:53.49
Scott Austin
How does the store owner get notified that an order has been placed? And who is managing the communications to the customer on order confirmation and delivery and those kinds of things?

33:05.45
Alex Rossman
Yeah, great question. So the notification, just as any purchase would, would go through Shopify. So you would, you know, or whoever your 3PL is or, you know, all of that is run directly.

33:18.49
Alex Rossman
Now, in terms of, I think your other question was, you know communication with the customers, you know that's on the brand, obviously, to do that. And that can be done both you know in-app within TikTok, can also be done via Shopify through the TikTok channel there.

33:36.44
Alex Rossman
um So all of that communication, you know really what they're trying to do is silo that all into the TikTok channel to make kind of a seamless you know user experience. But it's really a lot of the same workflow in terms of how you'd receive receive an order direct through Shopify.

33:52.67
Scott Austin
Yep, makes sense. So you've already talked about a few of these, as you've been talking through this, but can you like just summarize, like, what are some best practices that everybody should try to see if it works for their brand? What what are the must do's when you're first starting out?

34:09.23
Alex Rossman
um You know, I would say... If you're just starting out on TikTok shop, there's probably three things that that I would do. First is I would start creating content religiously. I would really, you know, you can use ChatGPT, you can use a lot of different tools to just come up with ideas to create content, right? Different concepts, some that, you know, TikTok is still a channel all built around recycling viral content.

34:38.34
Alex Rossman
So see what's trending on there, whether it's trending audio, other video trends, you know apply that in your own way, your own personality, but just start creating content that's directing people back to your page.

34:50.94
Alex Rossman
It's the best thing you can do. um The second is start running some some ads back to TikTok shop. So once you're on the platform, start running some Spark ads, start directing that traffic back to TikTok shop.

35:05.60
Alex Rossman
That will grow over time. The more data you're able to kind of collect, even with a small spend, the better, because then anytime you have a new product launch, you can retarget that audience.

35:16.14
Alex Rossman
You can scale it up and really start using this channel as a revenue generating channel, which it historically hasn't been. I mean, it's been very top of funnel. It's been a channel that's all about just getting cheap eyeballs that fill the rest of the funnel.

35:31.48
Alex Rossman
Now TikTok Shop is really a viable revenue channel. So again, I would just start spending some dollars on the channel, even if it's small amount, it just gets people to your store.

35:42.71
Alex Rossman
Unfortunately, you know we've kind of moved away from the wild west of TikTok where you know you post 10 videos and at least one of them is gonna go viral organically. It's starting to become more of a pay to play platform, just as Meta did.

35:56.38
Alex Rossman
So you just you have to take that into consideration as well. um Doesn't mean you can't have viral moments, but it is something that to combat that, start running ads. ah Third would be just starting to connect with other creators and affiliates on the platform. So if there's creators that you're saying, hey, they would be great to collaborate with. They have the they have my audience.

36:20.49
Alex Rossman
Go create a and just an authentic conversation with them. Say, hey, I have this product. Would love to work with you. Sometimes that just kind of direct one-on-one communication with these creators is a great way to get started and say, hey, I'll send you some product.

36:35.44
Alex Rossman
you know, you post and you'd be surprised, you know, there are a lot of brands that are very small that have just built great relationships with creators and affiliates. And so if you can have kind of a, you know, build your own little street team to go out and, you know, promote your product, I,

36:51.30
Alex Rossman
I think that's a ah great way to get started. So kind of in summary, first is create content at scale, get into a position where you're creating new content weekly if you can.

37:02.71
Alex Rossman
you know Second is start running Spark ads or even take it a step further and run full scale you know ads on TikTok. And then third is start connecting with the very large content creator network on TikTok. And there's been also a really big expansion within different categories of creators. So now you can see you're going after health and wellness creators, there's a full you know kind of community there.

37:28.28
Alex Rossman
If you're going after supplement brands, if you're going after you know hobbyists, I mean, there's just so many different categories, but that would be kind of the top three that I would focus on when you're just getting started.

37:43.38
Scott Austin
So I like that. And I want to double down or double click on the first one of create create some video religiously. And I like the fact that you followed up religiously with once a week, which I think that's a good frequency um to for people to get started out at.

37:58.82
Alex Rossman
Yeah. Yep.

37:59.41
Scott Austin
Let's just explain a little bit around getting people over that inhibition. How long should that first video they should do? Let's just say going to one of themselves talking about their favorite product, which is their $10 impulse buy product that they're going to be promoting following your best practices from before.

38:12.40
Alex Rossman
yep

38:14.76
Scott Austin
What does that video look like? How long should it take for them to edit it? What level of editing should they do? you know, is it, are we shooting a 30 second video and we're going to work on it for five hours? are We shooting a 30 second video, going to on it for five minutes.

38:28.72
Alex Rossman
Yeah, it's a great question. So just getting started, best thing you can do in terms of getting new eyeballs onto your page is go find, literally you can go on the For You page, you can look up the trends directly within TikTok, find out where there's a lot of traction on TikTok.

38:52.55
Alex Rossman
and piggyback off of that. So literally go find 10 different trending concepts that are going on right now, trending audio, you know other influencers that are creating a trend, whatever it is that is applicable to you. I mean, lot what a lot of brands do is they take something and then they spin it in their own way.

39:12.16
Alex Rossman
right So it doesn't have to be like you're exactly copying, but you're taking something that already has traction and you're piggybacking off of that. So my recommendation is just go find that viral content and start there.

39:26.75
Alex Rossman
then you can start adding a bit more of your own personality, a bit more of your own touch once you have a captive audience. Because without it, you're kind of just, you know, sometimes talking to no one. yeah TikTok kind of about relevance. And if you can take advantage of what's already there, TikTok's algorithm favors it.

39:44.80
Alex Rossman
So great way to get started is just take an existing trend, spin it in your own way and and start there. And that's honestly an easier way to do it, less having to focus on editing, coming up with new ideas, things like that. You can really kind of piggyback off of what's already there.

40:03.11
Alex Rossman
And then from there, you can expand, come up with different content pillars, different themes. you know A lot of brands, what we'll see is kind of they do a series you know where it drives people back to the page because they know you know that brand is going to drop something new maybe every week, every couple weeks.

40:19.22
Alex Rossman
So creating some consistency along the way is important, but I think that's a great way to get started. Low lift, not a ton of time editing, um and you can really focus on you know what's going to drive the most impact, which is you know you want eyeballs to your page, and that's the best way to do it It

40:35.20
Scott Austin
Yeah, my five-second summary what you just said is this is a platform of copycats, and it's okay to copycat. So go ahead and copy to get started because, you know, you don't know what to do yet.

40:43.86
Alex Rossman
is.

40:44.73
Scott Austin
Just go copy somebody and figure it out from there.

40:47.35
Alex Rossman
It is. Yeah.

40:48.26
Scott Austin
And I love that.

40:48.69
Alex Rossman
And the only part that is not copycatting is your product, which is the best part of this whole thing, right? So you're taking something that you are copycatting for sure, but then people land on it.

40:53.80
Scott Austin
Yep. Yep.

40:58.33
Alex Rossman
And the unique part is what you're selling or or who you are. And so that's, you know, that's the differentiator that's going to get people locked into what you do versus just the, you know, the rest of the influencers and creator network doing the same thing.

41:13.44
Scott Austin
Yep. Now, um you gave us three great best practices. How about a few don't do these worst practices?

41:20.86
Alex Rossman
Thank you.

41:21.47
Scott Austin
What should you not be doing when you first get started on TikTok?

41:25.24
Alex Rossman
you know TikTok doesn't have a lot of rigid rules. That's the one thing I've learned is that the things that you think are going to work ah don't work. And the things that don't work are the things that you thought would work. So it's just a, it's just a you've got to just test. um you know I would say that ah the things you don't want to do is overproduce your content.

41:50.38
Alex Rossman
I see that mistake sometimes where brands get really hyper-focused on perfection. ah you know So your typical maybe 2016 video that was really polished, it looked great on your Instagram feed, is not gonna be the same thing that's gonna resonate on TikTok.

42:09.73
Alex Rossman
So I would just, I try to stay away from overly produced commercial type content because it just doesn't do well. And we spent a lot of time split testing that.

42:21.31
Alex Rossman
And it's, you know, you'll put a 30 second super polished video concept against one that candidly, you know, the production quality is shit. It's, you know, there's there's not a lot of, you know ah you know, great post-production edit there. It's just...

42:39.42
Alex Rossman
It's relevant to what we were talking about. We're using a trending audio in the background. So strive not really for perfection. Focus on consistency, volume, that kind of stuff first, because, you know, again, it's just, it's not going to resonate with that audience.

42:58.48
Scott Austin
That makes a lot of sense. I like that. um I love all the feedback you've you've given here so far. I really appreciate it. Is there anything that you want the Shopify store owner audience that we're talking to, to know that we haven't covered?

43:05.55
Alex Rossman
Sure. Sure.

43:14.76
Alex Rossman
um You know, I really wouldn't add... any new kind of tips and tricks, you know I would just kind of leave you with something more general, but you know we've had the honor of you know working with a lot of small businesses, you know just getting started, you know hobbyists that have created a product and moved it through the funnel and have really scaled up in a really big way.

43:39.81
Alex Rossman
So you know I would just say, you know TikTok is great for that. and And it's really interesting because you know you see these big brands trying to kind of get into the TikTok world and they're having a tough time doing it because it's Shopify store owners like you guys that are really disrupting the space. So you know again, I'm just going to hit it home with a general ah you know kind of piece of knowledge here, which is this is the platform for small business right now.

44:12.34
Alex Rossman
Take advantage of it while it's here. We, you know, it's ah it's a really volatile platform that with a lot of, you know, noise around it, but just take advantage of it. You know, also outside of TikTok, look at YouTube shorts, look at taking the video content that you're posting on TikTok and applying it to other channels, because you have to think more holistically as well.

44:33.56
Alex Rossman
TikTok is kind of one spoke in the wheel among the entire, you know, kind of social commerce industry. you know, network. So just whatever you're doing on TikTok, there's always ways to kind of cross promote that on other channels as well. So don't also get locked into just one channel, try to diversify.

44:51.55
Alex Rossman
But again, this is, this is really the channel for you guys. And I hope that everybody crushes it and here to support where I can as well. And and even just be a sounding board. If any of you guys have ah any questions.

45:04.42
Scott Austin
Excellent. Great, great last words. If ah people want to get in touch with you or your agency, how can they go ahead and do that?

45:11.66
Alex Rossman
So you can go to RossmanMedia.com. You can contact us there. You can also go to, I'd probably say that's probably the best place. You can also hit me up directly, Alex at RossmanMedia.com. I'm more than open to answer any questions via email.

45:27.16
Alex Rossman
I love talking with other entrepreneurs that you know are building something great. So again, always happy to be a sounding board, but RossmanMedia.com or my email, Alex at RossmanMedia.com if you want to have a conversation.

45:40.63
Scott Austin
Alex, thanks for your time and wisdom today.

45:42.08
Alex Rossman
Of course.