“I’m almost forty years old, and running TikTok this time is the longest time I’ve been excited about starting a business,” said Michael, the owner of the makeup brand YOUNG VISION.

TikTok, which has gathered 1 billion monthly active users, has been attracting attention. Driven by high traffic, TikTokShop has already delivered good results from brands such as CIDER, Patpat, and BloomChic. The opportunities of making money and new brand opportunities behind it have given Michael and other cross-border e-commerce practitioners hope.

On the other side of the high hopes, noise has also begun to appear around TikTokShop. Some people no longer insist, some people start to withdraw, and some people question whether the live broadcast e-commerce model can work overseas? There are also people standing outside the door to see if they want to come in?

Which sellers are TikTokShop suitable for? We interviewed four small and medium-sized sellers of different categories and stages. They were the first batch of sellers who boldly practiced and innovated in TikTokShop. They were also full of confusion and doubts, but after continuous trials and adjustments, they finally achieved some results. . If you are just starting to run TikTokShop, or are still on the sidelines, you might as well read their stories, which may give you some inspiration.

From losses to $5,000 in a single game, how does this factory counterattack with products?

Jake is the head of Lovvel, a clothing factory in Panyu District, Guangzhou. Like other garment factories in the industrial park, they have opened Amazon’s US station and are also one of the supply chains of the well-known e-commerce clothing brand SHEIN.

In December 2021, like other merchants, Jake, who wanted to enter the game early to seize the platform’s bonus period, began to deploy TiKTok Shop. Originally full of confidence, he found that the road was not easy. In mid-April, Jake, who was still struggling on the profit and loss line, happened to see the official announcement of the Easter focused live broadcast room battle report, and a short message about “Muslim clothing” aroused his interest. The single product sales growth rate of 673% and the order growth rate of 450% made Jake’s eyes shine. With little experience in the field and confidence in his own factory, Jake decided to give it a try. The thinking behind this is: “Fashion clothing is highly competitive; ethnic clothing is in high demand during Hari Raya.”

Sure enough, in the peak season of Ramadan, in less than 10 days, the sales of Lovvel’s third live broadcast exceeded 2,000 dollars, and the fourth game achieved sales of nearly 5,000 dollars. For a small team of 5 people, it is a very good result. The reason for the resumption of the counterattack, Jake said that the effect of ” people selling products” is obvious. The product quality is good and the cost is controllable, and Lovvel’s pricing is also relatively extreme cost-effective. Their current product is a Muslim robe with breathable fabric that can be worn on multiple occasions. “You can wear it at home, you can also go shopping, you can go to the mosque to worship, and it has a certain universality and can be more popular” is the experience that Lovvel has explored. They are still designing and testing new styles, with 1-2 new styles every week. For apparel sellers, this frequency is not high. “We hope to select a little bit carefully, and concentrate the traffic of the live shopping to products with better conversion. In the future, we will continue to follow the strategy of explosion models and continue to expand new SKUs.”

At present, Lovvel broadcasts almost every day, 2-3 hours each time, and the live broadcast contributes more than 60% of the income. In good times, it can reach 70% to 80%. Lovvel’s repurchase rate is very high, and the ratio of old customers to new customers is about 1:1. “Because the quality is good, the return rate will be low, and customers will buy it again.” Jake is confident in the quality of the product.

In addition to products, Lovvel also attaches great importance to “services”. For the highly competitive long-tail products such as clothing, the first is to improve the quality to satisfy customers; the second is to attach importance to “after-sales service” to give buyers the best return and exchange experience; it also greatly improves customer repurchase and loyalty.

At present, the Lovvel team is more worried about logistics and performance issues. “After the popular of products, the factory is too busy to pack and ship.” However, recently, TikTok e-commerce has set up a stocking warehouse in Guangdong, and Jake is ready to stock up the explosives. With the stocking warehouse, 24-hour fast delivery can be achieved, and the cross-border direct delivery time is expected to be shortened by 3-5 days, which is good news for both buyers and sellers. Referring to the basic capabilities that the platform is building, Lovvel expressed his belief that there will be substantial improvements in the future, and “the real dividend period may not yet come.”

After the peak season of Ramadan, the sales of Muslim clothing have a natural decline. When asked if you are worried, will you still focus on this category in the future? Lovvel said that other categories will not be considered for the time being, because it is doing business with old customers. “Our repurchase rate is very high. In the future, we will pay more attention to attracting new customers and repurchasing old customers. We still have to continue to do a good job in quality.” Jake said.

In April this year, TikTok’s cross-border e-commerce has opened four countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It is reported that the Singapore market will also be launched in the near future. In the next step, Lovvel plans to follow the platform and expand into new areas. “We hope to walk with TikTok, and one day the whole world can buy and sell things on TikTok. Then we believe that our business is also very open, and the spread is very large.”

According to data from eMarketer, the growth rate of e-commerce in Southeast Asia will exceed 20% in 2022. The Southeast Asian market, with a population of over 630 million, has always attracted attention, and apparel has always been one of the hottest categories in the Southeast Asian market. The Muslim population of Southeast Asia is about 260 million, accounting for more than 42% of the total population, and the market size of Muslim clothing exceeds 20 billion US dollars. In addition, the number of TikTok downloads in Southeast Asia is as high as 360 million, and half of the downloads are from users under the age of 30. When young and early adopters encounter a platform like TikTok that accurately matches their interests with content, for sellers like Lovvel, It is undoubtedly a blue ocean with unlimited potential.

The formula of popular products for trade sellers: popular items = selection + supply chain + content

If it is lucky to find an popular product, then finding the right explosive product in a row must be the strength. Sellers who pay attention to TikTok’s products may have the impression that since January, the British market has continuously sold items such as curling irons, fascia guns, humidifiers, and floral dresses. Behind these popular items, there is a common promoter-Yitao House.

If you summarize the development path of Yitao House in one sentence: it is a typical business that relies on selection to break through.

Yitao House, which is backed by Shenzhen’s industrial belt, has been an Amazon and an independent station before. As early as May 2021, Yitao began to make short videos on TikTok, and entered TikTokshop as the first batch of early adopters in June last year. When it first entered TikTok Shop, Yitao’s sales performance was not satisfactory. But they didn’t give up. “Rather trial and error than miss, try while you do” – Lynn, head of TikTok at Yitao House, described their mentality.

” Douyin has a big outbreak after the epidemic. We believe that TikTok will also have a similar growth path, and hope to deploy and enter the market in advance.” In terms of product selection, Yitao House’s experience is “make choices horizontally and dig vertically. “.

Lynn believes that “TikTok is a new track. With the team’s product and product selection capabilities, Yitao has no restrictions on categories. It can always find a feasible model while trying it out.” The “curling iron” was the first product that Yitao found. Looking back on the choices at the time, the Yitao team and the TikTok industry manager had some “coincidences”. At that time, the TikTok industry manager found that curling irons were selling well in traditional e-commerce shelves and had great growth potential. Combined with the data of the TikTok platform, British consumers have strong demand for hair care and hairdressing, and curling irons are in the top 3C category. As it happens, Yitao’s product development team also noticed the curling iron and found a source. The products that meet the needs and have cost-effective advantages have greatly increased Yitao’s confidence.

The real outbreak of Yitao was when he met a person. British local talent Luke is a buyer. His daily content is mainly based on evaluation and unpacking, and he has strong product display attributes. Funny and humorous, he has amassed 360,000 followers, 65% of whom are women. He is also very characteristic – with long blond hair. In a video showing the curling iron, Luke skillfully picked up the curling iron, clipped the end of the hair into the curling iron, easily pressed the button, and released it after a few beeps, and the original straight hair became curls. Strong before-and-after comparison, simple and efficient explanation of product functions, also brought great visual impact to fans, coupled with Luke’s funny and surprised expression, many fans left a message in the comment area ” I need it” .

“Actually, we didn’t expect that Talent videos would explode.” Lynn concluded: “The product was originally good, coupled with the accuracy and stickiness of Talent fans, it has a certain fan effect and appeal. When people and goods are matched, then After short video dissemination, the explosiveness is very strong.”

Talent is very good at content creation, making good use of Talent, merchants with a strong supply chain like Yitao can make use of their strengths and avoid weaknesses, and give full play to the advantages of product selection. At present, they have established a two-person talent business team. Recently, they collaborated with another celebrity to sell a floral dress. In the past May, Yitao’s highest single-day GMV was nearly 40,000 pounds, and 88% of the monthly GMV contribution came from alliance experts.

After betting on several popular products in a row, Yitao House is also reflecting on and reviewing the growth of the store. Lynn said that he felt that Yitao’s own short videos did not do well. “If you can change a decision in the past, you will definitely cultivate a short video team in advance.” Use short videos to accumulate fans, drain traffic for the live broadcast, and then convert it in real time in the live broadcast room. “The popular of models has probability and uncertainty, but the team’s ability can continue to improve, from quantitative to qualitative.”

Lynn also shared: “TikTok Shop is still in the exploration period, but we will continue to believe in this business model.” Summarizing how to do a good job in TikTok, Lynn believes that to be “short-frequency and fast”, it needs to respond quickly, execute quickly, and then Do it quickly and hard.

Yitao is also continuing to build its self-broadcasting capabilities. A few days ago, they participated in the merchant ranking competition and achieved good results. Compared with usual, their self-broadcasting sales reached 1,000 dollars, which has tripled. Lynn said: “I’m quite happy with the result.”

When asked about the future, Yitao House intends to continue the explosive product model of all categories, deeply cultivate the product selection and supply chain, and use content to promote conversion. “I hope to be the next Newme.” Newme, founded in November 2020, focuses on “new and peculiar” home furnishing products. With the help of the quick response of the supply chain, it promotes transaction conversion through high-quality content on TikTok. Since the launch of Newme in March 2021, it has achieved a monthly GMV of nearly one million US dollars in less than a year.

Where is the next Newme-like ‘TikTok brand’?

The Seller’s Road to Branding: A Business of “Trust”

With monthly sales exceeding 300,000 euros, Silvia is the “first sister of wigs” of TikTok Shop. Outside the live shopping, she is a capable proprietress; in the live shopping, she is an enthusiastic and interactive anchor.

Silvia had been in the wig business for ten years before trying TikTok Shop. She followed her parents in business since she was a child and settled in Italy. When she returned to China last year, she heard that TikTok would also start an e-commerce business. She keenly caught this trend, so she registered a TikTok account for her wig brand JBEXTENSION.

Live e-commerce has not been smooth sailing for JBEXTENSION and Silvia. “The live shopping started in August 2021, and the first three months were mainly trial and error. At first, TikTok did not get feedback as quickly as an independent station. After almost 3 months of broadcasting, Silvia felt the feedback. From January to March 2022, JBEXTENSION’s GMV began to grow linearly, and the account entered a virtuous circle. Looking back now, Silvia feels that the only investment in TikTok e-commerce is time. “The boss has to be very conscious, and if you want to do it, you have to work hard. Don’t just treat it as Plan B (backup plan).” When asked how she persisted without results in the first three months, Silvia said: “I never thought about giving up.”

Silvia, who is quite brand-conscious, summed up a lot of experience and insights. Silvia believes that it is important for merchants with little experience to go overseas to understand the cultural habits of Westerners. “People like to chat and share their daily life. The anchor needs to chat with foreigners and become friends.” She concluded: Don’t place orders for the sake of placing orders. The initial live shopping is to build trust. She also gained some insight into the differences between Eastern and Western consumers. “People think: what looks good on you doesn’t necessarily look good on me. So it’s useless to just shout ‘buy it’.”

She believes that TikTok is very suitable for product promotion. During the cold start of the account, video is a good medium, which can arouse the interest of the audience and make more people aware of the product. When doing live shopping, regular review is very important. After each live shopping, she would think more about “why” no matter whether she made an order or not. “You need to understand the underlying logic behind it.” Silvia repeatedly emphasized.

Wigs are difficult to sell, and the effects of wearing them on different people’s heads are different. The expression and display of the anchor also greatly affects the order. In Silvia’s words, “In the live shopping, 70% is because of the people and 30% because of the product.” Selling wig products especially needs to be contagious, and the atmosphere and mood in the live room are very important.

Silvia could have hired someone directly to be the anchor, but she chose to do it herself. “For new things, the boss himself needs to understand all the links before delegating power.” Silvia found that it is easy to get nervous when people communicate with consumers through mobile phones at the beginning of the live broadcast. Therefore, before the broadcast, she will find a way to make her mood high, temporarily ignoring the issue of sales and setting up KPIs. “Only when you are happy can you make customers happy.” Silvia in the live room is full of energy, and will communicate and joke with consumers in a very excited state.

Growing up, Silvia accumulated a group of regular customers who accompanied her. Some of them volunteered as administrators out of their support and liking for her, and some even followed the broadcast for 2 hours, just to help her maintain the order of comments. Silvia believes that the live shopping is helping her to slowly build a brand. “As an anchor with brand, someone will believe what you say. Once she trusts you, she will think this thing looks good on you, and she thinks she will look good too, she will buy it.” Live shopping is the first step in building trust, and trust is the foundation of transformation.

There is also a strong person who has gained a group of “loyal followers” in just a few months, as well as Michael, the boss of the beauty brand YOUNG VISION. Michael has been deeply involved in the cross-border supply chain of beauty cosmetics for the past 8 years. With a brand dream, he started the TikTok e-commerce road at the beginning of the year. The first time he participated in the big promotion, his brand YOUNG VISION won the first place in the beauty category of Chinese cross-border sellers.

At first, Michael, like many businesses, did not show his face during the live broadcast, but once appeared in front of the camera by chance, he found that the comment area responded well. So, Michael walked to the front of the stage. He pays attention to running his own character design – “Chinese Boss in Entrepreneurship”. He will use short videos to show everyone the warehouse, the office being renovated, and the packaging of goods. He hopes to differentiate the brand through the character design. He is serious and rational when leading the team, as long as he walks in front of the camera, he is the “uncle who brings joy to customers”. In order to create atmosphere, he will also dance ” Gangnam Style” and sing the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

“I don’t only regard customers as a channel for selling goods, I regard them as friends.” When it comes to his own customers, Michael always has endless stories to tell. Clients will share their life with him, telling him to give the products they bought to friends and donate them to welfare homes. And whenever a customer said he was unhappy, Michael would stop selling goods, communicate with them, comfort them, or make fun of them. “They are willing to share with you because they trust you. Trust between people really knows no borders.”

Michael also conducts user research and collects product feedback in the live studio. “Market Research is on! Every time I say this, they get excited. They love doing it, telling you what you like and what you don’t like. They love expressing their opinions.”

Because of Michael’s sincere interaction, YOUNG VISION has accumulated a group of old customers with a high repurchase rate, including those who have placed more than 20 orders and 50 orders. Michael said: “They also send me some feedback photos, or take the initiative to send unboxing videos to Amway our brand.”

It can be said that YOUNG VISION’s live shopping can provide customers with emotional value. In Michael’s words: “treat each live shopping as a work.”

After YOUNG VISION’s live shopping was slowly on the right track, Michael also began to try to cultivate new anchor talents. At present, his team has 2 new anchors. However, the follower effect of Michael’s person still exists. When he’s not around, clients often ask, “Where’s Michael?” Followers will even chant “YOUNG VISION Family.”

After the brand recognition, YOUNG VISION achieved the first step from the white card to the brand leap on TikTok. But Michael was not satisfied, and often felt a sense of crisis. He said, “If you don’t fight, you will be afraid of falling behind.” Looking back on the operation in the past six months, he concluded: The determination to be a TikTok e-commerce business must be great, and all In is required before the results will come out.

Write at the end

“To run TikTok live shopping, you must have a good attitude and believe that this market can do well, otherwise you will not be able to do it.” At the end of the author’s interview, Jake said succinctly. Indeed, successful entrepreneurs always have similar qualities, such as being brave, optimistic, pragmatic, tenacious, and strong in execution…

The above four sellers are just a microcosm. Like them, there are many sellers who are decisive in the face of TikTok’s traffic dividend. Some people are lucky to succeed, and some people are still on the road to overcome many difficulties.

Ranking the top of the global app download list, TikTok is not only a high-traffic platform, it also has great potential for monetization. According to Accenture’s forecast, overseas live streaming e-commerce is expected to increase by 67% year-on-year in 2022. At present, TikTok e-commerce is still in the stage of vigorous development and big waves, and it is a rich mine that has not yet been fully cultivated for cross-border people.

It is understood that TikTok e-commerce will expand to the Southeast Asian market, and more traffic and business monetization opportunities will emerge. We also look forward to seeing more sellers ride this shareholder wind and set sail to the world.