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The creators killing it on TikTok Shop all stopped doing one thing.

Chasing viral moments.

I know. Counterintuitive. Isn't TikTok literally built on going viral?

Here's the thing though — the sellers and creators driving seven and eight-figure numbers have quietly moved to a completely different model.

And if you're still trying to "go viral," you're playing the wrong game entirely.

Let me show you what the winners are doing instead.

DEEP DIVE

TikTok just published its Shop Awards for December 2025.

Glossy got the winners on the record. The numbers are... not subtle.

Brooke Sobol (@boise_brooke, 272K followers): $7 million in TikTok Shop sales in 2025. Nearly $1 million in March alone.

Not a typo.

Gini Vasquez (@giniglow, 153K followers): $10 million in cumulative TikTok Shop sales.

Shamela Brown (@klothesminded, 126K followers): Joined TikTok Shop in November 2024. GMV to date? Nearly $5 million. She had a $700K month.

That's not a fluke. That's a system.

I asked the same question. Here's what they all said (in different words):

"I stopped treating TikTok Shop content as one-off viral moments and started building it like a repeatable system."

That's Shamela Brown, verbatim.

Brooke: "TikTok Shop rewards consistency and quantity."

Gini: "I stopped chasing virality and focused on consistency and conversion."

They're all saying the same thing. Same formats. Same products that convert — brought back repeatedly. Same posting cadence.

Unlike Amazon where you optimise once and let the listing run, TikTok is a content machine. You don't set it and forget it. You show up, again and again, with content that sells.

Here's the specific tactic I want to call out — because this one surprised me.

Brooke doesn't just post individual products.

She builds routines.

Complementary products, sold as bundles — "here's my morning skincare routine" — where she's recommending 3-4 products at once, all with Shop links.

The result? She's become a direct sales channel for multiple brands simultaneously. Not a one-off promo. A long-term affiliate partnership with exclusive bundles.

Think of it this way: On Amazon, brands compete for the buy box. On TikTok, the smart brands are competing for Brooke's morning routine.

That's a fundamentally different game.

DEEP DIVE

Kelsey Martinez (@itsmekelsc, 423K followers) drove $175,000 from a single TikTok Shop video.

Tarte concealer. Face-to-camera. "Here's how this fits into my daily routine."

The same video helped the product sell out across TikTok Shop and Sephora.

Her take: "Viral moments can drive short-term lifts, but consistent audience trust is what sustains sales."

That trust then translated into deeper brand partnerships — beyond TikTok Shop, into retail.

For Amazon sellers reading this: your TikTok Shop affiliate can become your retail distribution partner.

That's not something your Amazon PPC campaign is doing for you.

One more thing the top creators all share: they're using AI tools to scale production.

CapCut, Descript, Adobe AI — automated captioning, resizing, editing.
ChatGPT and Notion AI — scripts, content calendars, performance tracking.

They're not posting more by working harder. They're working smarter and posting more.

For brands? This means the barrier to entry for creator content is dropping fast. The window where you could compete with a low-effort creator strategy is closing.

DEEP DIVE

Okay. Affiliate strategy makes sense. But what about paid?

Let me walk you through a real case study.

Baby products brand. One of the most saturated categories on TikTok. Not exactly an easy mode situation.

They were doing 10-15 orders per day. Revenue on a normal day? About $500.

Here's what the turnaround looked like:

Step 1 — Fix the storefront. Product grids, collections, promotions surfaced prominently. Not glamorous. Essential.

Step 2 — Run smart promotions. Lightning Deals and 10% off, timed to seasonal demand and TikTok shopping behaviour. Aligned to the platform's own calendar, not just theirs.

Step 3 — Creator activation. Started in December. Niche-relevant creators — not mega influencers. Relatable, authentic, category-specific.

Step 4 — Event-based scaling calendar. Structured plan for New Year, festive periods. Pricing, promotions, and creatives synced across all channels.

The results, 60 days later:

Here's the insight buried in that data:

It wasn't the ads alone. It wasn't the creators alone. It wasn't the promotions alone.

It was the combination. Stacked and synchronised.

Promotions → drive traffic
Creators → drive trust
Storefront → converts the traffic and trust into orders
Event calendar → amplifies the whole thing when TikTok's own algorithm wants to push volume

Amazon sellers know this feeling. It's the equivalent of running PPC, having strong reviews, a great listing, and hitting a lightning deal simultaneously.

When all your levers are pulling in the same direction, the results are non-linear.

Two things are true right now:

The mistake I see Amazon sellers make constantly: they want to run ads before the foundation is in place.

Don't do that. Build the system first.

Thanks for reading.

- Paul 👊

PS…. The creators in this piece collectively manage 3 million+ followers and have driven tens of millions of dollars in TikTok Shop sales. The common thread isn't luck, follower count, or going viral. It's a repeatable system, built over months. The best time to start building yours was 6 months ago. The second best time is now.

PPS…. Done-for-you TikTok Shop management — we run the whole thing…. if you are interested….. just reply to this