Reading Time: 6 min
Readability: Grade 3 (Simon Says write simple sentences... and I listened)
Welcome to Rankster 👊
The weekly newsletter that's like finding a $20 bill in your old jeans pocket …… except it's TikTok Shop knowledge and it happens every Friday.
In today’s issue:
🔥 DEEP DIVE: The ideal product for TikTok Shop
One TikTok Shop brand made $100K in under 2 months doing the "minimum"—while most sellers struggle because they don't know about the "5 Pillars"
🚀 Seller News….. News you need to know
🔽 Let’s get started
DEEP DIVE
It looks like they are cheating….
They aren’t….
We have all seen them……
Those brands that launch on TikTok Shop and immediately start printing money as if they are using some cheat code you never knew about.
Well, one of those brands hit me up last week…... they are in the apparel niche.
"Paul, why does everyone say TikTok Shop is so hard? We're crushing it."
Oh, really? (eye roll)
I didn't believe them. So I said, "Cool story - show me your dashboard."
Plot twist: They granted me access to their account…..
Less than 2 months old. $100,000 in sales
But here's where it gets weird (and honestly a little infuriating)...
They weren't running ads.
Their affiliates were not earning.
They basically did the minimum and still won.
What they DID do: Hired a few UGC creators to go live. That's it.
Those lives? 80% of their total traffic. $80k in sales.
Lives generated almost 2 million impressions, 4% click-through rate, 1.4% conversion. The other $20k just... happened as a side effect.
What I would have done (at the very least):
Improve the Lives sales by boosting them using TikTok ads.
Sent products samples to High Earning affiliates (they would love this product as they know they can earn a lot promoting it)
But they didn't need to.
Because they have one of those products. The kind that just... works. You list it, people buy it. A few videos, boom - traction. Sales start flowing like magic.
Here's the thing though...
If your product ISN'T one of those magical unicorns (and let's be honest, most aren't), then you have to do everything to get ahead.
You need to go full beast mode with what we call the “5 Pillars of TikTok Shop” (included screenshots of our some brands we manage to give you an idea of the impact these features can make):
Pillar 1: Send samples to every affiliate your inventory allows
Pillar 2: Boost their content with ads (don't just pray it goes viral)
Pillar 3: Enroll in ALL the TikTok promotions (yes, all of them)
Pillar 4: Activate Hero product campaigns (most people skip this)
Pillar 5: Use TikTok's CRM to squeeze more juice from existing customers
Do all 5? Congrats, you're in the top 1% of sellers. Most agencies don't even know these exist.
Skip them? Well, enjoy watching the lucky brands with perfect products lap you while you wonder why TikTok Shop "doesn't work."
The brutal truth: Some products are just built different. They win on day one with minimal effort.
But for the rest of us mere mortals? We've gotta earn it with the full toolkit.
If you're not using all 5 pillars and wondering why your TikTok Shop isn't printing money... well, now you know. The magic isn't in the platform - it's in doing everything the lazy brands won't.
If you need help, book a call and let’s chat 👊
That's it for this week 👊
But I need to ask a favour...
What did you think of today's newsletter?
Thanks for reading.
- Paul
PS…. Next week we are launching the first TikTok Shop Keyword tool….. stay tuned for free access:
PPS….. Reply to this email or contact us if you are interested in TikTok Shop in time for Q4