Guest Bio:
Collin Cavanaugh was part of the Team of employees that helped launch TikTok Shop in the US back in 2023. He saw the potential and momentum behind Social Commerce and decided to go all in! He left TikTok and launched his own TikTok Shop agency Commerce Social.
Summary:
In this conversation, Collin Cavanaugh discusses the evolution of strategies for success on TikTok, emphasizing the importance of adapting to changes in the platform. He highlights the shift from relying solely on live selling to incorporating organic content and community building. Additionally, he stresses the significance of utilizing various advertising options to maximize reach and engagement.
Takeaways:
- There was so much organic traffic and little competition.
- You could get away with just utilizing one vertical.
- Brands need to expand and take advantage of the full TikTok platform.
- Building a community is essential for success.
- Utilizing different ad platforms is crucial.
- Successful shops post organic content regularly.
- Engagement with viewers leads to great viewership.
- Video ads are important for TikTok success.
- Live selling is just one aspect of TikTok.
- Adapting to platform changes is necessary for growth.
Full Transcript:
Moritz Schröder (00:01.194)
Colin, awesome to be speaking with you. I’m excited to connect because you have a very strong background in social commerce and that’s what I’m passionate about on this podcast. Not only do you run a very successful social commerce agency as of now, but you also have worked at TikTok before. So I’m excited to dive into it, get your hot takes on what social commerce looks like right now, where it’s going in the future.
upcoming events, upcoming holiday season, a lot to dig in there. But let’s start at the very beginning. What got you into social commerce in the first place?
Collin Cavanaugh (00:38.57)
Mm-hmm. That’s a great question. So initially, my first exposure to social commerce was back in COVID in 2020, right? So during that time period, I was reselling products on eBay, and then I came across this category that was really taking off in a niche, which was collectibles, right? So think about trading cards such as sports cards, all the way to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and different TCGs. That was blowing up during that time period.
So a lot of people were going to these retail stores and then selling them on eBay type marketplaces. That’s actually when I stumbled upon Whatnot, which is one of the largest collectible live selling platforms out there. And then it kind of fast forwarded over to here now. So I was exposed pretty much right when it came to the US side of things and blew up over time periods. And that kind of really formulated me into kind of my exposure into a startup called Drip Shop, which was also another direct competitor of Whatnot.
So I’ve always really been involved in the live selling space and the social commerce space pretty much since it came here. And then from there, I ended up actually getting poached to work at TikTok Shop to build out their collectibles department as well. So pretty much every role I’ve had since then has kind of bounced back and then led me to the opportunity I have now, which is running a social commerce agency with a large focus on TikTok Shop. And here we are.
Moritz Schröder (02:01.129)
Okay, I mean, sounds like a pretty straight line, but I’m sure there was a lot of zigzag in between when you zoom in. Were you selling collectibles yourself on eBay at the time, or were you just seeing other people making really good money with that?
Collin Cavanaugh (02:15.566)
Great question as well. So initially I’ve had, I’ve always been a collector, right? From different TCGs to coins to stamps, things of that nature, right? So I’ve always had that kind of inventory in the background in previous years.
the market itself and what you could actually sell the products for was not that high. So I kind of held onto those products until the market did rise and COVID, things shot up. So I was reselling a lot of my products. I also was doing some retail arbitrage as well, going to these different retailers during COVID and also flipping these items for sale. So I was taking part of that gold rush.
Moritz Schröder (02:48.965)
Okay, and definitely a good place to be at at the time also during COVID. I guess a pretty golden opportunity there. Also cool that you saw what not in its very early stages. I’m not sure exactly when it was founded, but must have been around that time, right?
Collin Cavanaugh (02:57.389)
Mm-hmm.
Collin Cavanaugh (03:05.774)
It was very close, maybe a year or two before that, but it didn’t really start picking up until about COVID.
Moritz Schröder (03:11.473)
Okay, and I guess before Gary V jumped on that ship, now he’s hyping it all over social media I’ve seen, but you were five years ahead of him, so you got that to your name, that’s cool.
Collin Cavanaugh (03:19.053)
or yet.
Collin Cavanaugh (03:23.854)
to have a little bit of a rush. Gary is, you know, one of the biggest advocates for social commerce and live selling. He is very bullish on the platform and he still believes it’s pretty much in the infancy stage as, you know, some of the other categories he believes in. So it’s very exciting.
Moritz Schröder (03:37.639)
Right, and I for one share that opinion of his. Then you mentioned you got to work with TikTok Shop. It must have been also at the very early stages, if not around launch time for the U.S. version of it, right?
Collin Cavanaugh (03:52.162)
That is correct. So I joined in October of 2023.
And then TikTok Shop launched kind of beta around July and pretty much came in August. then the first 30 to 60 days of the platform even launching, right, I kind of came on board there. So I was able to see, you know, all the sellers started, you know, five, 10K a month and then scale up to millions in dollars in monthly GMB on a per seller basis. So it was so awesome to see that traction of, again, you know, bigger sellers and bigger brands coming on board, learning about the platform, taking advantage of it, because during that time period for that
first six to nine months, from 2023 to I would say middle 2024, there was very little competition because the learning curve was kind high. It was a different platform. A lot of sellers were weary of it. They wanted to stay on their current channels. So brands that were typically not seeing success off platform that were struggling on meta or whatnot, different platforms kind of had a oasis now on TikTok Shop.
and an evergreen channel where they could actually scale and really see the results and efforts coming to play. It was awesome to see these smaller players at the time really take advantage of the platform and then really grow into great big brands.
Moritz Schröder (05:05.382)
And what kind of brands were those that were the early movers? Was it just people that, you know, were willing to take a risk or were they incentivized very strongly by TikTok directly? How did you actually get them onto the platform?
Collin Cavanaugh (05:21.762)
Good question. So I’ll break it down to different types of sellers. One, of course, is the sellers that were really live focused. There are some brands that pretty much came on there only to sell live because of the way their category was and their products were. They were a live type category. So that’s going to mainly collectibles. Collectibles is where, of course, you would break open the cards live or break open the TCG live. You would show it to your community or show it to the actual buyer base and then ship out that said product to that buyer.
So those type of brands that were coming on board were typically smaller sellers for the most part, right? Six-figure sellers that were able to see that kind of traction and go live. And then immediately 500 to a thousand plus viewers would flood into their live with one click of a button. No need to do really any marketing at the time. No need to post organic content to feed it into it. It was just a gold rush during that time period, right? So those are mainly the live sellers were collectibles at the time. And of course now it’s expanded into the DTC sector.
But the other brands that were coming on there to sell organically and use it as a native marketplace, similar to Amazon, were typically we were seeing six to low seven-figure brands because the risk was so high. And again, obviously it was a new platform. So there’s going to be technical errors. There’s going to be bugs. It’s harder to navigate. So a lot of those smaller brands that we saw, like supplement brands that were doing six, seven figures a year.
were able to grow into multiple eight figure brands in just the last two years alone because they took advantage of the first movers platform.
Moritz Schröder (06:53.061)
Yeah, I guess you have to be early. Obviously still now you can make a great living off of TikTok shop and a lot of DTC brands are blowing up there now, but it certainly helps to have that first mover advantage. How for someone who…
Collin Cavanaugh (07:07.981)
Mm-hmm.
Moritz Schröder (07:10.223)
you know, working on the inside like you and who could see all of this unfold firsthand. How did ByteDance as a mother company navigate that? Did they implement a lot of their learnings from China and how they had approached social commerce there? Did they communicate very openly internally what they’re doing and trying to build there? How much education was there actually around the vision of TikTok Shop long-term? Can you give us a peek behind the curtain there?
Collin Cavanaugh (07:39.694)
So from that leadership perspective, there was definitely input being transferred down. you know, Chinese and the China live selling department is doing tens and tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue. So it’s one of their largest marketplaces and how they sell products is through live selling. So of course, there’s some great insights to be transferred over. But the US marketplace is a different platform. It’s a different checkout experience. It’s a different buyer experience. So of course, we had to combat
what was working over there with what was working here. A lot of different A-B testing and typically what we saw is a lot of different categories, they’re broken down by the niches. So there’ll be a health and wellness category. There’ll be a beauty team, a fashion team, a home and living team. Each of those teams are gonna have different quirks in different kind of features that…
those sellers wanna have, right? Whether it’s like live auctions or buy it now features or different checkout experiences, right? So each of those categories are really able to see what’s working well from the buyers and just talking to the sellers more or less on a day-to-day basis. So we can really bring those new features to the product team and really build out the experience that the sellers wanna see, of course, but then from the buyer’s perspective, right? So they feel safe purchasing.
And of course they need to get a refund or get a cancellation. They have that trust that we can provide that experience for them. So it was great to kind of have that contrast between the two different orgs.
Moritz Schröder (09:03.524)
Right. And you being a part of that team that rolled out the TikTok shop initially, were there any learnings that you took away from those early days of what just really works well on the platform? Or is that so specific to the different categories that you mentioned and also the fact that, you know, some do live, some do a lot of affiliate stuff. Some are collectible, some are not, et cetera. Is there anything that you can say works across the board or is it?
too specific to pinpoint.
Collin Cavanaugh (09:35.342)
That’s a great question. And we’ve actually seen this play out. So in the beginning, as I mentioned, because there was so much organic traffic and little competition, you could get away with just utilizing one vertical of the platform. So what I mean by that is if you were a live seller, you could just go live. And you can have a great platform, get great viewership. That kind of got pushed out as the competition got bigger. So now you had to expand to, OK, I need to be posting organic content.
I need to be posting content that’s going to be, guys, I’m going to be going live at this time and really building a community for your buyers and for your viewers. And of course, utilizing different ad platforms such as live ads.
you know, video ads as well, and really just utilizing the different steps and having a successful shop. So the brands that really succeeded over time that are still doing well realized, okay, I’m doing really well in this one vertical. I need to expand and take advantage of the full TikTok platform. Right. So some of the smaller players that were doing really well didn’t have the right infrastructure, the team support or the knowledge and the skills at the time to expand. some of them did get pushed out.
as the platform kind of matured. So across the board, if you were able to take advantage of all of those five different areas over time, you really were able to build like an omnichannel presence on TikTok.
Moritz Schröder (10:56.865)
Right, so the more time you invest in it as a business, as a brand, the more resources you spend on it. And obviously the more content you produce, the more successful you’re going to be. And it’s obviously become more competitive. So it only makes sense that those are the ones that rise to the top, right?
Collin Cavanaugh (11:15.392)
Exactly, TikTok has one of the best algorithms in the game, right? So the internal system is kind of able to see that you’re pulling all the right levers, right? And you’re going to be rewarded as a seller for doing so.
Moritz Schröder (11:27.854)
Did you have any takeaways from being on the inside in terms of what the algorithm really favors? As you know, there’s a lot of self-proclaimed TikTok coaches out there claiming to know exactly what will help you go viral. But truth of the matter is probably none of them know exactly. So as someone who worked at TikTok, do you have any more insights there?
Collin Cavanaugh (11:50.936)
There was definitely a couple angles we saw really perform well. The highest level of success or the highest rate of success is definitely volume. So a lot of sellers we work with, they’ll be very hyper-specific on the content they’ll post and the quality of it. TikTok’s a very raw platform. Typically polished videos that would do well on meta or different platform would not thrive here.
buyers on here are looking to work with John from Michigan and buy from John in Michigan versus a Kim Kardashian level influencer. So the brands that were able to realize that type of content is really gonna interact and drive the awareness you need, we’re able to succeed. So we speak with so many brands at the time, even now, of course, on the agency side, but even then being a TikTok shop, they’re like, we’re gonna post one or two videos a week. And we’re like, hey, we want one or two videos a day, minimum.
Moritz Schröder (12:23.991)
Right.
Collin Cavanaugh (12:43.698)
There’s no level to being hidden or pushed out if you’re pushing out too much content. So content volume is one of the biggest levers of push, of course. And again, the faster you’re posting this content, the more analytics and data you can get. So you can actually see what is working from an A-B perspective. But if you’re slowly posting content, it’s going to take months to see what’s working, what’s not. So the sooner you can get it out there and be OK with it not being as polished, the quicker you can get those results back and actually make those educated decisions.
Moritz Schröder (13:13.432)
It’s really interesting that you mentioned that polished content tends to not do so well on TikTok compared to, for example, Instagram or maybe also YouTube. And I heard that before, but I actually always wondered how that is baked into the algorithm because as long as the engagement is there, as long as retention is there, as long as people like and share the content, I would assume that the algorithm is still pushing that kind of content. Is it just a numbers game that people are just not able
to have that polished content if they want to post three times per day, or is there more to that?
Collin Cavanaugh (13:50.19)
Good question. the brands, of course, that we saw that can post the most published, you know, kind of polished content typically either had large budgets or in-house creative teams so they can pump out that level of volume. So, of course, if you’re able to post top of funnel content and bottom of funnel content, you want to kind of pull all the right levers there, right? So the more content you’re posting in that kind of user and buyer journey, of course, the more viewership and the more engagement you’ll get over time. So the best sellers and the best brands are able to do a combination of both.
We’ve also seen too as well, even some of those affiliate videos that come in for your brand or for your products are really great content to be repurposed as a meta ad or as a different marketplace ad because the data and analytics will tell you it did well organically. So nine out 10 times, you can just kind of whitelist that content from that affiliate and then run it as a meta ad. So some of the brands we work with at the time here,
some of our current clients, they’re spending five, six figure budgets quarterly on UGC content. So then they the influencer and then they have to spend a few thousand dollars behind it in ad spend, just to test. So you can get away with now just pulling a piece of content for a few hundred dollars, potentially adding in some sort of commission as well and tracking that and then running that as a meta app. So for a much lower CAC, we’re seeing those videos really perform now. So it’s a really powerful content tool and that content fly, what we call it.
to be repurposed.
Moritz Schröder (15:15.395)
Right, okay. So 2023, you help launch a TikTok shop in the US, but then you decide to leave TikTok and actually venture out on your own, but in the same field of social commerce, you start launching your social commerce agency. Take me back in 2023 and what that decision process looked like for you.
Collin Cavanaugh (15:38.69)
Definitely. So there was a few key factors that played into it. One of course is just noticing the disconnect and how social commerce is a platform. TikTok shop is not meta. It’s not Amazon. So a lot of different sellers and brands were trying to mimic what was working for them and they’re not seeing that success. So the learning curve was so steep at the time. And the understanding is that I found that there was such a big miscommunication on the education side of things that of course we could provide that assistance to them.
bringing that to mass scale, right? So a lot of brands were asking for consulting on the side, of course, they were asking for different assistance and pretty much just offering like, hey, know, Colin, we need assistance on this. We would love to work with you on that one-on-one basis, right? So once I saw that, I noticed there was a need in the market, right? For a true domain expertise and true knowledge to be brought to the market here and provide that to brands who really want to be on TikTok shop. They really want to take advantage of the social commerce in that kind of…
I would say discovery tool that TikTok Shop Works does. So once I kind of realized that was the next bucket, it pretty much formulated into, now I already have the knowledge base here. We already have the team structure we can build out. Let’s go ahead and do this and bring on some great clients for us across a couple of different niches and scale up the organization from there.
Moritz Schröder (16:53.099)
Was there no existing partner network back in the days or why was there such a shortage of supply of agencies that could help out with TikTok Shop?
Collin Cavanaugh (17:03.106)
Good question. So there were, course, a few first movers advantages of joining the platform. The thing is, because the platform was so new and it was so ever-changing from both the platform perspective, a feature perspective, the algorithm perspective, what worked last month didn’t work the next month. So a lot of brands and lot of agencies were kind of just doing things on the fly. They were figuring it out as they went along here. A lot of these existing agencies, they’re already doing well in their other channels. They didn’t really want to dip their feet into it yet.
because they didn’t have the proper systems and operations in place to launch it because it is a rigorous platform. There is a lot of work that goes into the shop side, of course, to the affiliates, to the media buying perspective. So you’ve got to have the right systems and operations in place to really capitalize, which a lot of them didn’t have at the time. And again, just didn’t want to really venture into it because they didn’t see the volume and the perspective of it.
Moritz Schröder (17:53.065)
Okay, but still I would say it’s a pretty risky move to leave your, I’m sure, pretty comfortable situation being part of TikTok and then actually work with social commerce and TikTok shop from the outside, hoping that this is gonna keep growing, keep the momentum that it had initially, but that demand is just gonna soar. Were you nervous about that move at all or were you so deeply?
certain that social commerce is going to take off, that it felt like a no-brainer.
Collin Cavanaugh (18:26.053)
Once I saw that TikTok shop is not going to go anywhere, right? And we’re only in the infancy stages of social commerce and seeing how Amazon expanding to their YouTube live shopping, whatnot. And of course, Metta is going to eventually get into there. I was so certain that TikTok shop and social commerce is going to be the future of it that again, was very pretty much not, I was 100 % sure that this was going to be exactly what I wanted to do and then make that happen from there. So I was very confident in the process.
Moritz Schröder (18:52.584)
And what were the initial steps that you took to actually become a TikTok or social commerce agency? Was there any playbook that you could follow or that maybe you had seen from other agency partners that you were interacting with while working for TikTok? Were there any mistakes and pitfalls that you knew you wanted to avoid?
Collin Cavanaugh (19:11.882)
definitely. Definitely. I said, so we were, you when I was at TikTok shop, you know, I was working with 30 plus accounts, right? So managing tens of millions of dollars in monthly revenue. And of course, working with the broader group, which is going to be hundreds, if not to the low thousands of sellers as well on the platform that were active. Right. So I was able to see firsthand what was working, what’s not.
and really develop internal playbooks that I could be repurposed for the brands and what I was able to do in really scaling our team up as well from the different orgs, the different structures, the different workflows and automations to really make it a successful onboarding for brands and really educate them on how the platform works. So definitely really utilizing that as well.
Moritz Schröder (19:50.384)
I would assume that a major pillar of your success of the agency was also to build out a strong affiliate network. How did you go about that? Was it difficult to get affiliates on board early on with your agency? Did you have existing connections that you could then leverage? How did that look like for you?
Collin Cavanaugh (20:10.478)
Good question. So during the time I was at TikTok Shop working internally, I did notice that a lot of sellers and brands that were able to build a community quickly were able to really kind of activate these affiliates at a much higher success rate. So they were able to show top performing content. They’re able to run incentive programs, able to gamify the experience for your top affiliates. As we see, your top 20 % of your affiliates drive, if not 80 % to 90 % of your affiliate revenue.
Moritz Schröder (20:39.709)
Right, you got the Pareto rule. Yeah.
Collin Cavanaugh (20:39.954)
There was only a small handful, very small handful of them. So I was actually helping out all of our brands to build out Discord communities or WAP communities to really host these affiliates from educational content to pre-recorded Loom videos to hosting webinars weekly with them. So I was actually already doing that at the time, So I knew exactly what worked and how to really build that audience out. And we actually did that for our agency right now. So we have about 700 high GMV affiliates in our group.
where we provide educational content, weekly webinars, brand deals, higher commissions. So we kind of knew what the creators wanted, right? Which is, know, cash bonuses, prizes and those things and brought it right to the affiliates. So we can use those with all of our brands.
Moritz Schröder (21:21.905)
And that is such an advantage though that you were able to try out all these different things with little to no risk because you were still employed at TikTok and you could just see what works, what doesn’t, what mistakes you should not repeat and then take that playbook and apply it to your own agency.
Collin Cavanaugh (21:40.064)
100%. It was definitely very vital. So a lot of the other competitors were starting fresh. They’re just kind of seeing what is working from other people. I was able to see firsthand what is working and bring that to the market.
Moritz Schröder (21:51.581)
And how are you actually able to filter for really high converting affiliates? Is there anything in particular that you’re looking for besides the obvious, the numbers that you can see from them? Do you vet them in any way? Do you have any sort of playbook that you follow before taking on new affiliates?
Collin Cavanaugh (22:12.814)
So we do have some internal SOPs and different metrics we look at, and I’ll share that with you. So of course, obviously, their monthly GMV is a great first metric to look at. Diving into deeper is the engagement metrics they have.
Moritz Schröder (22:26.15)
Is that available by the way? Sorry to interrupt, but can you see that anywhere or do you just have to take their word for it?
Collin Cavanaugh (22:33.486)
Good question. now TikTok shop internally in the affiliate center tool, it does provide you with that level of information, right? So does get very granular up until, you know, a few months ago, it was very high level, right? So you really can only see their GMV. And of course, a lot of it was manual, right? There is some new tools that have come in out, such as, you know, fast moss that really are callow data that could be used to also help streamline that process and really looking at their engagement metrics, clicking on their profile, seeing what type of content are they posting, right? Is it bottom of funnel?
Is it top of funnel? So we can really plug and play them with the right brands and the right needs they have. And then of course, onboarding them into the group, maybe hopping on a one-on-one call with them if they look like a great creator and really establishing that one-on-one relationship with them.
Moritz Schröder (23:15.87)
Yeah, I’m very interested in that part. Like once you sign them on, do you give them any kind of guidance, training, anything that would help them increase their GMV any further? Or do you feel like it’s best to, you know, let the creatives do what they do best and not mess too much with what is already working for them?
Collin Cavanaugh (23:33.998)
Awesome, yeah, so there’s a couple ways to look at it, right? So of course we’ll provide all of the creators with different creative briefs, we call them, right? So we’ll work with the brands on a one-on-one basis and develop this kind of flyer, right? So here are some of the winning angles we’re seeing working. Here’s some of the keywords in different copy that you can utilize just to give them from what we call inspiration, right? A great creator will take that and then put their own spin on it, right?
We’re just kind of looking to educate them with, again, whatever we’re seeing working from our side. And then of course, our head of community has about 1.2 million TikTok followers, right? So he’s a great creator as well. So he’s able to provide insights to the creators in our group on different angles or different ways to approach the creative and really help educate them, of course. And also we’re doing three different weekly webinars where people can join in, ask questions, learn more, and really just build their skillset as an affiliate and as a creator on TikTok as a platform.
Moritz Schröder (24:27.614)
Yeah, I think that’s so vital that you have people in the organization who are actually creators themselves. Sometimes I’m surprised how few agency owners and people employed by TikTok agencies are creators themselves and posting regularly. I feel like that’s such a core competence that anyone working with TikTok shop or really with that platform overall should be a creator just to know how hard it also is to actually have something take off.
Collin Cavanaugh (24:56.526)
100%. We always say this, and I always tell brands this, right? Being a creator and being an affiliate are two different things, right? Some of the best affiliates though are also great creators, but not the other way around. Some of the best creators are not great at making content that drives revenue, right? They might be a better creator that is a more of awareness play, right? More of a discovery type video, right? So knowing the difference and knowing what type of creator you are is, is the best way to kind of, you know,
Moritz Schröder (25:04.678)
Right.
Moritz Schröder (25:10.717)
Hmm.
Moritz Schröder (25:26.417)
Yeah, and I guess for especially newer people who are newer to this game, they still maybe have to find their own voice, their own style, figure out who they want to be on the platform while doing affiliate content for other brands.
Collin Cavanaugh (25:43.534)
Oh, 100%. You definitely gotta find your own angle and how you connect with them.
Moritz Schröder (25:47.226)
Do you work mostly with people who are in their 20s or does it go all the way up to like, I don’t know, 40s and 50s? What kind of people do you typically attract as affiliates?
Collin Cavanaugh (25:58.286)
That’s a great question. So of course, there’s going to be some of the younger demographic who are creators. We typically see some of the highest performing, some of the highest generating creators in the platform and affiliates are typically going to be thirties to forties, right? That different demographic. we see, you know, moms do really well as on TikTok shop, because most of the time some of them are working from home, you know, they might be stay at home. So they’re looking for different ways to kind of increase their income and they can really connect with the community because
some of the products they can really use in their day-to-day life. So they’re easier to kind of resemble and also relate back to the buyers. So that demographic typically can crush it. We’re seeing a lot of those creators do the best in our community as well.
Moritz Schröder (26:38.078)
that’s culture here. And I’ve certainly noticed that the stereotypes of, you know, only 20 something year olds are on TikTok is certainly not true anymore. But it’s great to hear that confirmed both on the affiliate side, but also on the buyer side, obviously, because I assume the ones buying from the 40 something old mom is also gonna be a 40 something old mom because they relate to that person and they probably sell products that they can relate to.
Collin Cavanaugh (27:05.358)
100%. That’s very important to make sure you’re pretty much targeting the right demographic when you’re looking to go into it.
Moritz Schröder (27:11.824)
Do you as an agency have a certain type of brand category that you work with, certain type of industries, or you work with anyone across the board?
Collin Cavanaugh (27:24.32)
Excellent question. So we specialize in two categories just because most of the brands that are on TikTok shop fall in these two categories and that’s going to be health and wellness brands. Right. So we work with some very large players such as like bodybuilding.com and then of course fashion and beauty do really well.
Right? So there’s a few different ways that brands kind of approach TikTok shop and I’ll kind of summarize them for you here. So the first of course is your TikTok shop could be an actual profitable channel for you. Right? You actually could contribute towards your bottom of P &L and actually generate revenue for you as a brand. Only a very small handful of actual brands can see a million dollars plus a month, right? Because their product is actually fit for it. They have the correct margins on the net side. And of course they have the right USP, we call it.
So it’s a very attractive product to make content with and buyers simply want to purchase it. Paper plates, for example, will never really hit a million dollars a month at the moment as not that type of platform. People are not going there to look it up. People are using TikTok Shop as a discovery platform. So maybe they’ll look up sunglasses and then they’ll see your brand and then they’ll purchase and make that conversion after that search is made. That’s kind of the first market there. The second is the halo effect.
Moritz Schröder (28:17.989)
Yeah.
Moritz Schröder (28:32.429)
Right.
Collin Cavanaugh (28:37.1)
In an ideal world, you’re going to hit all three. As I’ll explain here, the halo effect is typically where you’re to have great affiliate content coming out. You have large volume free paid media, we call it, which could be millions of monthly views. So buyers will see this content. Then they’ll go to Amazon or they’ll go to Google and search your product or search your brand up and give you that free SEO ranking boost. But then they’ll purchase from a platform that they trust more at the moment.
They trust Amazon’s two-day prime shipping. They trust the way your Shopify website looks and that whole conversion process is. So we see brands getting 20, 30, 40 % increase in off-platform sales and also including retail if you have a large presence in there. So that tool and that kind of alternative is very powerful for brands. So majority of brands will be able to see that. The best brands can see all three of these. And of course, this last spectrum that we touched on was the content flywheel. So repurposing this top-winning affiliate content
as you know meta as to be used because of the capping we’re is a much lower there. It’s the best friends will kind of play into that and then that’s typically what we like to work with.
Moritz Schröder (29:41.755)
It’s gonna be really interesting to see, I think, if trust will go up for TikTok shop.
I do feel like it might be a little bit like Amazon in the early days where people were hesitant and even more so brands were hesitant to sell their products on Amazon. And obviously that has completely shifted in the last decade or so. And I foresee that TikTok might go a different, a similar route actually, where more and more brands are gonna be there, larger and larger brands are gonna be there and consumer trust will therefore also go up. So they don’t have to go to the website anymore. They don’t have to go to Amazon.
anymore to purchase so that halo effect might actually be diminished but then gmv on the platform itself will go up.
Collin Cavanaugh (30:25.934)
100%. The goal of course is to always approach it where we want your checkouts to be native in TikTok shop, right? The benefits of the halo effect, this and that are just a plus for being on the plow.
Moritz Schröder (30:32.472)
Right.
Moritz Schröder (30:37.186)
Right. And then if TikTok shop continues to build out the entire infrastructure around logistics and fulfillment on top of customer service and checkout process, et cetera, I think it’s going to be very hard to beat them in that game.
Collin Cavanaugh (30:56.8)
100%. They’re coming to take over. So I’m excited to be a part of it.
Moritz Schröder (31:02.213)
With your affiliates, do you gamify the experience for them? Do you give them any kind of incentives? I’m sure you’re aware there are a lot of agencies throwing around crazy prices for the top selling affiliates. Do you have similar approaches or did you choose to take another route?
Collin Cavanaugh (31:20.622)
Yes, so we found after about talking to about 200 of our creators internally, right, what they’re looking for, of course, obviously they want to make commissions, but the gamification in the incentives are vital, vital from either an agency perspective, which we do offer, right, different prizes when you hit certain, you know, GMB thresholds, we’re running different monthly campaigns or different initiatives to push these creators to, you know, merely make as much money as they can. We definitely want to reward them.
So a lot of them really love that perspective. We see it being vital, of course, the agency side. But we also build out custom incentive programs and gamification processes for all of our brands that can afford it. So as I mentioned, your top 20 % drive 80 % of your affiliate revenue. So you don’t need a large handful of great creators making money for you. You just need to be able to withhold them and bring them into your ecosystem so they don’t go to the next competitor or they don’t jump to the next flashy item that is on their inbox.
So really withholding them with that program has been so vital. We’ve been able to take brands that are doing $50,000 to $100,000 a month in revenue, pretty much build out that program for them and utilizing our creators and the generic and more organic creators as well to scale them up to half a million dollars, to a million dollar a month just by really implementing that strategy.
Moritz Schröder (32:36.951)
And is there such a shortage of affiliate creators still that both agencies and brands are really fighting over the best ones or is there a continuous influx of creators? So even if you lose one to, let’s say a competing agency, you would be able to backfill them with another one.
Collin Cavanaugh (32:58.19)
That’s a great question. And we noticed that, of course, some of the top creators, getting to the top, top level can be difficult. So there’s only so many creators that exist at that highest echelon when it comes to revenue and that content. So what we did is we kind of developed an incubator program. So we’re able to take in newer creators, newer affiliates that want to learn, or maybe they’re only doing a few thousand a month in revenue, and really help build them up as a great creator.
So if they come through our ecosystem, our education, our process, and they become that, they’re definitely gonna wanna stick around with us. So providing with education, tips and tricks, and other kind of brands that they can kind of test on and build from allows them and allows us to pretty much deploy them onto those right brands. So testing with more generic creators, more basic creators that are just starting out, and of course, middle creators and top creators gives us the highest chance of our reality and really finding what’s working for the brands.
Moritz Schröder (33:50.787)
Do you also treat the top creators any differently besides maybe a couple of prices? Are they able to earn even higher commission if they hit a certain threshold or are you trying to be as fair across the board as possible with the commissions?
Collin Cavanaugh (34:07.502)
Definitely. So we’re pretty flexible with that, right? So we pretty much offer anyone who’s able to make that revenue, whether you’re a small creator or a big creator, we definitely want to incentivize you, right? So we don’t kind of pick and choose on that end. And if you’re able to generate great revenue, we want to reward you with higher commissions. You know, we’d also pay our creators for videos and we offer retainers to creators. So really, whatever you’re able to generate, would have no problem rewarding you and making it make sense for everyone involved.
Moritz Schröder (34:31.275)
I think that makes a ton of sense to just form that community and I’m sure it increases their loyalty to the agency and to the brands that they’re working with. How do you think about the other side of your work where you work with brands? How do you find them? How do you keep working with them? How do you keep them happy as an agency?
Collin Cavanaugh (34:54.252)
Definitely. So we have about five different channels and different methods of obtaining new clients, right? Of course, from different ads to cold outbound to referrals to content to partnerships we do with different agencies or different SaaS tools. We have a few different ways we kind of get these brands into our ecosystem.
So then once we go through the sales process and really just learn about it, it’s very consultative on our approach, because we have to make sure it’s the right fit. Not all brands are going to see success. It’s typically becoming more of a pay to play model. So we’ve to make sure you’re aligned with your vision and really how you see it playing out. TikTok Shop, as at any platform, let’s say you start on Meta or Amazon, the first few months are always very slow for the most part. You’re testing, especially if you’re a Cold Start brand, there is a lot of operations and systems that need to be put into place to really succeed.
So really educating them on that journey and make sure it’s a good fit for them. So if we’re really confident in the product and some of their budgets they may have and what’s aligned on that end, we more than willing would love to work with the brand and really partner and own that for them from a full channel perspective. Typically, our clients are looking for us for full service. So they want us to pretty much be their CMO when it comes to TikTok shop. So they’re asking us to deal with everything on the back end here and pretty much just ask for approvals, give them different insights and just give them reports.
and work with them one-on-one to really develop these winning strategies. So whether it be the flash sales, to different bundles, to incentive programs, maybe even developing a new products you just for TikTok Shop. We have plenty of brands that will have exclusives that exist only on TikTok Shop because the buyer demographic in the way the platform works from a checkout experience is so different than meta and Amazon that those products that are your hero skews off platform might not be what does the best on TikTok Shop. So really
giving them that full strategy is really what we thrive in, is the strategy perspective with these brands.
Moritz Schröder (36:45.003)
I guess you would also want to have products that just do very well visually on a TikTok video. You want to basically design a TikTok first product that for whatever reason can create a great hook and therefore just flies off the shelf.
Collin Cavanaugh (37:02.35)
100%. One of our biggest strategies for those brands is let’s say it might not be the most visual product or let’s say we’re not confident it’s going to do well as is. We’ll pretty much build out with the brand, maybe a free gift or a bundle that pretty much can drive up AOV, can drive up the user experience. So it’s going to really do really well. So little things like that do move the needle when it comes to TikTok Shop.
Moritz Schröder (37:25.461)
right.
Colin, as you know, I am not based in the US, I’m based in Europe. Unfortunately, we don’t have TikTok shop available in Sweden where I live. So I only look at social commerce unfolding in North America from the outside. For you, who’s somebody on the inside, can you walk me a little bit through how the entire industry looks like right now? Like, is it very saturated in terms of agencies, in terms of creators?
Is underserved still? Is it very competitive to run an agency as you do? Do you clash a lot with other agencies trying to do similar things? Are you fighting over clients? Or on the other hand, do you maybe feel like it’s one big community? Everybody’s trying to move the industry forward because everybody’s in the same boat, excited about social commerce.
Collin Cavanaugh (38:18.602)
Mm-hmm. That’s a great question. So we’re seeing a couple different things, right? So for example, we are a TikTok shop focused agency, right? A lot of the agencies that are out there, they’re a paid media agency that does TikTok shop, right? So TikTok shop is an add-on for them. It’s not their focus, right? So typically their best systems and operations don’t live in TikTok shop yet, right? So we live and breathe TikTok shop. So brands that really want to take advantage of TikTok shop love to work with partners like us.
because they’re not looking to test, they’re looking to scale. And the solutions we offer them pretty much tailor towards those types of brands. And of course we can test, which is a little bit different inputs that go into it. So a lot of brands right now in agencies is, it’s not too competitive from what we’ve seen because this is what we do. So a lot of our brands that are working with us, they’ll refer their different partners or different friends in the market. They really haven’t had a problem with that yet. We are a top ranked TSP partner.
So we get obviously connections with internal from TikTok. We give different webinars with them. So we really kind of infiltrate ourselves internally as well with those different connections, really take advantage of it. So it’s been great partnering with different agencies as well, right? Because a lot of them have TikTok shop divisions they’re looking to build out, but they’re not confident in the services they offer that they don’t want to bring their top brands to it. So they’d rather partner with us or kind of go hand in hand in some sort of strategic partnership that we can provide the best service to them. So where everyone’s
Moritz Schröder (39:46.056)
And what are some of the USPs that you as an agency bring forward? You already mentioned you’re very much focused on TikTok shop as opposed to being a very general media or ad agency. And I’m sure that’s a needle mover, but beyond that, when you talk to brands and they maybe have three other TikTok agencies, they’re considering what is some of the things that you bring up that really makes you stand out.
Collin Cavanaugh (40:15.293)
That’s a good question. There’s a few things, right? So one of course is the, you know, the 20, 30 plus brands we’re always working with at a given time. We have a lot of direct user experience, right? So we’re able to kind of see what’s working across the board and then bring that into different SOPs. All of our systems and automations are really built to scale brands. So let’s say you’re a Cold Start brand. We have a program that we pretty much call the Cold Start program, right? So if you don’t have your product listing set up,
Let’s say you don’t have any reviews. We can pretty much import over your Shopify reviews. We can work with great affiliates in the beginning on the paid side to really kind of get that volume of content filled out and really speed run the learnings in the beginning. Right. So, excuse me, a lot of different agencies and brands will come to us because they want to take advantage of that program. Right. So it’s a much different scaling experience from taking a cold start brand versus a brand that’s already doing well. Right. Those are two different levels of inputs in two different stages to capture. Right. It’s very, it’s not as
Moritz Schröder (41:08.638)
Right.
Collin Cavanaugh (41:11.5)
difficult to scale a brand that’s doing well. You’re just kind of looking in the back end and looking at the right levers and putting the systems in the place. So we have all the proper pods and the different teams and the flow of knowledge being transferred that we can provide that experience, of course. And then mainly too, we have a great community. We have one of the best communities when it comes to affiliate side, as we have between our brands, multiple six figures a month in paid retainers that we need to spend. So we’re able to give that money back to our creators, back to our communities. There are so many groups.
that exists on either the agency side or the creator side, where they’re pretty much only offering commissions only. They don’t have that level of volume we have and the level of great brands that want to actually pay and actually play in the market properly. So we’re able to bring that back to us. So brands that come to us or agents that come to us, those two main metrics, of course, in our focus really what gives them the trust to do. of course we have great case studies and great kind of different backgrounds we can share with them.
Moritz Schröder (42:05.374)
Colin, when I was checking out your website of your agency, I saw that you not only work with TikTok Shop, but you do also work with YouTube Shopping and Instagram Shop, which I find very unique. I know those exist, but I’ve actually not come across any agency listing them specifically. So I’m curious to hear your take on them, where they currently stand in terms of social shopping, and if you have hopes for them to eventually maybe catch up with TikTok Shop or find their own little niche.
Collin Cavanaugh (42:35.702)
Yes, it’s very exciting to see those bigger players start branching into it, right? So YouTube live shopping has been beta now for a little while. It’s a much different user experience, right? Because they require their affiliates or their creators to have a much higher threshold, right? A lot of those creators, a lot of the brands that can take a part of it have to be large right now, right? It’s not really catering towards the smaller demographic that TikTok Shop can, right? So we’re looking forward to really seeing that expand more and partnering directly with them.
We typically see, right, if you can do well in TikTok shop, now we should look into YouTube live shopping. Now we should look into the different social commerce and live selling platforms to bring your brand across that kind of omnichannel experience. So really building that experience out for them on YouTube live shopping is great. And we do expect that to pick more up in Q1 and Q2. Meta, Instagram shopping as well, that is still much more beta, right? So they did release their kind of update on that end here. It’s not as customized to allow for volume.
Again, a lot of those creators are pretty much influencers they’re working with now. So once they can bring that to the general demographic, we do see it picking up much more as well. But of course they have to release it properly. So we can test it and do the right operations for everyone.
Moritz Schröder (43:36.925)
Right.
Moritz Schröder (43:47.891)
Yeah, it was kind of a shame that Meta decided to shut down live shopping in 2022 for, I think, Facebook and 23 for Instagram. Do think that’s going to come back eventually?
Collin Cavanaugh (44:00.494)
If they can have the proper product team behind it, I don’t see why they would miss this kind of bridge there. Just because again, it’s becoming such large on TikTok Shop, that if they’re able to bridge that gap properly, it would be an area they definitely should look into.
Moritz Schröder (44:13.659)
Right. And do you have clients actively asking to have you manage their YouTube shopping part or Instagram shopping as well? Or do they mostly come to you for TikTok shop? And then you’re like, Hey, there’s actually more to social commerce. when you can help you with a more omnichannel approach in that sense.
Collin Cavanaugh (44:34.806)
Yep. That’s exactly how it goes. Right. Because TikTok shop is pretty much the ecosystem right now for it. The brands want to start there. And typically the larger players who have the budget, who have the willpower to test, right. That’s a whole different budget level. Then they want to go to YouTube live shopping and seeing it. So we’re seeing that transition over now. But once they typically start a TikTok shop, they’re able to use that internally to justify it, get the right political buy in the different stakeholder buy in pretty much the test to platforms. And then we can go from there.
Moritz Schröder (44:39.613)
right.
Moritz Schröder (45:03.164)
Yeah, it’s going to be super interesting to see if those platforms actually put the resources behind building out a proper ecosystem like TikTok Shop already has. I do think you kind of need to have that closed loop to really make it work as well as it does for TikTok. And I’m not sure.
yet that YouTube or Meta is willing to do that. Especially with Meta also focusing so much on AI right now. I’m not sure they’re going to be able to have the resources to split between those two approaches, but I certainly would hope for it and I think it would be smart in the long run.
Collin Cavanaugh (45:36.578)
We’re excited to see what happens.
Moritz Schröder (45:39.099)
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, a lot of people are talking about how there’s going to be either the fully automated AI version of shopping, where you basically just tell Chetjipiti to go out and buy things for you. And you don’t even have to interact with the storefront at all anymore. Or you have the discovery commerce side of it, where you go to TikTok and you basically let UGC inspire you to purchase this. And maybe there’s still going to be a middle ground where you go to websites and buy
yourself but probably it’s gonna shrink continuously.
Collin Cavanaugh (46:13.156)
yes, we’re already seeing some different, I would say, of SaaS tool creators or different agents in this space kind of building up AI avatars. So it would really interesting to see if an AR avatar could actually be live selling products for you. So you could be live 24-7 without human interaction. Of course, you could have a little bit of output on the inside, making sure the operation runs well. But having an AR avatar of your choice sell your products live.
Moritz Schröder (46:22.173)
Hmm.
Moritz Schröder (46:29.245)
Right.
Collin Cavanaugh (46:39.15)
So you can have dozens of different lives at the same given time, 24-7, catering to all those different buyers and getting in all those inputs. That’d be awesome to really see that kind of be built. And I do see it going down that direction.
Moritz Schröder (46:52.43)
Yeah, it seems hard to avoid. Also with AI, UGC already being on the rise, certainly that’s going to be something that the platforms then have to deal with as well as the buyers. I think once we’re not able to tell the difference anymore between a real human and an AI version of a human selling you something, us as consumers won’t be able to make that choice consciously anymore to buy from AI or not. So it’s going to be up to the platform to decide whether or not they want to go down that
or not.
Collin Cavanaugh (47:23.844)
yes, yep exactly, has to be done properly, Or will be, well not the best user experience if so.
Moritz Schröder (47:31.085)
No, it’s going to be a bit scary as well, to be honest, on the consumer side to not know who you’re buying from or who you’re listening to. I for one really like that social aspect of social commerce. So I’m a little bit weary that AI might just ruin it altogether because you just can’t differentiate anymore.
Collin Cavanaugh (47:51.712)
Exactly.
Moritz Schröder (47:53.713)
If we talk about maybe a little bit more niche platforms in social commerce, where do you focus your attention there? You already mentioned Whatnot and they’re blowing up lately also past the collectibles part of their business model. Is there any other platform that you feel like people are currently not paying enough attention to that is flying under the radar?
Collin Cavanaugh (48:18.574)
That’s a question. And we did briefly cover YouTube live shopping, right? So for the brands that actually are applicable from the USP side, of course, have the right budget and the right fit for it. I do think that a lot of brands aren’t even aware of that, right? So a lot of them are not even considering that as an outcome for them. Of course, you have whatnot. We used to have Flip. Flip was a decent platform actually to look into for brands that were doing pretty well before they kind of sunsetted the platform and pretty much shut down the operations side.
So I do see a couple of the other larger players getting into it. So for example, Twitch, Twitch just launched YouTube, or excuse me, they just launched their own live shopping platform. So some of the large beauty brands are going over to test that as well. So what we see is a lot of the live streaming platforms that exist, Twitch could be Kick. They’re eventually most likely than not going to launch a live selling option. So brands that can do really well on TikTok, for example, we can just run a very similar playbook.
on those different platforms and partner with those right creators to really bring it to market.
Moritz Schröder (49:19.769)
And then on top of that, have something like Amazon Live where you have the whole infrastructure of selling online and you just put this live shopping experience as a layer on top of that.
Collin Cavanaugh (49:30.862)
Exactly. Exactly. I know they’ve been a little slow to the market. So I know they have the proper brands, they have the proper buyers, but if they can actually make that a great user experience, that would be an awesome application to bring to the different brands we work with and just in general, if I were to look into.
Moritz Schröder (49:46.149)
Yeah.
How bullish generally are you on live shopping? Obviously it’s massive, massive in China and also the rest of Asia. It’s not quite as big here yet. Also percentage wise, just in terms of GMV produced. Are you very much into it? Because it sounds like your affiliates are mostly doing content, right? They’re not necessarily doing live shopping. Are you having an angle where you’re also pushing into the live shopping space or is that something you’re more
following from the outside for now.
Collin Cavanaugh (50:19.374)
great question. And of course, we have a large handful of creators that do organic content. There’s also a very good handful as well that do live shopping. These are the type of creators that prefer to go live. So they’ll go live on their page. And if they’re a great creator, we actually can pair them with the brand and they can go live on the brand’s behalf. So live content and live selling is massive still on TikTok Shop. So some of largest brands are able to do 100,000 plus in a single live stream, whether that’s a new product release,
Moritz Schröder (50:47.184)
Right.
Collin Cavanaugh (50:48.608)
or it’s a high AOV item, or of course you bring in maybe an influencer, you go big with the kind of launch program behind it. We are of course expanding into that market, right? So we’re actually building out now an in-house studio to offer live selling to our brands, right? So we want to bridge that gap between of course the brands that can really work on that and do see the benefit of that. So we’re going to have a solution really quickly for our brands and of course any other brands who want to be on live selling, right? Every so often we’ll get conversations with brands that only want to do live selling, right?
Moritz Schröder (51:00.528)
nice.
Moritz Schröder (51:18.096)
Mm.
Collin Cavanaugh (51:18.35)
For example, let’s say you have a very high AOV item. It might not be the right fit when it comes to TikTok shop and buying it natively from an affiliate or just from your shops page. It might actually be a product that needs to be sold live. And if that’s the example of it, bringing them that solution is going to be exactly what they need to have.
Moritz Schröder (51:39.428)
That is really cool to see come to fruition. There’s more and more agencies that are actually building their own studios. I’ve seen Outlandish doing similar things. So it’s really cool to see that take off the way it does. I also feel like there’s a much steeper learning curve than making UGC content. So I feel like there’s more white space to still be conquered and discovered. I recently talked to a live selling coach here on my podcast and she walked
me through her process of selling life. She has been selling on national television in Canada for many years. So it’s really cool to see people learn more of that skillset and develop it almost like an art form that actually takes potentially years of practice. So it’s not as simple as going live, even though that’s the starting point. But I think if you actually want to separate yourself from the pack, you just have to bet to be a little bit better than the rest of the people. And you’re going to have a huge advantage.
Collin Cavanaugh (52:39.341)
100%. Interesting you actually mentioned QVC as QVC is one of the top brands on TikTok Shop, right? Because they have the infrastructure, they have the live studio space in Westchester, Pennsylvania. So they just have light years ahead when it comes to experience and knowledge base. So of course they’re doing really well on that end of the spectrum. And we’re actually seeing too as well, just conversations I’m having too as well on LinkedIn and different kind of organic posts we’re receiving is a lot of QVC sellers that are veterans in the space want to get into TikTok Shop.
They want to develop their own live studios. They want to develop their own coaching programs. So we’re excited to kind of explore those partnerships with these veterans in the space and really bring it now. Okay. Let’s bring it to the new age way to do QVC. Let’s bring to the new age way to do live selling. So it’s a very interesting platform to be on right now.
Moritz Schröder (53:08.462)
Right.
Moritz Schröder (53:25.035)
It sure is. I imagine that QVC and everyone working there would absolutely crush it because of that gap of skill set to people who just casually want to try it out on the platform. If we look a little bit into the future, Colin, Black Friday and Black Week is around the corner. What do you expect? What we will see on TikTok shop, on social commerce generally when it comes to the numbers this year for Black Friday.
Collin Cavanaugh (53:54.732)
Yes. So we see Black Friday, Cyber Monday as a massive campaign. So we’ve been internally prepping for the last few months on our own incentive programs, our own different promotions, the different way we’re going to position the products from both the affiliate side to the organic content, and really how the brand just kind of approaches it. So work with all of our brands one-on-one to develop.
I don’t know about Black Friday, Cyber Monday launch plan, a go-to market strategy on that side of things. We do see Q4 and that kind of time period being a blowout. So a lot of brands are going to able to see a very large increase. You’re going to make sure you the proper inventory set up, the proper customer support, the proper logistics, and the back-end support to really handle that, as it’s going to be a large influx. You’ve got to be ready for that level of increase in revenue.
Moritz Schröder (54:44.532)
And from an agency point of view, what is your angle in Q4? Is it mainly that you think it’s gonna increase GMV because of more demand? Is it because more discounts, especially when comes to Blackweek, will you just push more content and push your creators to create more affiliate content? Or is it all over the above?
Collin Cavanaugh (55:07.47)
Good question. So it’s a combination of the things. Of course, it’ll be a little bit different depending on the brand, but as a high level on the agency side, we’re running very aggressive internal incentive and gamification programs to all of our creators. So we’re rewarding everyone who’s able to generate X amount of dollars over this time period and really get more volume and content level up. So flooding the market. As you know, this is a very busy time period from running ads. It’s going to be the most expensive it is. It will be now.
So really bringing out as much organic size as can. And then of course, we’re good to branch it up any bundles, new products queues or promotions that we can run to really take advantage of this hot season we have, of course, with the holidays approaching, so we can bring them the best user experience. And of course, bridge that into Q1.
Moritz Schröder (55:53.141)
And how does TikTok and TikTok shop support agencies like yours during that busy season? Are they holding your hands or are you pretty much left to your own devices?
Collin Cavanaugh (56:03.438)
Good question. So TikTok always internally can offer support, right? So we typically don’t need much support unless it’s a solution or a problem we can’t get on our own. So on that end of things, TikTok Shop is supporting a very big internal. So there’s going to be a couple of large internal campaigns and promotions that they’re offering, right? So you can discount your products and they’ll cover a portion of that that you actually discounted by. Or for example, they’re going to offer more cash back.
but more different, know, buy one, get one experiences or an extra 5 % off coupon. So TikTok shop does take it very important, right? So they know this is one of the biggest seasons as well. So they’re gonna provide as much support as they can to really make the experience best as possible.
Moritz Schröder (56:43.681)
Yeah, I always had the impression that they’re pretty hands-on and pretty good at supporting their ecosystem to really drive results. I think that’s admirable that they’re willing to go above and beyond for everyone in their ecosystem. And I’m sure it’s going to lead to great results.
I know you and I, we are very much in the social commerce bubble, but if you zoom out a little bit on the US market, how much do you think social commerce and TikTok shop in particular has already entered the zeitgeist in terms of shopping? Do you think people accept it by now as a viable shopping channel or is there still more education to be done? Is it still very early stages? What do you expect to see during the holiday season now? Is it going to be something
that is just routinely done that people shop on TikTok shop.
Collin Cavanaugh (57:36.686)
That’s a great question. So we’re definitely seeing a large uptick in of course, revenue and then of course, buyers, right? So a lot of the existing buyers now have trust. And of course, with the different news that came out, right? Of revolving TikTok shop, the buyer trust is the highest it’s ever been in a while, right? So a lot of the, as you know, there’s very minimal legacy brands and even billion dollar plus brands on TikTok shop, right? Because of course they’re slow to move, but when they do move, they bring big budgets and they make waves.
So we’ve already started conversations over the last month re-engaging with those enterprise-level brands, those billion-dollar companies that we’ve spoken to the last couple of months, even last year, that were hesitant to launch. They weren’t ready.
So we’re having those conversations now in Q4 and they’re coming to us like, Colin, now it’s time to re-engage on this. Let’s look into what a launch strategy looks like for us in Q1, Q2, and next year. So pretty much since that news update and those different updates kind of came out, we’ve seen a large influx in brands that are on the larger scale, legacy brands that want to be on here. There’s no longer an option. It’s a must have now.
It is the premier discovery platform and they do not want to miss this next jump in this next gold rush that we’re going to see happening now. So it’s been very exciting to see that kind of ramp up again happen for those brands that were kind of hesitant and weary in the beginning.
Moritz Schröder (58:54.044)
That’s awesome to hear. And I’m for one, I’m very excited to see what the future will hold for social commerce. Colin, really awesome to talk with you today. Where do you want to redirect people? If they’re interested in learning more about TikTok shop and social commerce or working with you, where should they check you out?
Collin Cavanaugh (59:11.926)
Yes, so there’s two different places. The first, of course, you can connect with me on my LinkedIn. My name is Colin Cavanaugh on there. You’ll see me on there. also posting a bunch of organic content, educational and just different insights we’re seeing in the market. And then our website where you can connect with us and our sales team, which is commercesocial.co. We’d love to kind of connect with any brands who want to learn more about TikTok Shop and take advantage of the ecosystem.
Moritz Schröder (59:36.488)
Awesome. Colin, thanks so much for coming on.
Collin Cavanaugh (59:39.503)
Thank you for having me. been a pleasure.