Hey Reader,

It's Josh from AmpliSell.

Yesterday, I spent the day inside TikTok's HQ in New York. The TikTok Shop team briefed us on what's working on TikTok and how we can leverage it to drive GMV.

This comes straight from the teams that see the data for every brand on TikTok. They know what the top sellers do differently and shared it with us. And each session tried to answer the question: what drives GMV?

Here are the 5 answers they shared.

Build a Creator Community

They opened with creator community and they closed with it so you know it's important.

High GMV comes from high video volume and the top sellers on the platform get that volume from massive creator communities: hundreds of creators posting, coached by a dedicated community manager whose only job is building and engaging that group.

You are limiting your growth if your creator program is a spreadsheet of 15 people that gets an email every now and then.

TikTok’s advice was direct: put someone on community full time or work with an agency partner.

Their focus on the value of a creator community doesn't come as a surprise to me because we are seeing the same and that's why I'm always going on about it.

Get your Hero Products into the Strategic Key Product Pool (SKPP)

If you learn one acronym, make it SKPP. Think of it like Amazon’s "retail ready" status, except the SKPP is more powerful. TikTok’s data on products in the pool vs not in the pool: 200x the product views, 1.3x GPM (GMV per thousand views), 2x GMV growth, and 74% affiliate marketplace penetration.

What is it, exactly? SKPP is a pool of products TikTok has flagged as meeting its quality bar, and both the platform and its creators treat that pool as a shopping list. Products inside get pushed harder by the algorithm and included in TikTok's own promotions. Creators and creator partners browse the pool when they choose products for collaborations. TikTok layers on subsidies too: free sampling through its top creator programs, priority campaign registration, marketing support across every channel, and ad credits once a product shows early sales. TikTok describes entry as the milestone that turns a potential product into a hero product.

Getting products into SKPP is a straightforward checklist. You have to setup: price parity, 60 days of supply, an active affiliate program, samples enabled, and fast fulfillment, e.g. FBT. TikTok sets a target for number of products in the SKPP pool per brand: 8 products in the pool for smaller shops, 15 to 20 as you grow.

GMV Max Needs Videos to Be Successful

TikTok wants your ad dollars in GMV Max, just like Amazon, Meta, Google, but they are clear about the ROI.

Shops crossing roughly 100 creatives per month per hero product see step-change GMV growth. One hundred. Per product. Per month.

GMV Max pulls creative from five sources automatically, and mass-authorized affiliate videos are the strongest of them. In TikTok’s data, pairing affiliates with GMV Max drove 1.6x higher GMV growth. Your creator community is what feeds GMV Max. Don't start GMV Max until you've got at least 50 videos.

Two key things to know before you start.

First, the platform measure on ROI, not ROAS. It's total GMV divided by ad spend, which is the same blended math as MER and the same thinking behind TaCOS on Amazon.

Second, expect a lumpy start with lots of "dud" days and a choppy sales chart.

Their cold-start playbook in a nutshell:

3 to 7 hero products, at least $500 per week in budget, target ROI around 1.5, at least 5 videos at launch and 14 by the end of week 2, and budget changes of 10 to 30% every two days.

You’re on track when you pass $1,500 GMV per week and hit your ROI target 4 to 5 days out of 7.

Move Hero products into Fulfillment by TikTok (FBT)

FBT is their FBA and it matters just as much.

Products converting to FBT see a 20% lift in conversion and up to 40% more product views. The "fast-shipping" badge builds buyer trust and faster fulfillment ranks higher in search.

They have $50M in incentives set aside to move sellers over, including a 10% discount on fulfillment fees through September 30 for qualifying sellers.

The rule we have run on Amazon for a decade applies here: your product needs to be selling via FBA/FBT if you want to succeed.

Use Collaborations to Recruit Creators at Scale

The creator matchmaking tool (TAP) lets you reach thousands of creators at once for time-limited campaigns called collaborations. There are three types: seller-run, creator-partner-run, and exclusive TikTok Shop collabs where the platform curates top-tier creators, adds its own promotion, and sometimes funds samples.

Top tier commissions drive adoption and you get a huge pool of creators jumping on your hero products. You offer a higher rate than your open plan (25% is the typical ceiling). This solves the problem of activating a lot of creators for key tentpole events.

High Level Creators Drive More Sales

TikTok tiers every creator from L1 to L6 based on monthly GMV. An L1 creator moves $1K to $5K a month. An L6 moves $400K or more. Most creators on the platform have $0 GMV.

You want L3+ creators AND you want to get the "up and coming" creators.

One L4 creator can outsell a hundred L1s, but the creator pool gets significantly smaller as you go up. Only around 8,000 creators sit at L3 or above. Unless you're NIKE, you won't be able to get the big creators right away, but L1 - L3 are still accessible.

The shops growing fastest find those creators early, bring them into their community, and help the creator scale up with them.

Your GMV Growth Flywheel

Every answer above feeds your GMV growth flywheel. More creators make more videos. High-level creators create better videos. More and better videos drive GMV. Ads accelerate this with existing creative.

All of this straight from the behind-the-scenes data.

If you are struggling with any of this and your brand does over $5M/yr -> book a call with me.

We help ecommerce leaders who don't have the time and team to scale TikTok Shop.

• Creator Community Building
• Sampling and Content Strategy
• GMV Max & DTC Advertising Campaigns
• LIVE stream operations & scheduling
• Halo sales tracking and reporting
• Full-funnel analytics & optimization

We plan, execute, and deliver TikTok growth.

Book a call here -> https://calendar.app.google/SjUfGyLrPdH9g7fS9​
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Cheers,