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Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

They verified it from a gov database or just decipher the DL / PP based on the numbers?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

My ratio for product reviews to items sold is 20%, with one customer taking a picture. If it’s 20% now I think it’ll be more around 30% long term.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

lol what, you're lucky to even be that high. Most platforms no more than 5% leave reviews. 10-15% if you follow up with people asking for reviews.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

On Depop I have 25% working off 700+ sales. I find shipping same day or next day usually is biggest factor in customers perception of your service. Sometimes if its made to order you cannot do that but otherwise shipping fast as possible = happy customer. I used to be lazy with this, never took it serious as I have. It really has changed my business, and turned customers into repeat buyers.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Do you primarily deal with small packages? or also large ones - or variety of stuff?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Small enough where I can walk to the post office with 20 packages per day. They vary in size but I do not need to ship with boxes, I use poly mailers from Uline. Back pre 2020 I used to have 3 day handling and would wait until the 3rd, sometimes 4th day, then if there was ever a delay with USPS you can imagine the problems. After so much success it is easy to take for granted. Then after 2020 I began selling stuff I didn't have inventory of and then buying it once I made the sale. It is great in the sense of not holding inventory, and reducing costs but causes way to many problems.

I've made a habit to ship everything same day now. Depending on when they purchase it might be shipped out next day, but it's just part of my schedule, it's a must each and every day.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Walk to post office with 20 packages? You must have big hands =P

You're one very good example of discipline, not being lazy, and taking your selling as a real business. Most people don't even have discipline.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I put them in a bag, lol.

My friend I have been on this forum since 2013. I grew up with this, many of the members who used to post here are long gone. Now that I'm older I do realize how much has changed over the last decade. I've made my share of mistakes but I have been very successful also. Mastering the craft of this I guess. I know how corrupt eBay is, and all these marketplaces.

I think we all are participating in a window of time that is fleeting. Every year the internet becomes more saturated, sure eBay or Amazon have their own MAU's, but this all becomes harder as time passes. For me the next step is opening my own website. Then using that income to reinvest in other things to de-risk my lifestyle.

It's more a sense of urgency. Need to maximize this opportunity because at the pace things are changing, stealth at some point will become almost obsolete. I thought it was many times prior, so maybe we find a way, and adapt...

I imagine many can relate to what I'm saying.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

YOu could have just gone with the big hands =P

ALl joking aside though, you'll be surprised how many people don't have a sense of urgency and a long term game plan.
Times do change and I felt it since I'm one of the oldest members here aside from Aspkin. But when times change, other opportunities arise and different methods come to light.

I wouldn't think there won't be anymore ways to make money out of them but I'll also maximise all I can now for as long as I can.

Good mindset.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I think we all are participating in a window of time that is fleeting. Every year the internet becomes more saturated, sure eBay or Amazon have their own MAU's, but this all becomes harder as time passes. For me the next step is opening my own website. Then using that income to reinvest in other things to de-risk my lifestyle.

------------
opening your own website?
Not sure how effective it can be?
and how big is your budget?
ebay listing is free,if it only charges 15 cents per listing, I bet many listings will disappear.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

big qs to assess. not sure what you mean by many listings will disappear?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

No, listing on your own website is free. Every sale on eBay is 15% on the low for fees, if you are using ads its over 20%. If you do the math and your stuff sells on eBay there is no reason why nowadays you can't build your own website. You've got to be creative and understanding of how to market, but thats business. Running ads on Facebook, IG, etc. it's all targeted marketing. So yes you have to pay to run ads but you're paying eBay 20%+ to sell on there and run ads, it costs far less on your website.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Yes I agree. It's all about adapting and not having a fixed mindset. That's probably the number one ingredient someone needs to succeed long term, especially with stealth.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

So you know how to get a website to page 1 and all the necessary things needed to survive long term?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I have had my account since July 2023, with 25+ sales and over $6,000 grossed yet I'm STILL on deferred payments.

No violations, ever.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

stealth can be done whatever they ask for or verify :)

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

How long is the deferred payment for?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Feels ridiculous but mind you, hasn't been a year yet

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I have no idea, and honestly I hate this trash marketplace. Sure I am getting money from it but their customer service is so obscenely bad it leaves me speechless.

They literally, and I mean literally condone fraud.

Twice now I have had a customer open a return request saying the package was not received when tracking CLEARLY shows delivered and they just automatically refund. Sure, I will get my money back after complaining and waste my time for weeks, but for what? From my perspective there is zero seller protection whatsoever.

I do not think it's possible to scale a business on here, not even close. Unless you do not care about these things like I do, or have low value items that can easily be written off. My average sales are $150+, and pisses me off they allow people to scam so easily. It's actually pathetic.

I was getting payouts in like 5 days until someone scammed me, and although I got my money back after a month it put me in deferred payments which makes no sense. So now that someone else did this again I guess I'm just stuck with this long payout. It's a joke marketplace. They have so much money and yet manage to operate like a startup.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Both AMZN and Ebay are expensive for the sellers,and Etsy with Google Marketing is getting up there as well.
But if you find it cheaper and better to have your own website and drive traffic ,the do it.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

always a good point for website if possible

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

The most important thing on Tiktok is to make videos of the products you want to sell. example 3 to 5 short videos per day of 25 seconds is good for business.
Doing those small tests of the product is great, if people watch your videos and you keep them interested you can start selling.
The only thing I see as a problem is that if you do dropshipping, it will be very difficult to have the products to make video reviews.:welcome;

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

How long does it take for product to show? I listed my first item a few hours ago and it says active, but it's not showing in searches?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

should be within 24-48 hours usually.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I'd say as long as your wins are way more than your loses, you still make a good profit.

You're not selling expensive stuff are you?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

24-48 hours is fairly standard

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Tip: Might not affect most people but I was selling this particular brand and all of a sudden every time I went to list a new item it failed. I kept getting "brand authorization", even though the brand is not in the prohibited list.

If you capitalize the brand name, or have something like "Nike", but select "nike" under their brands list that can actually make you fail inspection. I had my brand capitalized like "NIKE", but was selecting under the list "Nike"... changed it to "NIKE", and boom no issues at all.

I suspect this is also a way to game the system with prohibited brands. If you use key words that are already under the brand list, then it should pass. For lack of a better example, if you have a brand thats "Nike" and see "Nike Authentic", under the brands, having "Nike Authentic" in your title should allow for a pass through their system even if the brand "Nike" is prohibited.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

The problem with banned brands like Nike and others is that many times other sellers, competitors, report other people's accounts and make eBay investigate your account and block you.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I do not sell Nike, however there are plenty other less risky brands that are prohibited on TikTok.

In terms of people who report you, that is why I never keep a listing active for more than 2 months. That, and for a variation listing if I've sold lets say 4-5 items, I will end it and restart another listing. Therefore if people are reporting it, you need a lot of those to allow for the system to kick in and flag you

By not keeping it active long you're able to bypass many of those issues.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

and bots takedown?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Yes, I absolutely agree with eliminating bots, in general, apart from all that, you must take good care of our friends accounts, it is the most valuable thing.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

or not use friends accounts at all?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

I'm really new to this. I've only got a few products for sale. Can you add in keywords like you can on Amazon?

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Solefooddbk should be named our resident TikTok expert at this point.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

They just updated deferred payments to now 31 days lol, it's going to take me about 45 days to receive my money.

Thank you @SaiJin

One other thing, their policy for giving out refunds to customers is just as loose for sellers. There are lots of scammers on TikTok, at least my customers are. Recently I had someone ask to return their order, it was worth $1,200+....

I have sold online for over 10 years and have no idea how this happened, however they returned their package with tracking marked delivered but it actually wasn't. I talked with the manager at my UPS store, she wrote me a letter saying this, had it signed and everything....

TikTok refunded me $1,200+ off that letter, even with tracking showed delivered. Just like they refund customers even if tracking shows delivered. Their relaxed policy won't last forever, but for now it's unbelievably loose.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

It's the same scam trick mercari sellers use.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Well, there are actual businesses out there now that operate to take advantage of return polices from these marketplaces. They are organized in a business structure, have ability to manipulate tracking details, all sorts of things.

One thing eBay does good at is protecting against this easy manipulative fraud from customers.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

This protection is one of the few good things that eBay has for us, even TikTok does not have this power to prevent us from being scammed as sellers.

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

at least it seems like TikTok issues easier refunds to sellers who have been scammed...

Re: Anyone selling on TikTok shop?
 

Businesses as in a state registered business or just a ring of criminals?