In this episode, Ali Dee breaks down her initial thoughts about and her experience with TikTok shop. She walks us through what it's like setting one up, and dives into the benefits and features the platform offers.
Join us inside the TRENDSETTER membership here.
Work with me in The Sales Lab, DM me SALES on IG or TT for the deets
Follow the Retail Success Club on TikTok and Instagram @retailsuccessclub
In this episode, Ali Dee breaks down her initial thoughts about and her experience with TikTok shop. She walks us through what it's like setting one up, and dives into the benefits and features the platform offers.
Join us inside the TRENDSETTER membership here.
Work with me in The Sales Lab, DM me SALES on IG or TT for the deets
Follow the Retail Success Club on TikTok and Instagram @retailsuccessclub
This episode of boutique success club is brought to you by boutique blastoff launch your dream boutique. have you been wanting to turn your dream of owning a successful boutique into reality? Let me introduce you to boutique blastoff launch your dream boutique. The ultimate online course designed to guide you. Step-by-step on your boutique journey. Hi, I'm Allie D your boutique bestie and chief cheerleader in this program, you'll gain the knowledge, confidence, and strategies to build a thriving boutique that stands out from the crowd. So what are you waiting for? Start the journey to launching your dream boutique today with. Boutique blast off. Head to boutique success club.com to enroll now. Welcome to Boutique Success Club. I'm Allie d, the founder of Boutique Success Club, your boutique bestie, and your chief cheerleader with over a decade of experience in the retail industry trenches. I'm here to help you skyrocket your store. Get ready to dive into insider strategies and educational resources that will transform your boutique business. No more guesswork. No more struggling alone. We'll be your partner in this journey, and together we will conquer all the obstacles. This is Boutique Success Club. Hello, welcome to another episode of the boutique success club podcast. I'm Alli D and I am so thrilled that you are tuning in today. This is going to be a little bit of an unusual episode, in my opinion. Because I didn't sit down and really prepare anything. I am just going to purely flow off of the experience that I had this weekend that I just have to share with you. So I'm not sure if it's going to be as long as usual, but I have to get all of my thoughts out right now because I am so inspired. And so into everything that I saw this weekend that I just got to give you all the tea right here right now. So I decided to join, take, talk, shop this weekend, and I want to give you my 2 cents on the whole thing. So, if you don't know, take talk, shop is a new ish features just been rolled out for just a few months. Now that take TOK has come out with that is basically a shop that is directly connected to your Tik TOK account. Meaning people, customers can purchase directly from tick talks. They don't have to click off and go to your boutiques website or Facebook or wherever else you are selling your product. You can add it directly to the Tik TOK platform. Now, when I watched this feature roll out, I was learning. I was studying, I was watching, I was observing, I was taking notes. I was doing all the things to see how this feature was going to play out. So at first there was a lot of kinks that had to be worked out. I had a lot of boutique owner, friends that were brave. They jumped on in the very, very beginning. And they had a lot of hiccups. That they encountered along the way in the beginning. So I watched that all play out. They would give me the feedback. They would tell me it looks like things are improving. They're working on things. All the backend stuff and I just. Kept watching and kept observing. And then I felt like the feedback was getting to be so positive. And I was watching all of these stores really go from having like very little success or finding it difficult or having all these kinks to figure out. To then all of a sudden, seeing a lot of success and seeing tick talk shop really changed the trajectory of their entire business. I'm talking about going from like two to four orders a day to now they're packing 50 orders, 60 orders. They're having to limit the amount of orders that they're packing because they just simply don't have the manpower to handle it all. So then naturally I was like, okay, let me see what this tick talk shop is about. Number one, I wanted to figure out if it was going to be something that would work for me in my business. Number two, I wanted to get all the tea for you guys so I can relay everything that goes on behind the scenes. So. So you can make an educated opinion on whether or not this is something you want to dive into and here's a little spoiler alert it is, but we will get to that. My boutique besties. I cannot believe that this feature is free. I cannot believe that tic talk does not charge boutiques and to be on this platform. This was the one thing that I kept saying to myself over and over as I was setting everything up going, oh my gosh. The amount of. Things that you can do to promote sales of your products. And they're not taking a commission, they're not taking a cut and they're not charging you to do it like Shopify. They charge you a fee every month to be on their platform selling. And they're not even doing any marketing for you. Like hello this is huge huge So that's the first thing that I had to get off of my chest is just, I cannot believe that this is free and I don't think like, I don't know. I don't think it's going to be free forever. You guys it's just too valuable. There is just too much amazing. Things that it can do for you. I don't know how else to describe it. That it is just one of the most valuable tools that I have ever seen come across social media and marketing in years. Remember I have been in this game for years and years and years, I have seen all the trends. I have seen the ups and downs. I've seen Facebook pages be, you know, the. Biggest thing in the world to totally nothing. I've seen Instagram go from amazing to nothing. I've seen Tik TOK, just bloom and blossom into the amazing tool that it is for boutique owners. And now with tic talk shop, Y'all. Oh, my goodness. So I am just so impressed. Okay. Let's talk about the setup, the setup. Wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I'm not going to lie. There's a few little things that I think that they could improve when you're going through the onboarding process as a boutique or a store or a brand or a business, whatever you are selling on tech talk. When you're first getting started, it asks you if you want to create a seller platform, or if you want to sign up using your own account, I signed up using our account. I have another friend who did it as like a seller platform. It got really confusing linking the two. So I would just recommend go ahead and sign up from your Tik TOK account. Of course, your boutique Tik TOK account. You know, we've already discussed that. You're going to have a boutique page that is specifically for your boutique. That's the account you're going to want to sign up with. I also believe that you need to be a business account, which is something that I have always said. Oof. I don't necessarily know that I agree with, because I feel like they limit your views because they want you to start advertising. However, I am now saying that if you want to take talk shop, you need to be a business profile. You need to have that setting turned on. You are going to lose like all of the cool sounds. There's ways around that. You're not going to have access to as much great music. Um, but that's okay. We don't really need to focus on that that much. Anyways, we're focusing more on your strategies that you learned in the tic talk for boutiques guide that I have. And, um, that's not really focused on what type of music you have any way. So you do give up a few things, but I'm telling you the benefits definitely outweigh some of the little cons. So that's the first thing, the onboarding process, what I do like, but it is a little bit of a hassle is they're going to ask you to verify a lot of information. So you're going to have to, um, of course sign up and let them know if you are an LLC or a corporation, your EIN, your tax number. You're going to need all that information handy. It's going to populate a w nine because you will get a 10 99 from Tech-Talk. If you sell over$600, you have to report it to the IRS. Of course. We know this, but they're going to double-check and they're going to have their own backs. And they're going to send you the 10 99 to make sure that the government knows that they're telling you that you have income. You need to report. Um, So just the onboarding process in and of itself was not something that I was like super thrilled with. I did have to upload some documents to prove my business address. I had to upload like a utility bill, a bank statement, and a credit card bill. Of course you can black out all of the personal information. The only thing for me personally, they wanted to see was that the business address matched the business name. So that was the little, little, you know, roadblock that I had to. To get over for my business. I've seen other people have different types of roadblocks for me. That's what it was. It also wanted to verify some personal information again, with the address, making sure that all matches on the tax things don't give them any information. Like anything private. Um, I just kept it very basic to exactly what they asked, which was just address verification. So they were very so honed in on that. Which again, I think is great because You want to make sure when you're creating a platform that has so many users, of course there's potential for fraud. So you want to protect the Tech-Talk users as much as possible that are going to be spending money on that platform. so at the end of the day, I'm happy to provide as much information that I can to make sure that we're making Tik TOK, a safe, happy place to shop. And we are negating as much fraud as possible. So they want to make sure that you are a real business and you are a real person and they. I can come find you. If you don't ship people's stuff, you get it. I will say I had to submit to tick talk shop maybe three or four times before I got approved, because I realized, oops, I need to fix that little number. I need to change that. I need to upload these documents. And then finally I got the email I was approved. I was thrilled. I was so excited. So I decided, okay, let me start adding my first product. I just added one product to start with because I wanted to see how it all worked without, um, you know, just going all in. I just wanted to test one product. So that was my strategy. Um, and I had, I've had one product up for 24 hours. I wanted to make sure that I could figure out all the features with that one product before I dove in and got in over my head, trying to figure it out with multiple products. So adding a product was pretty easy. There was nothing that stood out to me that was difficult or unusual. If you've added a product before on Shopify, then you are going to be golden. It's essentially the same thing, product name, images. Um, you're going to need to know how much the product weighs. For shipping purposes, you're going to need to know, um, how much like the dimensions of the products. So all the basic stuff that you need really for any e-commerce platform is exactly the same for tick talk shop. Real quick boutique bestie. I know you have been thinking about launching your own boutique. It's that beautiful dream that you have in your mind, but maybe you just need like a little push forward. That's why I created boutique blastoff launch your dream boutique. If you are tired of the overwhelm, the guesswork, the confusion, then this course is for you. I break everything down into modules. It is a step-by-step process where we are building on the foundation, setting you up for success. So if you've been thinking about jumping. Upping In now is the time go to boutique success club.com and enroll today in boutique blast off launch your dream boutique. Now here's where take talk. Shop started to blow my mind. Once I added the first product, it immediately asked me if I wanted it to be a part of the creator platform. I was like, well, okay, let me see what this is all about. So I clicked add to create a platform and it took me over to this other screen where it shows you how you can get involved with the influencers that are already killing it on tech talk. You guys. This is life changing for any boutiques out there that have dabbled in influencer marketing. It is not easy. In fact, we don't even really use it anymore because it has become so frustrating working with an influencer. That's going to follow through, give you. W, you know, the deliverables that they're supposed to, um, you know, all of that stuff, just communicating with them has become so difficult. Tick tock has removed that entire obstacle. You can just connect right here on this platform. I can not tell you how valuable this is. Like, this is just something that if you've experienced it and you know how tough influencer marketing is now, they are just making it super easy with the click of a button. So not only that, there's different ways you can get involved with influencers. There's different types of platforms you can use. You can speak directly with influencers. You can put it. Up on like the, eligible for commission section, which you've probably seen on TechTalk, it'll say it on the bottom of their videos where they can choose your product. You can actually opt in to be able to send a free sample or not. We chose to be able to send a free sample. Um, we think that's just a great benefit for obviously you want the person to be able to have the item. So we said, yes, we'll send you a free sample. Um, you have to be approved. So the influencer will request the sample. Then we have to approve it. If you don't approve it within seven days, it goes away. So, um, that's just a great way where you can work directly. They can connect with you. You can send them the sample, and then you set what their commission rate is going to be. So whatever you feel comfortable with, whatever your. Um, pricing is set out. You want to make sure you're building in the commission that they're going to make every single time they sell that product for you. So for me, I started with a hat. I set the commission really high because we make these hats. So our cost is very low. Um, so for us that works, but most people are setting their commissions anywhere between like 10 and 20%. And Tik TOK tells you all this information, by the way, they also have an entire seller academy. I feel like I'm just going a million miles per hour here because I want to get all this information to you. But in the seller academy there are videos that teach you how to do every single bit of this process and what the best practices are so anyways it's super cool to be involved in their creator program as well so i did opt in and every single time you post a product it's going to ask you do you want to send it over to the creator platform and i'm like yeah let's do it so you need to think about that and figure out if that's going to be worth it for your boutique business Now, the next thing I want to discuss are the features that you have when you have a tick talk shop, I'll call these like shoppable features. So I'm just getting started. So I just want to tell you the surface, see notes on what I've seen that you can do. When you have products available for sale on their platform. First up, you can tag the product on your posts. Now, when you are posting content videos, you can tag the product that you are showing or wearing, or even just like, if you're aware, Wearing it, but not speaking about it, just to do some kind of like attraction marketing and you have a cute outfit on, but you're not necessarily saying, like I have a cute outfit on, you can just tag the items that you're wearing right there on the post. So now people don't have to go to Lincoln bio, go to your website, search for the products. I mean, you lose so many customers. In the transition from the tick tock platform to your Shopify now. Tik TOK has eliminated that whole process for you. All they do is click on the link. Boom. The product picture comes up. Click buy done. And now the item is ready for you to ship. So that is super amazing. Another thing you can do another great feature is when you go live, you can have the links to the product up on the live as you're talking about it. So, for example, I'm selling a hat. I want to go live. I want to have show like six hats that I have in my tick talk shop. I can put them on, talk about their features, show them, show cute, different ways that I can wear them. Um, and then have the product that I'm speaking about. Pop-up on the live so they can buy it. Literally, while you're speaking, this is very similar to comment sold. But you're not having to pay that commission and that rate to comment sold anymore you're just selling it direct right to the people so it takes out that middleman which costs a lot of money to be involved in those types of platforms and like shopify too. so this is just eliminating all that you can just pop it on your take talk shop and away you go on your live selling direct to your customers without having to click a million times to find the product Another really cool thing is the analytics. So this is really neat because as you are tagging and posting products, people are tagging your product in their content. It will start populating into your analytics, those videos, and what kind of traction you're seeing from those videos. So I'll just use mine. For example, when I started posting and including the product tag in my post, I can watch and see how many people are clicking. On that product and then start to figure out, okay, what content am I creating is getting the most clicks. So what type of content is creating the most conversion to clicks and then buys? So this is something you're going to be able to track every single day, as much as you want. I'm an analytics nerd. So I like to look at that stuff. So you're making sure that you're not wasting time creating content or doing things that are not going to drive clicks and sales when you're taking advantage of Tik TOK shop. And if that is the focus of your piece of content, Tents. So as I learned more and more about take talk shop, I will continue to update you. It's a great place to stay. Really up to date with me is either a, the tech talk platform where I'm super active or be my Instagram stories. I pop on there every day. With little tidbits of information, you can follow me at boutique success club on either Tik, TOK, or Instagram, where that's, where I really like to go deep into these kinds of issues. And. Break it down, like in real time. So if you haven't already be sure you're following me on those platforms for any updates on this. Y'all I have never been so excited about a new feature for a platform. You know, these social media platforms, rollout features all the time and it's always like, oh, another thing I have to do. And at first would take talk shop. That was my attitude. I was like, oh man. Another thing that I have to figure out that I have to learn, that I have to do to stay up to date and to feel relevant and be relevant. And now I'm just thinking. Oh, my gosh. I cannot believe the amazing opportunity that take talk is handing boutique owners. On a silver platter. It does not get any better than this. I'm telling you through all of the features that I've seen in the years and years and years I've been in this industry. I have seen so many different things come and go. This is the one where I'm like, okay, let's go all in. So if you're a boutique and you're thinking, should I go all in on TechTalk? I'm not sure if it's the right platform for me. I don't have time for it. I'm too busy doing this and that you have got to stop all that thinking and I'm telling you right now, I, that makes me think of that girl on the plane. I am telling you right now. Every time I say that now I'm like, oh, That you need to get on the bandwagon and get on the tick top platform. You need to take the time to learn the strategies, figure it out. Study, become educated. Download my Tik TOK for boutiques guide. I take you through every single thing you need to do to set you up for success. This is the moment now is the time I don't want you to get left behind. I don't want you to make that mistake. I want you to be in on the game right now, getting involved, doing the thing and watching how this take talk shop can change the trajectory of your boutique as well. Or if you're just getting started, this is a great way to dive in and learn and figure it out. Don't be intimidated. Don't think this is something that you have to be techie to understand, or you can't learn because I'm telling you, you can do this. If I can figure this out, you can figure this out boutique besties. Okay. So I just had to get on here, record this podcast, tell you everything. My 2 cents on Tik TOK shops so far. It is amazing. It is unbelievable. And boy, oh boy. Did tick talk, nail it. All right. You guys, thanks so much for listening to this episode and I hope to see you next week. When we dive into more amazing topics that will help you grow your boutique. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the boutique success club. Don't forget to subscribe and give us a five-star review. It really helps us grow and reach more boutique besties. have a great day and go get them.