THIS ISSUE:
Quitting before it works
The ‘client warning signs’ are in your inbox, not your dashboard
Three weeks at $0.00.
Week four: $61. The first affiliate sale that shop had ever made.
The client cancelled the next day……
They didn't leave because of the numbers. They had already left, five weeks earlier.
Watch the inbox, not the revenue.
BEST LINKS
📈 Growth
Shapermint is on track for $10M on TikTok Shop this year with 5,000+ affiliates, and 60% of its top creators are over 35. Recruit creators who look like the buyer, not the algorithm. (Ephraim Rosenberg)
Whisker sold $3M+ of $699 Litter-Robots in one quarter at full price, with zero discounting. Creators used it at home for weeks, then linked their demos to the shop. For premium clients, the demo is the discount. (Matt Kahla, Jr.)
💰 Margin
A fashion brand launched at 5% commission with no discounts and hit £100K in month one. Audit the client's margin first, then set commission from what's left, not from what LinkedIn says. (Barney Brown)
Five questions brands now ask agencies before signing, including "what % are you taking, and on what revenue?" Your rev share should match what you actually manage. Expect clients to ask. (Jimmy Farley)
🗞️ TikTok Shop news
TikTok launched Buy Direct (one-click checkout from the For You feed, with the brand as seller) and an AI Shopping Assistant on product pages and search. Clean product data now matters, because the assistant answers from it. (TechCrunch)
Best Buy launches on TikTok Shop in late October with nearly 10,000 products and in-store returns. Expect electronics clients to feel the competition in Q4. (Retail Dive)
DEEP DIVE
THEY CANCELLED THE DAY AFTER HIS FIRST SALE
The sale arrived too late
This particular client only sent a few dozen samples….. they did not have the budget to send more.
Here's the account, week by week:
Week 1: $0.00 in sales. 43 sample requests, the best week the shop ever had
Week 2: $0.00
Week 3: $54. Not one dollar from affiliates
Week 4: $61 from 2 affiliate orders. The first ever.
The report with the news went out on a Thursday. He cancelled on the Friday.
I'd love to call that bad luck….. it wasn't.
Look at week 1 again. 43 creators asked for samples while sales sat at zero. The shop was working. He just couldn't see it.
TikTok Shop pays you in sample requests weeks before it pays you in sales.
When a client is upset/confused…… steal this:
"You asked me to be straight, so here it is. Sales are at zero, and if I were you I'd be worried too.
But here's what I watch: XX creators asked for samples this week. That number moves first, and sales follow it a few weeks behind.
Let's get on a call this week and I'll walk you through exactly where we are."
DEEP DIVE
THE AFFILIATE ENGINE NEEDS SERVICING
Even experienced sellers need to go ‘back to the basics’
One of our best shops. They took the affiliate outreach in-house.
Affiliate return went from 11x in July to 3.2x in September. Affiliate sales dropped a third in a single week.
Their affiliate content ‘carried’ their sales, even though their newest content was not converting
A flood of new creators got approved who'd never sold a thing.
Stop feeding a 13 month old shop and it starts acting like a 4 month old one.
Same lesson as the client who quit. The warning was there. Nobody acted on it.
THAT'S A WRAP
What did you think of today's newsletter?
Until Wednesday,
- Paul 👊
P.S. Wednesday is Part 2 of getting your mornings back: the client report that's waiting when you wake up.
P.P.S. Any thoughts, hit reply….. I read every one