Transcription
Okay, so in this video, I'm going to walk through exactly how we scaled a brand called Divvy to over 4 million plus on TikTok shop. I'm going to go through all the details in terms of the strategies, the mistakes, and the key factors that made it a growth engine that what it is that you see today, and also, like I say, everything to make you be able to scale on the platform a lot quicker. So if you're interested about leveraging TikTok shop right now, then this video is for you. Let's get started.
So we're going to talk about how we scaled Divvy to over 4 million plus on TikTok shop. And again, we continue to increase those numbers on a month-by-month basis. So the reason why this content is going to be useful for you today is basically if you are a DTC founder or operator still questioning if TikTok shop is worth the focus, the time, the bandwidth, then again, this is going to be perfect for you. Or maybe you're someone who's tried TikTok shop. Again, we speak to so many brands on a regular basis. We audit multiple brands. Multiple brands say, "Okay, have you got examples, case studies?" This is also for you because you've tried it. You've got maybe some small wins, but you've not figured it out. So again, this content is going to be perfect for you to scale. Or maybe your TikTok shop sales are just not profitable or sustainable because again, there are some brands who obviously need to be profitable from day one, or again, you get traction and you basically start to see results come down, results come down, but again, you want it to be sustainable and be able to not just be a standalone channel, but also a channel that can help grow your overall brand's ecosystem as well.
So with that being said, what I want to do, and again, this is like an equation. I want to basically, by the time we finish the content today, you can rewind, you can take your notes, but I want to basically give you the exact formula that we use to scale Divvy from zero to multi-million on the actual platform right now. And this exact same formula that we have taken and put into other brands. We worked with over 60 brands on TikTok shop right now. And again, I'm going to be full and transparent with you. Not every brand we've worked with has worked because again, that is how TikTok shop is. And again, it could be from an educational standpoint. It could be the product standpoint. It could be just a patience standpoint. But again, I'm going to give you the equation here. So you can take the parts you think are going to be relevant for your brand and start to implement it on TikTok shop.
So before we go into this, again, I want to just kind of give you the bird's-eye helicopter view in terms of how TikTok shop is kind of scaled on the platform. So again, this is what TikTok shop looks like. So you can see here, I'm going to just point to it here on this graph. TikTok shop starts really, really slow. There were sales coming through, trickling through, but then what happens is it starts to kind of get ready to it starts launching, burning the foundation, steam, it starts to go, and basically, it honestly does take off like a rocket. And if you keep putting more into it, the rocket continues to go like that. And again, I kid you not, people never believe it until they see it for themselves. So again, you have to give TikTok time to basically mature in its sense. And again, that's why I always compare it to something like SEO. Or even like I say, imagine if you opened a retail store, right? Again, you want to get traffic in, you have to still market to get people through the door. And this is how TikTok shop is. You've got to remember, it's a discovery platform. It's different to any other platform or marketplace right now. It's social commerce. Okay? So again, whether it's Amazon or whether it's like your Meta, you're going to get direct, direct feedback is probably best with Meta because Meta might not necessarily be the CPA one, but you spend a dollar, you know, you get by straight away. TikTok takes a little bit more time to start to see what's working, what's not working. So again, that's why you can't compare TikTok to other platforms. And you can't also compare your brand to other brands as well. It's not comparing apples to apples, right? Because again, different brands might be at different points. They might have different price points, all that kind of stuff as well. So again, this is what you need to understand when running TikTok shop.
So, let's go into this breakdown. So, again, like I say, we worked with Divvy. So, Divvy, that basically hair, Divvy, a scalp and hair health brand founded by uh influencer Danny Austin. So, again, she's got a massive following. But again, the brand is doing really well because they're built all around clean and clinical formulas. So, again, in terms of they want to basically help people to basically strengthen their hair, nourish it, and restore their scalp hair. So, again, got a range of products, which is really good. So, they came to us back in May 2024. So, again, and for me, it feels like a gosh, 20 years ago now because the platform has changed so much. But the thing is, they had no revenue on TikTok shop. They were just launching. They were a big brand doing eight figures per year DTC, again, strong retail, strong Amazon presence, and again, obviously they were doing well on Shopify as well. So, again, they came wanting to validate TikTok shop as a serious growth channel. They weren't wanting to be like half-in, test it, not like an experiment. They wanted to say, "Okay, how do we make it work?" And that's what I would say to brands, the ones that are not are going to be like half-in, maybe just want to try because they've heard of their SM friend or they've seen on some other videos, some podcast it worked, and they want to test it. You have to be willing to go fully into TikTok shop. And again, I say that whether you're doing it in-house or whether you're working with a team, an agency, or getting resources, it has to be all, all go. Again, you've got to kind of treat it as if like, "Okay, you are going into retail." You're not just going to test retail for a few days and see if it works and then kind of give it up, or just like your Shopify. You have to be fully in. And the great thing is, like I say, TikTok shop works even better if you are doing the other channels as well. So you've got your Amazon, you've got your DTC, you've got all that kind of movement because again, that halo effect, which again, you probably hear quite a lot, it is real. So again, once you start to get your sales from TikTok shop, everything else does generally move up as well with it. And the main reason for that is because what happens is, and again, I'm a person who does this myself. I will go and see some TikTok shop, but then I'll get maybe then watch a few videos, TikTok shop, then I'll go and Google the brand, and then might get caught up in an ad with them, and then if I see on Amazon free shipping and quick delivery, I might buy on Amazon. That is just the psychology of how people shop. That's the human behavior. And then sometimes you won't be able to see TikTok actually getting the credit for that conversion. So that's what we've got to always remember.
So with that, and again, I won't break this down this case today, I want to be fully transparent with you. So when we actually launched on TikTok shop, right? We started and we did get it wrong. Okay. We have been on TikTok shop for a long period of time, working with brands to the day, obviously now we're obviously a lot more established, a lot more um advanced right now, but we assumed, and again, this was a decision that we made obviously with the brand as well, that let's try and push bundles to drive AOV. So again, we knew that they had their hero skew, which was their the scalp serum, the 30 ml scalp serum, and we thought, "Okay, let's kind of let's start with the scalp serum, but let's also maybe do the shampoo and conditioner bundle so we can get the AOV up and at the same time, the scalp is the hero product." So that's what we kind of went for. So the thing is, and again, everyone, if well, if you're new to this, you might not, but everyone who's kind of run now, you can't treat TikTok shop like anything else that you're DTC. Okay, high price point products, if you've got no specific social proof on the platform yet, and talking about on the platform. So again, we say we speak to eight-figure brands, nine-figure brands who are doing really well outside of TikTok shop, but that clout doesn't mean nothing on TikTok shop. You have to have the social proof ready on the platform to be able to scale and get the higher AOV products working straight away. So what we did was in July, we ended up shipping about 230 plus bundles. The momentum split across too many SKUs again. So scalp serum was the early product starting to show real traction. So again, we needed to reset focus on the one clear hero. And this is the thing with TikTok shop. You can test, but the thing is, you'd be making the same mistakes over and over because that's when it gets very costly. So again, it's all about just being proactive. And again, I would say there's no one-size-fits-all for any brand on TikTok shop. You've got to see what's working, see what's not working, and then pivot if you need to.
So, what we did with that is we pivoted. These screenshots are a little bit older now, but you can see obviously, just to give you an idea, scalp serum done over 51,000 sales at the time as well of obviously taking the screenshots. The dry shampoo had done about 5,000 um sales. So, we moved across and again, we doubled down on what was converting. So, what we did was, and now we're talking looking at August now. So we basically sent out 541 units of the scalp serum because again, we knew that yes, it had a price point of $48, but again, this is why I always say to brands, if you've got a high price point, it can work on the platform. Yes, it is impulsive in terms of like people will spend a lot more freely on something that's under $20, but you can still make a $48 product work or post-product work if your strategy is right. So we were able to do heavy discounts, we to build traction, stuff like that. So again, as a brand, you just got to make sure that your margins all make sense. And again, you might be losing to begin with, but at the same time, thinking about the longer-term picture. Again, you can't just think of today from a TikTok perspective. You want to think, "Okay, if someone buys a product, um, obviously TikTok has subscriptions now, but again, if people are going to come back to your website and purchase, are they going to do that side of things?" So again, not at the beginning, but later on, we were starting to start to figure out, "Okay, if someone did buy on TikTok shop, were they then coming back to the website?" We could see obviously how that looked in terms of net new customers and obviously return customers from TikTok shop as well. So again, once you start to look into all this detail, that's what allows you to scale. And same with any platform, right? Just like Meta, if you know that your CAC can be maybe again, using this hypothetically, say if your CAC could be $100 to acquire a client on Meta, you know you can keep spending if that's going to be right because the LTV is going to be there, right? So again, that's how you've got to kind of see it. But like I say, TikTok shop is not just for low-ticket products. And this skew, like I say, alone kind of tells you that. Again, we've also got a 100 ml product as well. So again, if you do look on TikTok shop, you'll see that as well. And it's got, um, let's see how many sales it's got right now whilst we're recording this. Again, like I say, I just want to be fully transparent. Again, you can, you can go and see this as well for yourself. Uh, but to date now, and again, this is the 100 ml one, which is a little bit more expensive. I've not got a slide for this. Uh, but the 100 ml, keep in mind, the retail price is $131. Okay? And it has $16.8,000. Well, 16,800 sales. Okay. I kid you not. I'm just going to show you there. You see that there? You probably can't see it, but yeah, that product there shows that you can sell high-ticket products. And again, I'm going to be completely honest with you. We have done discounts on that, but people today are now still spending $131 on that product. So, it does work. So, again, if anyone's telling you that you can't sell high-ticket products on TikTok shop, they are wrong.
So, enough about that, but let's continue to go into the case study. So what I want to show you here is again, so we basically 3.6x content output in month one. So again, we went from 294 pieces of content all the way to 1,080 pieces of content in August. So again, the reason why people say, and again, this is where people get a little bit confused and saying, "Okay, we can maybe do 10 samples a week, stuff like that." But the thing is, the more content you post, you have a chance to hit because again, TikTok, and again, it sounds weird, but TikTok is not all about quality to a degree, to an extent. It's all about velocity. And again, it's all about just how much fuel can you give to TikTok shop to be able to scale. So that's what you kind of need to be able to move the needle. Because again, what you'll find is that out of 100, 100 pieces of content, you're going to probably get about 10% that's going to be good, and maybe about 8% is going to generate pretty much, again, 90% of your overall GMV on TikTok. I'm not the the the oracle in terms of why that is the case, but that is just how it kind of looks from a TikTok shop perspective. Your aim is to kind of try and find them winners as quickly as possible and then scale from then onwards.
So in terms of that side of things, this is how we scaled. So again, we start to work with creators. So, uh, we start to pay some creators. And again, I do highly recommend if you've got the budget to do it, getting creators on retainers or finding good creators. It definitely does work. So we worked with Katherine here. And again, if you want to scan the QR code, and I don't want to play the video because it'll be too long, but scan the QR code, you can see the video here. But Katherine, she actually was using the product before we actually commissioned her to actually post a piece of content on it. So again, it was an investment, but it was worth the investment. So again, she knew how to create content, right? Because she was already generating GMV on TikTok shop. So again, she wasn't working with a lot of brands at this point, but again, she had a lot. Obviously, right now, she's got about 1.5 million followers. And again, it might be a bit more than that now by the time you're watching this, but she knew how to create engaging content. Again, you see from the hook here, and she cares it, but again, "How I helped my thinning hairline." That there, it stops the scroll, right? And again, she went into the storytelling element. So again, the product we have here, again, I would say it's probably a harder product to kind of sell because again, you can't just get creators who were not using the product and doing an unboxing would sell. It doesn't work like that. We need real storytelling elements. And this is what works really well. So again, here you can see she had the social proof in terms of showing her actual hair. And again, I, I kid you not, every brand will get this moment where somebody just kind of flicks the switch. And again, I say this to brands when I'm speaking to them, when I'm auditing them, or brands that we work with. I say, "There will be a moment that just comes and it just starts to work." And this was the moment for this brand here because within that one week, we sold over 348 units, 16K in GMV. And again, that was 76% of the sales from one post. So again, that's what I mean by again, you don't need a lot of winning pieces of content for it to work, but once you find the ones, you just double down on it. So again, it wasn't overproduced. Again, yes, we did pay her, but again, the platform is becoming more of a pay-to-play platform, and we understood that like I say, a year ago now. So again, if you can find creators who are an advocate of the product or the brand, and again, big fans, and again, they know how to create content, they're using the product as well, they will make results. They will get results, right? So again, then you see across TikTok shop now, the brands that are working well are with the creators who actually are utilizing the product. So again, I think that's a really key thing. But again, like I say, full transparency, we did pay some other creators. I remember, we paid a creator from a TV show again because they were quite big. We obviously have a relationship with them. They posted, they were a little bit more expensive, and it didn't work. So again, not every post you do pay for also will work as well. But again, it's all about trial and error and testing along the way. But like I say, I want to give you everything.
So again, like I say, this was the inflection point here. So again, as soon as Catherine posted, we jumped from 6.1K in GMV all the way to 64.8K in GMV. So again, that's a massive increase. 957% increase in just one month. Right? And again, like I say, this wasn't a a one-off kind of fluke. It was kind of the start of a system that we could start to repeat because if we knew that we had now a winning formula, the concept, and we had a winning hook, then to repeat, give that to other creators, other creators can utilize that as well and maximize from then onwards. And then again, from then onwards, I kid you not, we started to see more creators finding success. So again, here, if you can see all these creators who are posting content for us, again, obviously these were posted a year ago because obviously this is when it started to to kick off, but then you can see here, 70k in GMV, 27k in GMV. This is all back then, again, from the scalp serum. They were all making good money. They were getting viral views in terms of this one here, surely. Again, again, these were all people talking about the experience. Storytelling works on the platform. So again, obviously I go through all this, but again, she said about these kind of bib showing my bold spots. I never thought of that. Again, some of these obviously again were more like when it was discounted. So again, $28 here, but again, these creators knew how to create content. We even got here, um, Brandon here, for example, he's a male, but he's, he spun it in terms of how it works. So again, there were different ways of how to make sales on the on the platform. There always will be, but again, like I said, once you start to get one creator doing well, honestly, create not by the way, creators are like cheap. They want to go where sales are happening. So again, if a product starts to take off, the social proof is now there. They want to get involved as well. So again, results speak for themselves. And that's why I say the sooner you can get results, it builds that social proof. It creates a ripple effect. And from then onwards, you start to get, uh, multiple pieces of content created because this is where I kind of call it, it goes from you shift from chasing creators to managing now that kind of inbound wave. Okay, if you get to this point, this is where it takes off and then it starts easier. It doesn't slow down from then onwards.
So moving on from then, so again, we thought, "Okay, now now we've got affiliates kind of locked in." And again, full transparency, this is what happened on the platform. So again, we thought, "Okay, how can we now use TikTok Lives as the second growth engine?" So at this point, we were doing it internally. So again, it starts off slow. Okay. This is actually from Slack. So again, Ashlin, she used to work at Dish, who was part of the social media team. She was the actual host at that time, and the one that the first lives did for sales. Okay, because that's how lives start. Okay. It's not going to be something that is dramatic, and it's not going to be something that is is is massive to begin with. It is slow. So again, it's not exactly a win, but it's a learning point because from then onwards, we stuck with it. We started to work with a new host. We partnered with, um, another agency in, um, in Dallas as well to get lives to a better place as well. So we trained the host. We trained the team a lot more on that. And then what happened 10 months later, which is outstanding, is that we then jumped, and one of the lives did 210k GMV. So that is over 10,000 sales in 12 hours on TikTok shop. Right? So again, this is the potential TikTok shop can do. So rather than we, if imagine if we just tested that TikTok, that live, and then thought, "Okay, we're never going to do it again." We would never have got to this stage, right? So again, this is what it's all about. So then now we've got like a, a, a foundation, a platform that we can kind of build upon. And again, don't get me wrong, not every live that you do or Divvy does or everyone does is going to get these kind of numbers, but once you get it, it starts to work in your favor.
So this is kind of now we move to like phase six. So we're kind of moving through it right quite rapidly right now. But again, remember we mentioned earlier on that bundles didn't work. So we flipped the script on this, and this is what started to scale and get more traction. So again, I don't want to be the person that says, "Okay, we kind of set the trends," but we do want TikTok to a degree, and this is a massive thing, and again, I recommend brands to do this. If you can find creators who are doing really well for you, create a bundle around them. Okay, this is what we did. So Katherine, who you saw a few slides back, we created a bundle around her. I'm going to screenshot for it now because it's discontinued. But then what we kept continue to do was, yes, we brought back the the bundle for the the shampoo, which again, keep in mind, this was what we were sampling out from day one. We brought it back, was a bit more aggressive with it, but this is how we started to grow our AOV. $64 product. Yes, we had a few coupons and obviously some discounting, but it still increased our AOV on the platform. We started to work with creators who were advocates of the brand, ambassadors, stuff like that. And we created actual bundles for them. So again, $88 bundle at this time, record. There's obviously 400 sold. So again, we're not creating new products for them. We're just creating bundles. These are all products that are already in the Divvy kind of ecosystem. We created a bundle around them. Danny, the founder, we created bundles around her. She just had a baby at this point. So again, this is what she's using for her hair growth. So again, we created the bundle around that. And you can keep doing this time and time again because the great thing is you want to reward as well your creators. So if they are doing well, you want to make them ambassadors. So again, you kind of have the level where you have creators who are going to be kind of at the level where they're kind of just going to be paid on commission, retainers, then kind of VIP, then I call like your ambassadors. Once they become ambassadors, you want to be doing stuff like this for them. And again, this is what moves the needle in terms of like again, when people are like, "Oh, TikTok shop doesn't work for my brand. We can't sell a high AOV product." You have to give it time. You have to give it time for it to grow, for it to start to work, and for it to get to this stage. So again, early on, bundles can work for some brands early on. But again, if you haven't got the budget or if you're impatient to a degree, then again, I wouldn't recommend starting with that. Go your hero product and then again start to come back with the bundles at a later date.
And then from then onwards, like I say, this was kind of I call it phase seven, but we was kind of doing this when we started to get some traction. So again, we start to build out a creative community. So again, as everyone probably knows right now, the actual TikTok shop seller center, it's messy, it's buggy, it's grateful in terms of like outreach, but again, it's how can you take that community off the platform? So what we did is we, we created a WhatsApp group to begin with because again, we tried it easy. And again, we, we obviously knew of Discord, obviously Lock was a thing, but again, we just thought, uh, internally with the team and ourselves, we thought, "Okay, because this community is a little bit, a bit more mature, I think probably the best we do, because again, these were kind of, again, the demographic is more females, maybe had 35 plus, so again, we thought something like Discord might not be a channel that's going to be good for them because again, it's, it's Discord is more, I call it kind of more the underground." So again, we started a TikTok shop. So we started with a WhatsApp group. So the issue with WhatsApp I was finding though, it was okay for speed, but then again, was hitting platform limits because if you're in the chat, chat is fine, but if you then join, there's no previous history in terms of that. So it was kind of hard to scale people asking questions that were already answered. And again, it wasn't really working. So again, we put the power to the people. We actually shifted to Discord based on what the community wanted. So again, this is why I always say, you want to always be engaging with your community. Even if it's something as little as this, or in terms of like for products, coupons, stuff like that, speak with your community because they are your sales team. They are the ones that are working for for you and helping you grow, right? So again, we did a poll. We said, "Where should we move to?" And then again, we basically moved over to Discord. So again, 80% of the poll said to move to Discord. And again, you see this kind of how we set up at the point where we set up. So again, it's allowed to have like brief wins. It's more searchable, easy to scale, and easy to onboard new members now as well. And I think to this date, we have so many members on Discord right now, I cannot remember. And again, we do this for every brand that we've worked with right now. As soon as we launch, we build the Discord out and we get everyone into the community. So again, we're building that out because again, yes, for TikTok shop is the great thing, but then again, we can start to do other stuff with, again, if maybe we want to do some organic content or get some, um, codes for Meta or stuff like that, or maybe some creators to post on that. So again, they're all in one place. It's a lot easier to kind of manage this and obviously build a relationship with the creators.
And then again, like I say, we're holding nothing back here. This is full transparency. We then went and incentivized the creators. Again, highly recommend doing this. So again, we did a big one, and then we currently do like weekly ones, monthly ones now. So again, if you are a brand, again, don't do anything massive like this or giving away cars and TVs and Rolex and stuff like that. Just do something small. Then again, if you want, I'll probably do a video based in terms of like incentivizing what you should do with incentives because I think it would be a good thing to kind of showcase. But again, what we did was we basically just did, um, like a two-month campaign. We worked with over a Discord or communities and basically started to get a lot of content coming through. And again, with this, it worked well. It worked at scale because what happened was we ended up getting nearly 7,000 pieces of content, which when you work out, it works out to be $11 per per video, basically. Where on this planet can you get that in in the US? Can is is physically impossible. So again, yes, you have to send a sample out and that, but again, when you work it out, you think, if you're doing influencer marketing or UGC, you're not going to get content for $11.50 because you still have to send product out to an influencer or UGC as well. So again, and this is why I say it doesn't matter that every piece of content doesn't work or doesn't hit. The main thing is that you're getting a lot of content in this ecosystem, brand awareness, touch points for, uh, the audience, and again, you will make sales from this as well. So again, incentives work really well. And again, I think the more you do, um, time and time again, it helps get more content. It keeps your, um, your creators engaged. And again, it really works well from that side of things.
So what we then saw from that was we saw a surge from the incentive. So again, you can see here in this period of time, we had over 26 million views from this. Okay. And again, all these likes, all these comments, all funneling to the brand. So again, yes, and again, obviously we're making a lot of sales from this because I think in the previous slide, but again, it's the other assets that you've got to pay for. 25.6 million views or or in terms of impressions, well, it's video views in this instance. If you were to pay that for your on Meta and stuff like that, YouTube, you would not be paying anything like that. We paid for this. So again, it's definitely worth it. And again, it helps you to scale on the platforms from that side of things. So like I say, TikTok shop is a beast, and again, if you get it right, it can work to your advantage.
So that is basically the breakdown. Like I say, that is the full case in terms of how we got Divvy from zero to like say 4 million plus on the platform. And like I say, you can see all of what's put together. And like I say, this is something we pulled from, uh, TikTok shop. The only thing TikTok shop, you can't actually see the whole, your whole previous data. So again, when you work for brands so long, you have to start to pull reports and do it. But again, these numbers, I kid you not, these are the numbers that we're hitting on on there right now. So this is how it works. And again, like I say, the next phase now for Divvy, just to give you an idea as well, to say if you are a brand, you are at this stage, what's kind of next? So again, like I mentioned, monthly incentives, that's the main thing for us right now. And again, doubling it down on what's working. And for us right now, because we were scaling the platform because again, we knew the LTV, we knew obviously GMV was going to the halo effect, which was great, but now we're moving more towards how can we be more profitable on the platform as well. So our ROI, for example, our target when we do our forecasting, it's basically 4x because now we need to be more specific. So again, we were having, we had multiple products on the plat on TikTok shop, which we still do now. But there were some products, for example, that was maybe losing us money. For example, we got, um, uh, the touch-up, for example, really low AOV. I think it's about $18 with coupons, discount, $16. We actually lose money when we actually promote that when we give away the, uh, commission, stuff like that as well. So again, it's just moving away, can be more profitable. So again, not being so aggressive with discounts on lives and all that side of stuff as well because we've got that momentum, we've got that traction now as well. So it's kind of like, yes, we, we went through the stage of where we can just be aggressive and we can obviously lose some money. We came out of that, and now it's how can we be even more profitable? And that's kind of what we're working on right now.
So what I believe as well, affiliates plus ads plus lives is the social commerce funnel. I don't think that's going to change too much over the next 18 months or so, just in general for all the brands. And again, if you're a brand, you can build, you work with creators, build a community. That I believe is the moat right now for any brand going forward.
So with that as well, like I say, just to recap what didn't work, so you don't have to. As well, don't launch bundles early on. Again, like I say, we learned this the hard way. To be honest, Divvy was the only brand we kind of did this with, and we have it. So again, we've learned from that. It might work for some brands, but again, for Divvy, it didn't. So again, honestly, focus on your hero product. Again, your hero product might not necessarily work on TikTok shop, but again, I, we call it the, the kind of staircase approach. You want to focus maybe 80% on your hero product and then 20% on another stream because if your hero product doesn't work, at least you kind of got something to back up and so work on that side of things as well. And again, sample without tracking. So again, to begin with, we was obviously sending out samples hoping whereas now again, we have this have like a, all these dashboards and everything. We, we track a lot more aggressively because again, TikTok shop is a science and it is data-driven. So again, you've got to look at the data, look at the numbers, and once you start to track that, you would know what's going to work and what's not going to work from that side of things. And then again, like I say, we did this, but again, we probably could have done it a month earlier, maybe from the start as well. So again, if we paid Katherine to begin with, again, it's hypothetical, and again, we don't really know if it would have been the case or not, if it would have hit then, but again, testing creators earlier. So again, if you've got the budget to do so, and especially, I'd say if you're in more of a competitive space, like if you're in the health category, the beauty category, I think it's an easier way to get a lot of traction and find and work with the bigger GMV creators. It definitely does work. Again, we work with another brand as well with a similar kind of strategy where we're paying creators. And again, it, it does help us to kind of leverage that a lot quicker as well. So that's our kind of move.
And then again, like I say, if you're applying to your brand today, pick one to two heroes. Again, build that traction around that. If you can, I think the sweet spot is, but again, it all depends on your COGS. So again, I'm just, just saying what we've learned from in terms of this. 250 plus samples a week works really well from that side of things. And investing affiliates, they will be the biggest outcome drivers for you. So again, I don't mean invest in terms of spending, in terms of having that, but invest in terms of building a community, training them, working with them, sending out swag bags to them, work with them to help the ambassadors and VIPs. That is what's going to help you work on the platform. And then from then onwards, like I say, what most brands get wrong, we send out samples and just hope it would happen. Again, I speak to many brands, they kind of just hope it's working and it doesn't. Okay, we don't want to pay creators. Yeah. Again, it's kind of just a situation where, okay, you want to maybe do influencer marketing or doing UGC and stuff like that, but you don't want to pay creators. It's the wrong way to think about it. TikTok shop is a different platform. You have to play the game. You have to be scrappy and you have to have a strategy behind it. Okay. Oh, our products too premium for TikTok. Like I mentioned to you, there's $48. We sell $131 other product. We sell TVs on TikTok shop. Okay. So don't think your products too premium for the platform. It does work. Or we'll wait for more data to see if it's working. You need to be looking at your data daily to see what's working, what's not working, and scale from then onwards. And if you do do all this, like I say, TikTok shop honestly isn't just a sales channel. If you do it right, what I say, it basically is your growth engine.
So I hope you enjoyed this. I hope this all made perfect sense. Like I say, this is the strategy that we use for Divvy, parts of this what we use for other brands. And honestly, like I say to you, there is not a one-size-fits-all. All I would say to you is look through this, watch us back again, and take out the key points which you maybe not do it or what you can do for your brand because again, a brand can maybe take this exact same playbook and try it for them, and it might not work because there are variables that are going to be different each and every brand. The platforms continue to grow as well. And again, something like I'd say on this, when we started, and again, with some brands, you get that advantage where you can maybe outreach to more creators, it was less saturated, but again, I would say there's no better time than today to start on the platform because it will just continue to get harder. We are in this kind of element right now that if you get it right, it's going to continue to scale. And the more you scale as well, TikTok will support you, or people supporting you, creators want to work with you, and again, it will continue to grow.
So, I hope you enjoyed this. Actually, if you have any questions, shoot them below. And again, I'll come back to all the comments, questions, anything along lines of that. Do subscribe. I'm going to continue to drop more content like this along the way. And again, as always, thank you for tuning in. Peace.