How to Build TikTok Shop Revenue in the EU & UK

Sebastian, I think your keys is echoing a bit.

I'd go on mute when you're good to know.

All right, no problem.

Okay.

Should we.

I mean, do we just get started or.

Okay.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Right.

So, hi, everyone.

thank you all so much for joining.

Good morning to the US viewers.

Good evening to all those in the UK and the eu.

Thank you so much for joining.

today we're going to be talking about the major opportunity that is TikTok Shop in the UK and the eu, brought to you by Unsociable and Kruva.

So, for clarity, I am Claudia Barraclough.

I'm the Growth Marketing Manager at Unsociable.

we're one of the top rated TikTok, TikTok Shop partners.

Alongside me is Brian Wrangle, who is head of partnerships at Kruva.

Kruva is a top rated TikTok Shop affiliate outreach tool.

So we will dive into the, panel in a little moment.

just to say we should have some time at the end for any audience questions.

So if you've got any burning questions that you'd like to ask, please, feel free to pop them in the comments and I can pick out a couple at the end.

We have got a pretty amazing panel today.

Really, really excited about everyone here.

we've got Jack Timpani, who is UK TikTok shop director for L'.

Oreal.

We've got Chrissy Ferrier, who is head of US TikTok shop and Infomercial at Sharkninja, Max Burjanek, who is head of TikTok Shop Germany, Ben Muir, CEO of Unsociable, and Sebastian Nelson, who is CEO and co founder of CO Kruva.

So just before we get into the panel, I'm going to give a little bit of kind of context so that we're all aware of the UK and the EU markets.

So right now, the GDP of the US market, that is at $32 trillion, which is insane, and the GDP of the EU and UK market is 23 trillion.

So, American brands, it really benefits them to head over to the EU and the uk.

We've got a lot going on here, in the UK, on TikTok shop, one in four people have purchased from TikTok Shop.

It's a platform that is steadily growing every single year.

as of March 2025, the UK has reached £1.1 billion in GMV, which is amazing.

and we've actually picked a very good week for this because as of this week, eight new countries have actually opened up in the EU on TikTok shop.

So it's still very young on the platform which is a really great time to get on it because the category leads are very open for the taking right now.

TikTok, Shop Germany, is seeing a very broad shopping base at the moment.

I feel like there's a misconception about TikTok Shop where it's just a Gen Z channel, but we are seeing sales split very evenly throughout Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X as well as that broad category mix, which is very exciting.

And we've got a couple of little examples of some early adopters as well.

so goalie in the middle.

They're somebody, they're a brand who position themselves very early on in the US and it's really shown they are a nutrition brand.

They do a lot of supplements and gummies.

it's 5.7 million units sold, nearly $170 million in GMV.

when I was doing a little bit of research on them, they've made 2 million just from one product SKU in the past 28 days, which is incredible.

if you are aware of the UK market, you'll know P Louise very well.

they are a top makeup brand and they really got famous from TikTok Shop.

They took it incredibly seriously and They've sold almost 7 million products and they've got a very famous live stream where they managed to drive over 2 million pounds in sales just from that live stream.

And they have built a pretty die hard community.

people will buy anything from that brand because they've really, really gone hard on that TikTok Shop strategy.

And then another example would be Free Soul.

The health category is very, very broad but they have managed to consistently be top three in the rankings, on TikTok Shop for the health category and they have got 40 million in GMV.

So we're going to head on to the questions now.

So I'm going to pass you along to Brian.

Hey guys, welcome.

yeah, so we're going to kind of split this up into different sections.

The first section is going to be the operator section.

So Max and Sebastian, want to welcome you up on stage and we're going to start with that.

So Sebastian Kruva started in the US market.

What was that moment that you realized that the UK and the EU were the next big opportunity?

And what surprised you the most about that shift?

Yeah, I mean for me we hadn't really looked at UK until I would say early on in 2025, we were so focused on the US market, just because, you know, that's where I'm from.

but we started to see the UK really, really get, going in early 2025.

And we decided to enter the market and we decided to enter really, really aggressively.

and what we saw was like, the market has just absolutely exploded since like early 2025.

It's just, gone, like, I mean, just like 10x.

I don't know the exact figures.

And then also, with the German market as well, and the rest of the EU5 that launched in early 2025, we saw kind of like how the US had really taken, the entire, like, TikTok Shop had just taken the country by storm.

Right.

And like, I saw in my progression, like, I always just like to ask people when I'm out, like, hey, do you buy stuff on TikTok shop?

Do you ever buy stuff on TikTok shop?

And you would hear people just more and more saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes.

In the early days it was always like, no, what's that?

What's that?

And you could see like that sentimen shifting.

And so I knew like, okay, this will same way and it'll have the same ramp, if not even faster, based on the learnings from the US market, over in the, in the European market.

And so we decided to be really, really aggressive and, it has, you know, panned out really, really well.

The market's just exploding.

in Germany, there's already 400,000 affiliates a year in, which is like a testament to Max's hard work and the rest of the team.

and there's 1.2 in the UK in, in.

I think it's about five years in.

And so you see that ramp period, period, you know, just a year in to be at 400, 000 is like unbelievable.

And then across the EU as well.

And we just got some new territories, as of a few days ago also.

So it's a.

It's just a really exciting market all around.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that, you know, that segues perfectly into my question for Max is, Max, I would love to understand a little bit more about, first of all, congratulations.

What you've done with the Germany market.

well, a little bit more about your background and how you ended up in the social commerce space.

and then why you think Germany is just, you know, it is one of the largest in Europe, but what makes it unique for, TikTok Shop right now?

Yeah, so actually for me this role is super exciting.

I have a background in E commerce, have been in online retail for quite some time and one of my previous roles I worked at Amazon and I led the movies category and I really tried hard at that time to bring like we had commerce, right?

And then to bring content to that.

Like the movie studios, they had all the franchises, the content.

And then really we wanted to create some kind of flywheel to bring then to, on top of that build again, more commerce.

But it was great.

It never was so easy, right, to bring content to a platform that's really built for commerce.

And this is where I really feel, so excited by building TikTok shop here because TikTok shop starts from a completely different space, right?

I mean we are a content platform and we are really platform that's built for discovery and it's so much easier to build commerce on that.

Right?

so, yeah, and then talking about Germany, right, You're exactly right.

I mean if you look at classical online retail, Germany is the six biggest markets worldwide.

So it's a great place to build, to build TikTok shop.

And although it's, if you think about it geographically, it really sits in the center of Europe.

So also logistics wise.

And that's why so many sellers, so many brands are there.

Like, and while TikTok shop is still really early, we see a lot of traction.

That's probably also because many of our sellers, such as Sebastian has said, right, I mean they, they got inspired.

We're not starting from scratch.

They looked at the US for example, at the Playbooks there and we are catching up quite quickly to the UK.

so between August 2025 and February 2026 the sales nearly doubled in Germany.

And by now we reached, According to Nielsen IQ market research company we reached 15% market penetration when it comes to users.

So in UK they started 2021, they're at 1 out of 4, we are at 1 out of 7 after one year.

So I'm very optimistic.

We're going to catch up very soon.

And I think the great thing really about Germany is that We've got this 27 million monthly active users here.

That's for European relationships, really a strong number.

And we see all the content commerce picking up really quickly.

So we got beauty sellers who've got like 20,000 viewers in a single live stream.

These things are happening, right?

Established brands getting 60 to 70% of their revenue of the GMV already from content.

So it's we are seeing super strong dynamics and that's probably a little bit like different from what people might expect, Europeans, particularly Germans, not to be strong and fast adopters.

Yeah.

And Sebastian, you know, from a brand, when a brand comes to you and they want to expand into the UK or the eu, what's the first thing that you tell them to do and then what's like a mistake that you warn them against?

in the, in Europe.

Yeah.

So I'd say firstly is if you're coming from the us, it's just like mapping out your sample budget and then figuring out also just like the logistics.

Right.

So if you're going to launch in UK and EU, I'd probably recommend going with with TikTok shipping, and using their warehousing.

You can do that in Germany and then ship to all the other EU regions which is really, really powerful.

So you only have to warehouse in one country.

And then for the uk, I would recommend doing the same thing.

And so getting really, really crystal clear on like forecasting your sample budget would be.

The first thing I would recommend is like how many samples are you actually going to be sending out and then how to differentiate yourself from the rest of the market and from an offer standpoint, so really understanding of the competitive landscape for your brand.

Who's on the market?

Right.

Who is existing on the market right now and how are you going to differentiate yourself enough to actually acquire affiliates?

Like at the end of the day, getting affiliates to want to promote your brand is the most important but also the most difficult part of TikTok shop.

And so if you're able to craft a really unique offer, a special launch, pricing, whatever it is something that's going to get the affiliates excited, when you launch in these new markets is generally my best recommendation.

As the brands that don't do that and they just treat it like, my momentum in the US is just going to transfer over.

It doesn't really work like that.

You are starting fresh.

Yes, you may have some brand awareness.

Right.

And that is meaningful, but you should still treat these as markets that you need to be aggressive in to launch and differentiate yourself.

And then one mistake I would say, particularly for eu, but there's different languages, right?

It's just a more complex region because there's just different languages.

I think that understanding that and picking one market to launch in and expanding from there and just to not overextend yourself is in your brand is really, really important.

I generally recommend Germany as it's the biggest market, and then expanding out from there.

And if a brand already has a strong affiliate program built for the US how much of that playbook transfers over to the other countries?

And what do you think needs to be rebuilt?

Yeah, so I think in frameworks is really, really helpful.

so understanding what type of content already converts for your brand and then what type of offers already convert for, for consumers is amazing.

And then also just the social proof that you can leverage to the affiliates.

Like if you do have traction in U.S.

yes, you're starting over, but you have social proof where you can go to these affiliates and say hey, we launched in the US and we were able to do XYZ in our first year on the platform and here's a top affiliate who was able to generate X in commission.

And so I think that is really, really powerful.

and generally, you know, it is something to differentiate yourself.

Yeah.

And then, and then Max, German consumers, they shop differently on Tick Tock compared to the other markets.

that you've seen.

How, how do you see that changing with, with the other, with Germany and then how do you see social commerce just expanding over the next two and two or three years?

Yeah.

So I mean German first of all, I think as Sebastian said, I think many of the playbooks in like the frameworks, they translate well but they are nuances obviously.

And like if I'm looking at German shoppers habits, they are really taking their decisions, they're buying decisions in a probably more deliberate way.

So they, they really prefer in depth product reviews and, and they really value balanced feedback.

Right.

Where you're really very clear when you promote products about the pros and cons.

If it's too salesy, Germans might not really buy it.

So really differentiated, information, detailed product descriptions, I think that that's really something that we've seen with Germans to resonate well.

And also what we see is that German shoppers and I think that really speaks to a lot of brands of entering the market, they really value quality products.

So they're really looking for this brand experience and for products that actually show some sustainable or solid value.

now I think where are we seeing actually where this is, where this is going the next two to three years?

I think we are really going from an experimentation phase.

Right.

Maybe in the EU new markets, particularly really to mainstream adoption.

We see that most of the major brands we are discussing with many of them are already here.

And the German ecosystem, and also the European ecosystem, the Sellers have learned quite fast.

Right.

They looked at the US what works.

We see it with creators.

We also see it in the user adoption.

And so I do feel that we only just started.

Right.

I mean we do have TikTok, penetration and total population ranging a bit different between countries.

Like Germany it would be one third.

Other European markets it's much higher than that.

40 to 50%.

That's a huge pool.

Right.

And I really do see us becoming a mainstream e commerce experience with like a lot of exciting brands, a lot of professionalism also with the creators.

And are there any specific product categories or verticals that you're seeing gaining the most traction?

Well, I think the great thing about TikTok shop is really with the number of users you have.

Right.

And the diversity in the user base.

We also see that reflected in the categories.

We see actually big growth across all the categories.

So beauty and personal care has been particularly strong with brands such as l' Oreal and Beiersdorf and Medicube.

But also on the electronic side.

Right.

I see we see strong success with brands like Philips and Samsung and local brands and even in fashion.

Right.

With Crocs and, and local brands.

So the growth really has been across all categories.

Awesome.

that's great to hear and great to see as well shaping sh.

Shaping up the market in the European countries especially in Germany as well.

So Sebastian, Max, thank you so much for your insights.

Thank you so much for, for participating.

Now we're going to bring up on stage Chrissy and Jack.

Chrissy is the head of us TikTok shop, Shark, Ninja and Jack is the head of l' Oreal uk.

Welcome guys.

How's everybody doing?

Hi.

Good, how are you?

Thanks for having us doing well.

Absolutely.

Thanks for joining.

yeah, I mean for you guys, you know what I want to understand from, from both, you know, l' Oreal and Shark Ninja, both big names.

What's kind of been the biggest learning challenge while working on TikTok shop?

And this question could be for both of you but Jack, if you want to take it on first.

Sure.

I think as a brand like L', Oreal, when you, you've been on a platform like TikTok for years, obviously it, there's an extra added element I think of integrating a huge organization into now quite a new platform.

And I know it sounds simple.

All we're doing is connecting like top of funnel activities that we used to do before now with the bottom of the Funnel and that's really exciting and it's a great opportunity.

But I think the ability to do that and bring people together that usually work in silos has been like a huge transformation challenge that I've really enjoyed.

But when you're just working on the scale that we are at l', Oreal, if you can pull people together that usually just work on content or used to just work on E commerce and go, hey guys, we need to work together.

I mean that really unlocks unlocks the growth on TikTok.

As you know you can't work in silo.

so I'd say organizationally that's been the biggest one for us.

And I'd have to totally agree with jack.

I mean three years ago SharkNinja wasn't on the TikTok shop platform and there was a very small team, myself included, that built this up from the ground zero.

And now it's just a massive undertaking that we need so, so many operational pieces from our social teams, from inventory, from planning, from supply.

it's just really important that you have the infrastructure in place in order to kind of get things up and running.

And, and Chrissy, does your affiliate programs differ across markets?

You know, if you're working, are you working with the same tiers of creators or does the UK and the EU require different than the us so we have different creators across all of our markets but we have the same fundamental principles that we act on and we have like, like we have the same portfolio approach in terms of our creators.

And I think the biggest unlock is letting our affiliates kind of you know, given the them a playbook in terms of what our products, what we want to sell our products and then using their kind of you know, jazz to it to kind of sell our products.

But we put the guidelines in place for them and then we kind of let them dictate how it goes.

And then what we do in turn is our team at sharkninja kind of optimizes what our creators are doing to give them the best practices to move forward.

And does having brand recognition change the approach that you take when launching on TikTok shop?

I mean, I think brand recognition definitely helps for sure.

However, that what, what convinces people on TikTok shop is the conversion and you have to have believability.

So the brand definitely helps, but the believability is what's really going to convince people to purchase your product on TikTok shop.

And Jack, what do you think sets L' Oreal apart, for the other players in the beauty space, I think, Well, I would say, actually the reverse.

Like I think tick tock shoppers democratize beauty in a really good way.

I think it's democratized the creator industry, which I'm really pleased to see.

Like, I, love seeing, we work with lots of like working mums who've come from nothing now to being the breadwinners in their families.

And and like to go on that journey with them has been the greatest pleasure.

But then also to be challenged by all these new brands entering the market.

Like there's over 400 brands in beauty in the UK that exist on TikTok shop, that don't even exist in the like the universe that we usually play in retail.

And that just that, that keeps you humble, like and I think old school l' Oreal, you just carpet porn people with tv.

And by the way, you can't come near us because you can't get listings at major retailers until you've got enough budget or backing or investment.

Whereas you can kind of bootstrap the whole thing almost on TikTok.

And and that is incredibly exciting for the beauty industry.

And I love it.

And I would say actually more than anything, l', Oreal, yeah, we've got good innovation.

We spend more than any other beauty company in the world on innovation.

But even then, what this does, it holds your feet to the flames of consumers and what they really think about your products and creators and what they think about your products.

And there is nowhere to hide on TikTok.

And so yeah, we still have great innovation and we try and maximize that on the platform, but we also get found out on some of our innovation as well.

It's just like it's not as good as we thought it was.

And so, and that's fine as well.

But I think, I think we have less of advantage on this platform is basically what I'm saying.

But I relish that challenge and I think it's good for us as a business.

Yeah, and live streaming is a big, you know, is big in the ecosystem of TikTok shop.

How is L' Oreal approaching live streaming for the UK?

I love live streaming.

I think it's annoying, it's hard, it's hard work.

It's fiddly.

because what you're bringing together is, I think anyway, in the best way is entertainment, obviously with commerce and And if you're thinking about programing that like you would a Netflix series or A documentary or any sort of TV programming that takes so much care, attention and thought.

But also you can have real fun with it.

Like, we've had some mad livestreams.

We've taken like, huge uk, celebrities like Jamie and Sophie Lang, who are big, big, and we stuck them in a ball pit and we've, like, had, a live stream on the side of Piccadilly Circus and we've live, streamed, Paris Fashion Week.

And like, it's so endless opportunities to entertain, surprise, delight and really build, like a universe and invite people into that.

And we're not the best of that.

Paige, Louise, they mentioned they do that, on lives, but also in real life.

And they build these wonderful worlds, these universes that they invite their consumers to step into.

And I think you can't really do that in short, video in the same way that you can in life.

And so I think you can build amazing brand relevance.

You can, really draw people in and have some interaction with your consumers in a way that does not possible in normal E commerce.

so anyway, there's a few of my thoughts, but I think it's brilliant for building brands if you do it in the right way as well as selling things.

And I would just add to that, like what Shark Ninjas learned, in the US with Lives, it's not a channel, it's an operating model.

so early on, lots of brands treated Live like it was just an event.

And we've seen stronger results when you think about consistency, the programming, the talent conversion moments and like, how Live supports the whole ecosystem of TikTok shop.

And I think what's exciting is in the UK that the adoption feels ahead in some ways, unlike even in the us and so there's opportunity to apply those lessons faster.

and so I work closely with our UK team and we're sharing back and forth in terms of what's working, what's not working.

but one thing that I would caution people is not copying and pasting.

as Max said, consumer behavior is different from market to market.

the principle stays the same, though, show up consistently and create a reason for them to return.

Yeah, definitely.

One of the biggest pain points that I've heard is when it comes to companies, how do you structure TikTok shop internally?

Is it the marketing department?

Is it the sales department?

Right.

And so I would love to understand for anybody listening here that's thinking about launching a different, different, countries, how do you make sure that everybody's communicating and effectively and that everybody understands who, who's leading what on the, the structure internally of your company for Tick Tock Shop.

and you know, Jack, I know l' Oreal is a big operation all over, so yeah, I think, look, and so many brands are set up differently.

I, I think ultimately it doesn't really matter where it sits.

I think what matters more is the profiles of people that you've got working on it.

So like, you will need people who are experts in content, you will need people who are amazing at relationship management with creators.

You'll need some really, really good E commerce people and you'll need people who understand physical distribution and fulfillment.

So you know, you need, you obviously need all of those sort of profiles.

I would say what I said before, I think the hardest thing is is the person leading that team and that operation needs to have an appreciation for all of those functions and being able to pull them together.

And, and, and, and that is hard.

Like there's no two ways about it.

Like you've just got to be, I'm not being rude to Amazon, but like, honestly Amazon, it was like paid search and you know, get your assortment right and you're basically off you go.

There's, there's a lot more moving parts to TikTok shop and there's a lot more to be across.

And I think be humble in that.

Like, if you think you're an E commerce guy and you can come in and win on TikTok Shop, then you are going to be humbled because you will need to understand creators and content and advocacy and how that, how that all, all that industry works.

And if you're a content person, you think, I know I can nail TikTok and you don't really understand E commerce where you're going to get humble to.

So do you know what I mean?

I think, I think humility is important and then you're going to get beaten up by all the competition who are doing it better than you as well.

So you know, in all angles, I would say it goes a long way if people are humble and they actually listen to each other on their expertise.

Is, is the biggest thing I'd say rather than where you put it or you know, or who reports to who.

I, I care a lot less about that.

And Kristen.

Yeah, no, sure.

So with Sharkninja, we specifically built a social commerce team internally so we have all the players that Jack's talking about.

and I think that's crucial because again, the team is talking to, you know, our Fulfillment team on how we place things in and the big bets and we're talking to our SSNA group to make sure we're aligning on pricing and promotion.

But we're the team that knows how the, the the platform is working, what levers to pull because it's a daily grind that, that me and my team are going through and like our global teams.

and that's what makes you have to be really quick on TikTok shop.

That's the success behind it.

And if you don't have quickness you're, you likely will fall.

But one suggestion I would give to whoever's listening here, you don't necessarily to Jack's point, like have to matter who it, who it sits with.

I think it's a matter of there needs to be somebody, an operator in control of it, driving the momentum forward and focused on social comments.

Yeah, definitely.

you know, last question for y'.

All.

Where do you see social commerce going and what makes you the Most excited about TikTok shop?

Well, okay, I think in the UK we've got a long way to go because when you look at the top tiers of affiliates is small, the numbers are small, like you only have to do just.

I would always encourage people to go to like Shanghai or something for a week, and just see what a mature like social commerce market looks like.

And you know, you're mature when you've got genuine celebrities and VIPs who are, you know, doing your live streams and earning hundreds of millions of pounds.

And I think that I, I see that as really exciting future.

I, I just think we're still, we are still quite an immature market from the creator landscape point of view and I think brands are growing and I think a lot, a lot more brands on the platform.

But I think it will become seriously exciting when some of you know, the top film stars or top like, like you have in, in China are on the platform doing these multi, million pound lives.

And I think we're, we're not far off that but maybe, I see that in the near future.

Yeah, I couldn't, I would agree with that because you know the, the UK was actually first before the US and then the US came out and then the UK had to kind of rebuild their strategy.

But what you're saying about the big celebrities of Shanghai, I feel like Brazil is kind of adopting that a little quicker than maybe the uk, the, the eu, UK markets.

But we're starting to see that happening right where like these bigger name People are going to come on and then.

Chrissy, any, any, any last thoughts?

No, no, just last thoughts.

I mean in the U.S.

like you said, I think in the next two years we go from experimentational, into a much more mature commerce model.

you know, and I would say it's more creator led purchasing behavior that's going to happen.

More lives.

You're gonna see just kind of like what you see in Hong Kong and China.

and I think we're going to see much, much better attribution and halo.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you all for taking time over your busy schedules.

Really, really appreciate your insights.

Sure.

The audience did as well.

and we'll bring up Ben, now CEO of Unsociable.

Ben, thank you so much for being here as well.

Taking time out of your busy schedule.

you know, operating on the agency side a little different than the brand side.

Right.

So what do you say is one of the common mistakes that you see brands making when they're starting out on Tick Tock Shop?

Yep.

Well, before I dive into your question, I have to say thank you for placing me after Jack and Chrissy because that's obviously a tough act to follow to Absolutely amazing.

To the best operators in the space globally.

So thank you to them for their contribution there.

There's a lot of first mistakes I see brands make when they go onto the platform.

I'm going to share two that I think are particularly relevant to this discussion.

so one of the biggest ones that I see is and it's crazy like if you're in this space you'll know that it's such a common mistake to make.

But we call it like the pray and spray model where a brand comes in and they want to push their whole assortment, they want to sample loads across that assortment and then nothing really gets the chance to take off.

that's not the way to do it.

You absolutely need to have very deliberate hero product strategies.

And you heard it from people there, from everyone actually I think mentioned it at some point in time.

But like that assortment, that product strategy that you lead them to the channel with, that's everything.

If you don't have that part right then it's like thanks for coming basically.

And then I think where, and it builds on what Jack was saying, where brands often go wrong.

Just to add to that point, when you're looking at a new market and you're thinking about that product strategy, don't presume that just because it worked really well in the us that you're going to be able to replicate it exactly the same in the UK and eu, we've seen a lot of brands learn that lesson the hard way.

So those are the kind of two big things that I'd think about in this context.

And what do you think makes TikTok shop such a useful market entry for brands into these international markets?

There's a couple different things that makes it really powerful.

And you heard Chrissy mention it towards the end of our section there about Halo and attribution.

So the reason that that is so pivotal is, for the first time, in Ecom history, we've got a platform where you can drive huge awareness and huge customer acquisition and revenue at the same time on the same platform.

That wasn't the way before.

If you wanted to enter a new market.

A few years ago, you were thinking about big out of home campaign, you were thinking about how you could drive a lot top of funnel.

And then you were waiting time and time again for that, to pay off down the line.

Now it's very instant with TikTok shop.

Like, if you get the product strategy right, you've got the right brand fit for the platform and you come in with the right model, you can get both at the same time.

You can drive acquisition, you can drive huge revenue very quickly.

And we've seen that with a lot of brands like, Dr.

Melaxin.

If you're in the US, you'll probably have heard of them.

If you look at what they did in the uk, we started working with them in January, but November, December last year, there was maybe about a thousand people in the UK that heard of Dr.

Malaxin and a couple hundred of them probably worked in the industry.

it just had no awareness.

It was really like cult brand, huge in the us, obviously, it's now doing multi million pounds in revenue every single month in the UK market.

It's just about to launch in Germany.

And that's all because a TikTok shop is now launching in Boots.

If you look at the search terms for it on Amazon and on Google, it's just got this huge brand exposure.

And that's just one example that I'm giving you.

The brands that come to these markets and they get it right, they understand the true power of TikTok shop is the benefit for your overall brand.

And that's why, when you're going into a new market, I personally don't think that there's any better channel that offers you a route to market, in terms of internationalization than TikTok shop, because you get both at the same time.

And you've also mentioned use TikTok shop as a free marketing tool rather than this profit vein.

Can you elaborate a little bit on this model and what that means for brands?

Maybe listening?

Yeah, so there's a few different ways to play TikTok shop and lots of brands do.

so when we're talking to brands we usually have a conversation about three different ways to play the channel.

You've got the super commercial approach where you're thinking about it as a profit center for your brand.

And some businesses do play it that way, like a business like Shark Ninja for example, because they've got less customer lifetime value and retention.

You know, if you buy an air fryer, you're probably not buying another air fryer for quite a long time.

They need to think about more about profitability than a business like l' Oreal, for example, who they know if they sell a product to a consumer and the consumer likes that product, they're going to come back and buy it time and time again, you know, so it's different ways to play it.

So you've got that more like commercially astute model where you're thinking about more about profitability.

But then you've got, if you want to use TikTok shop, what I think is the best way to use it, you've got two other ways to play it.

So you've got the kind of break even type model where you are using it as a free marketing tool.

Essentially.

Some of the brands that I've mentioned are getting hundreds of millions of views every month.

What would it cost your business to get hundreds of millions of views if you did it any other way?

You know, if you did mass influencer seeding, what would be the cost to do that?

It'd be enormous.

if you were doing it through paid advertising, you were doing top of the funnel and you wanted to get hundreds of millions of views, it's going to cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars to be able to do that.

on TikTok shop you can actually get all of that whilst also acquiring customers at the same time and run a break even model to be able to do that.

And I think that's probably the best way to do.

TikTokshop is the break even model, but then you'll get other brands who it's all about acquisition, it's all about scale.

They really see the halo and they can prove it out.

And we do run that model with a number of our brands where they actually run a significantly negative P and L on TikTok shop on purpose.

And the reason for that is if we can attribute sales from the other channels to the activity on TikTok shop and there's quite a few different ways of doing this right, then you can show a positive P, L overall.

So there's a few different ways to go at it.

Those are the kind of three models I see brands take.

it's never going to be your most profitable channel for any brand because there's more costs and like Jack really articulated well, lots of different moving parts and disciplines.

So even building a TikTok shop operational team, way more expensive than trying to do Amazon or paid media or other channels that you've got.

So that's okay though because you've got those different ways to play it.

And then up to you as a brand, like what is, what is your goal essentially and then what do you want to use the channel for?

But that's the three models that we usually present to a brand and then, you know, affiliate culture varies vastly from country to country.

What's the most notable differences that you see from the uk Germany versus US affiliates.

Yeah, so we operate in the us, the UK and across a number of EU markets.

And my favorite affiliates are in the us, by far because they'll just go at things really aggressively.

There's just like a US mindset, it's a cultural thing.

UK affiliates, we can, there's some really good ones but we can be a little bit more reserved and I think we're seeing the same in Germany, to be honest with you.

We've had to spend a lot more time like training and nurturing affiliates in the local markets in the EU than we ever had to do in the US when we launched there, when we had affiliates there, it was more about train them up on the brand versus actually training them how to be a good creator.

and I think that that's a, it's a big mindset difference between all of the markets.

So I'd say if you are a US brand watching this, the main thing to watch out for is whereas you might sample an affiliate in the US and they do their thing, you know, and you can just kind of trust them and leave them to it.

And then like Chrissy said, when you get the content back, then iterate it.

It's not the same.

Particularly in the EU right now.

You need to spend more time working with them one to one to get really good content out of them.

And with all these new countries opening for TikTok shop, how can brands best prepare for these countries opening and who do you think they should prioritize?

Yep.

So the good thing about you and Max a bit is when you're set up with one country within the EU market, then you can actually operate on what's called an intra EU model.

So I would prioritize Germany as my first market.

Unless you're a brand that's got a very specific reason not to do that.

Like if you've already got fulfillment set up in one of the other countries, you might want to have a think about things.

But for the most part Germany is the biggest market overall.

You want to be working with a German team to get all of the affiliates on board from that market and then you can sell to all the other markets from there.

So that's the way I would be thinking about it.

I think Sebastian summed up well, probably the easiest route to market for most brands is fpt.

So you can put stock into FPT in Germany and then distribute through all the other markets.

But there's lots of considerations and it does vary by brand.

We're just kind of giving you the cookie cutter model on how to do it.

And then what I'd say is the biggest thing to think about is when you start to add all of those additional European markets.

I think there's what, something like 27 different languages in Europe, Maybe more than that.

each market has their own nuance, has their own languages, it has their own creator scope, has their own tastes like and very different cultures.

So there's a lot to think about and it's really tough to do with like an English speaking team.

Like I would not pretend as a British person to understand the cultural nuances of how a German consumer thinks.

You know, you need a German or someone that's been in that market for a long time that really understands the way that that consumer thinks to be working on it.

So if you're thinking about launching those EU markets, then think about localization of your team.

Definitely.

And the last question for you Ben, what makes you the most excited about TikTok shop in the next 12 to 18 months?

Global, definitely.

I think that's the best thing.

Like TikTok shop offers us amazing route to market that brands have never had before.

And Jack made a really good point about the democratization for brands and I think that's so true.

And now it's almost democratized the market globally.

So we had it locally in the UK for a long time where challenger brands like P Louise and Made by Mitchell have been able to go head to head with l' Oreal's and Cotis.

Now we're able to see that on a global scale where you're a challenger brand, you're coming to market and you've got the right mindset, you've got a great brand and a great product, you can take on the world basically.

And TikTok Shop allows you to do that and open up doors for, for all the different channels that's going to help your brand scale.

I think that is be incredibly exciting as a brand owner or someone senior in a brand to have that opportunity right in front of me.

Absolutely.

Thanks Ben for joining us as well.

And for everyone listening, the opportunity is just getting started and ever expanding.

now we'll bring up Claudia on stage, she'll do some joint panel questions with everybody.

and we'll go from there.

Amazing.

Thank you so much, Brian.

So, yeah, just a reminder to anyone, if you've got any burning questions that you would like to ask, just pop them in the chat and I can select a few in a wee moment.

I'm going to ask a couple little extra questions.

this one, I feel like let's start with, let's maybe start with Max on this one.

But what is one belief that most brands have about UK EU, TikTok shop, that in your opinion is just flat out wrong?

Yeah, I think the one thing we already mentioned, I will not elaborate on that one, which is like it's one market, right?

I mean it's really different markets even.

So we try to make it as convenient as possible, for example, with regards to registration, logistics, etc.

To explore that region for sellers.

But I will refer to another one which would be like Europe being slow in adoption and therefore, like having a lot of time to wait for sellers to go into that market.

Yeah, I fully agree with what my, fellow co panelists have said.

Like the market is still early.

Right.

In most of the countries, the creators still can become a lot more professional, but at the same time a lot is happening.

Right.

And when I talk with the creators these days, I mean, just within this first year, they tell me like a year ago or even half a year ago, they felt like it was very easy for brands to connect with them.

Now they tell me, those strong creators, I get every day 80 or 100 invites, right.

And these communities are being built.

So, even though we are early, a lot is Happening.

And I think there's really a lot of NPV of getting in early.

Amazing.

Jack, I feel like you had a little giggle there.

Do you have anything to add to that?

No, no, I completely agree with what Max was saying.

that was all, I mean, just the nuances of a market.

For example, I'll tell you, in the northeast of England, a lot of women would use a hairspray helmet, l' Oreal hairspray, to set their makeup Their makeup and so on.

Tick Tock Shop, we brought a new fixing mess for their makeup to market and we did a whole campaign around like that.

No, this isn't elnet.

This is now made for your face.

Now, you gotta know that people in Newcastle use ELNET before they go out at night.

Do you know what I mean?

And you, you got to know these cultural nuances, not just at, a UK level even, you know, within the subcultures of that.

And if you want to be relevant, there's no.

Yeah, there's no ways around that, I think.

And, you'll get found out pretty quickly.

So, yeah, I completely agree with Max.

I know that makes it harder to scale, but I do think.

I do think longer term you'll build a Much, healthier brand and much deeper connections with your consumers.

If you take the time to.

To invest in the right team.

it's worth it, I believe.

But it is maybe a bit frustrating as you're starting.

I think that's a really nice spin on things as well, because we care about the brands that care about us.

And when you as a brand show that you're actually thinking about your local consumer and not just this generic thing that you want to put out there, people really respond well to that and they think about it.

I love that example that you've just shared.

So, yeah, that German consumer thinks very differently than a UK consumer.

And you can't give them the same product offering.

You just can't.

Not always.

Sometimes you can.

Fantastic.

Chrissy, do you have anything to add to this?

You're on mute, Chrissy.

Sorry about that.

I didn't want to interrupt anybody.

I mean, I have not specific, you know, market.

I would say what brands, what I've heard from chatting with other brands in terms of, you know, what's going wrong on TikTok shop.

And I would say, like, a lot of brands think that it comes from one viral moment and then, then they're done.

and I would just say that brands like Shark Ninja And l', Oreal, we're winning because we're, we're building repeatability and just not chasing the spikes.

so it looks like once you build to scale, it's Social Commons looks more like retail than anything else.

Amazing.

And Sebastian.

Yeah, I mean, I would just second what Chrissy said where it's like once you do get up to scale, like in the early days, yeah, you get a viral video and then, you know, sales drop back down.

But like once you're scaled up, by the way, like when I was a seller, that's exactly what happened to me, where it's like we went viral and then immediately went back down as soon as the virality stopped.

But it's like once you build up a repeatable system, which comes down to like, you know, how are you actually activating creators and then how are you retaining those creators, building a creator community, essentially turning it into like a proper funnel and really, really breaking it down and getting operationally sound.

That's when it can become super, super scalable and really efficient.

and yeah, much, much easier to scale, predictably.

Amazing.

I've actually, there's a little question about, affiliates.

Maybe Sebastian, maybe this is one for you.

So how do brands build their affiliate network beyond just the simple Lark Group chat?

Yeah, So I mean, I would say there is generally, okay, there's brands like Shark Ninja and l' Oreal in a category of their own.

Right.

But for, for the average brand, let's say you're doing from 50 to, you know, 250, 300k per month.

you're doing really, really well on the platform and you want to kind of scale that revenue.

The highest leverage thing you can generally do is reach out to your top 10 to 20 affiliates and get them to double their output.

Right?

Because it's generally going to be like 80% of your revenue is driven by that small segment of creators.

And it's not that hard if you really, really go deep with those relationships to get them to double their output.

Right.

So if you just work in the right incentives, you have like conversations with them and ask them, hey, you know, I want to work with you on a deeper level.

How can we expand this relationship?

What, do you need from us as a brand?

What's going to help you to succeed with us?

and working with them one on one, that's often like the absolute highest leverage thing you can do.

Hazard.

I guess that both Chris and Jack would probably disagree with you actually and say that that's exactly what they do as well.

Yeah, I think that is such, such good advice from Sebastian.

and I would say, remember human beings as well.

So like, yeah, money.

I.

I mean everyone's motivated by money.

Fine.

But also we're more than that.

And so, like, I've noticed there's other ways to motivate them with you.

Like, they're working on their own a lot.

So like, how does community play a role in that?

How does, like, just meeting up face to face and building something, a deeper connection play a role in that?

And so, yes, financial motivations to double output.

I completely agree with Seb.

But, even with the top ones, you know, like go, beyond the top 200, like the top 20.

Okay.

Like, how do you really love them?

How do you really bring them in tight?

And that's so rewarding as well.

Like again, sorry for hating on Amazon, but how boring is Amazon?

It's so faceless.

All you're working is with a machine.

This is a beautiful industry where you get to work with people again.

And so enjoy that and don't view that as an inconvenience.

View that as a massive opportunity to be like, cool.

I get to work with these really interesting creators.

how can I really help them on their journey?

so I would say that's the winning mindset beyond just, okay, cool, how can I incentivize you to do another video tomorrow?

they just want to feel appreciative because they're doing a lot of work and what they're doing is impactful for your business.

They just want to feel the love.

and like, even, you know, I've had an affiliate come up to me and said, hey, six months ago I didn't have money to buy a house and now I bought a house because of Shark Ninja.

So thank you.

Like, they just want to feel the love.

So I think that's an important piece of, of that as well too.

Is the relationship building.

Amazing.

That's, isn't it incredible?

Just like the impact that this has had on so many affiliates.

Isn't it like, we've met a whole bunch of affiliates and their life has just completely changed from making content.

It's amazing.

I've got a question here, which is one minute.

There we go.

Yeah.

What strategy do you suggest for brands that are popular on other platforms but haven't made a name for themselves yet on UK or European TikTok shop yet?

Because we're seeing a lot of big names coming onto TikTok shop now.

Ben, maybe you can answer this a wee bit or give some clarity.

Yeah, definitely.

So it's a challenge and an advantage at the same time.

Jack touched on a bit earlier but if you already have channels well established in these markets then you're going to need to think about things like retail price parity.

Max can probably testament to struggles of like combating against retailers like DM who have these huge footholds in certain parts of the market.

Like these are things you need to consider.

A really good way of going about that is thinking about how can I create a TikTok shop first strategy.

And that doesn't mean necessarily that you need to go create a product that's like just for TikTok shop.

Now couple of the brands that you've seen on the call here do do that.

but other ways that you can manufacture that you can think about putting together like exclusive bundle combinations.

So that's a quick way of getting around.

Like if you've got a retailer who you're trying to combat pricing with then you can put something together that seems and feels like it's just for TikTok shop and quite a lot of brands do that and it's a successful approach to launching on the platform.

And then I think capitalizing on, if you already got that awareness of people know your products, capitalizing on that by just making it clear that it's exciting.

You know, you've got this well known brand that's launching on the platform.

We're launching some huge brands in Germany at the moment and creators are really excited just to see that name.

So if you can get the name out there then you'll be able to attract creators and quickly.

And then like I said, if you put together an exclusive platform offer then you'll be able to stop that conflict with other channels.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Max, are you seeing a lot of kind of big names in Germany succeeding well on TikTok shop or are you seeing kind of more indie brands succeeding?

It's a great question.

It's actually quite interesting that I thought the big brands would be pretty slow and it would be all the native brands and indie brands, eating their cake.

But it's actually not the case.

I'm quite pleased to see that there are big brands like for example Philips really being super successful.

But that really can echo a bit like what, what Ben said.

I think what differentiates really those established brands that succeed and those brands who are successful elsewhere and then fail on TikTok shop is one thing is don't copy the playbook from other channels.

Right.

I think also Jack referred to that.

I mean if you refer to another e commerce platform, it's really different game.

And I think another thing we also brought up is, don't assume that the way you work as an organization to be successful in these other platforms like, would translate well to how you operate successfully on TikTok shop.

Right.

You need to have the flexibility to think through from marketing down to sales, even assortment strategies.

And some of these things might run pretty much disconnected or with certain established processes proven for the past 10 or 20 years, on other platforms.

But you need to think them anew and connect them.

And I think this is really what differentiates those established brands that are successful on TikTok shop.

And I'm super happy about them, about those who manage that leap and those who really are slow.

Amazing.

I wanted to ask a wee question myself.

maybe this would be an interesting one for Chrissy.

You're seeing the US side, and also Sharkninja are doing so well in the UK as well.

Where do you see TikTok shop in the UK and the EU in about two years.

And how do you think it's going to compare to where the US will be?

Yeah, I think that's a good question.

I would say, how it compares to the U.S.

i would say that it's going to grow rapidly.

we're already seeing the growth in itself from Shark Ninja in terms of the EU and uk.

So I would say that we're just going to continue to see social comments grow and grow and grow.

So I'm really excited about what the future is going to hold.

Amazing.

Ben, do you have anything to say on that?

I didn't.

I'm gonna push you out there.

No, I think, I think Chrissy's right.

Like there's obviously adoption in the US has been rapid.

Like I think it's the fastest market to scale, in the world.

Maybe one of the Southeast Asian markets may have grown quicker.

I'm not 100 sure, but definitely in the Western world it's the fastest the market's grown.

So I don't think we'll move as quick in the UK and EU as we have seen in the us but of course we're like, we are literally just getting started.

so as more and more consumers start to use the Tech Talk app, as more and more consumers start to trust buy in through content, as creators get better, as bigger and more trusted Influencers start to realize that they can really make money from this as well, then we're just going to see that all of that stuff is going to help to create this continued, flywheel effect where it just starts to snowball more and more.

so I think there's lots of different factors that are impacting this rate of growth that, that we're seeing and they're all going to continue to compound.

Fantastic.

And Ben, if I can ask you, just like a quick little thing, imagine somebody's watching this.

They're a US brand.

They are planning a UK or an EU launch within the next six months.

What do you think is the single most important thing they should be doing right now to help themselves?

Probably drop Jack at the end and ask him for advice.

I would say.

Yeah, Jack, what's your advice on this phone number in the chat?

no, I think everyone's kind of touched on it.

There's a lot of things you could say here.

Right.

There really is, and there is a lot of things to think through.

No one on this call is, belittled the task of launching into the UK and eu.

But if I could sum it up to one thing in particular, and you've heard it echoed throughout this whole conversation that we've had, it's, it's product strategy, it's what's the assortment that you're going to take to each individual market and that, that will make or break your brand.

And it's as simple as that.

And it's so often gets overlooked.

and I don't know why, because people talk about it all the time and the smartest people in the industry, people way smarter than me, like you see in this call, they, they really get that, and that's the brands that are when.

And they really get that, and the brands are winning globally.

They are, optimizing for that.

Fantastic.

Right, I'm just gonna check if there's any wee additional bits and pieces.

there's so many long questions.

We've only got one minute left.

We've only got one minute.

Let's go into the outro then, because we've covered so much ground today.

Well, that brings us to the end, so thank you so much to the absolutely wonderful panelists, Jack, Chrissy, Max, Ben and Sebastian.

Thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to share all these learnings with us.

it's absolutely amazing to have all of you on and thank you also to Brian for leading on those questions.

So, on the screen there.

We've got three QR codes there.

So, if you'd like to learn a little bit more about affiliate outreach and how Kruva can benefit your shop, then you've got a QR code there.

If you'd like to explore Unsociable and learn more about us as a TikTok shop partner.

But one there.

Or if you are ready to take the leap and join TikTok Shop, there's a QR code right there.

So, once again, thank you so much to all of our panelists, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.

Everyone.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Thanks.