Everything you need to know about TikTok Shop and free samples/Live Giveaways!
Are you utilizing SKU IQ's integration between TikTok and Shopify for your online store? If so, it's important to understand how free samples and live giveaways work within this setup. We've conducted research and engaged with the TikTok Shop product and engineering team to provide you with valuable insights on these programs.
Free Samples and TikTok Affiliate:
It's crucial to note that free samples are associated with TikTok Affiliate, rather than TikTok Shop. While you have the ability to send free samples of items listed in your TikTok Shop catalog, the entire management process for free sample orders resides within TikTok Affiliate. It's important to recognize that free sample orders do not generate TikTok Shop orders. Consequently, SKU IQ does not receive the necessary information to capture and synchronize these orders with your Shopify store.
For accurate inventory management and order tracking, you will need to establish your own manual process. The fulfillment of free sample orders is exclusively handled within TikTok Affiliate.Live Giveaways and TikTok Shop:
Live giveaways have the capacity to generate orders within TikTok Shop. However, it's essential to be aware of certain limitations, as the live giveaway functionality wasn't originally designed with the seamless syncing of TikTok Shop catalog and orders in mind. The following nuances should be noted based on TikTok Shop's current capabilities:
When a live giveaway for a product is initiated, TikTok Shop generates a duplicate instance of the product, complete with its distinct product ID and inventory count. It's important to maintain separate inventory records for the "giveaway" product and the original product.
Due to the unique ID assigned to the live giveaway product and the absence of a notification mechanism to inform our system about products created within TikTok Shop, there is no inherent correlation between the original product and SKU IQ or Shopify.
a. Orders placed during live giveaways will lack product or SKU information in both SKU IQ and Shopify.
b. These orders will not impact the quantity of the original SKU in SKU IQ or Shopify.
c. Manual fulfillment is necessary for live giveaway orders. If fulfilled through Shopify, tracking information will be synced back to TikTok Shop.
Given that live giveaways are classified as sweepstakes, it's imperative to adhere to TikTok's stringent fulfillment requirements to prevent any "bait and switch" scenarios. Failure to meet these standards could lead to the revocation of giveaway privileges.
Our collaboration with TikTok Shop's product lead has affirmed that the existing approach to managing live giveaways might not be optimal within the TikTok Shop + connector framework. A more effective approach could involve treating giveaways as "campaigns" with allocated "budgets" based on the original SKU, thus eliminating the need for duplicate SKUs. We're actively advocating for this approach with TikTok's core team. This is the latest information as of August 2023.
For more comprehensive information on these programs, we recommend referring to the following knowledge base articles from TikTok's Seller Academy:
Free Samples
Live Giveaways
Stay informed and make the most out of your TikTok and Shopify integration with SKU IQ! If you have any further questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team for assistance.