TikTok Shop Onboarding Guide: How Should Cross-Border Sellers Choose Between Self-Managed and Fully Managed Models?

As TikTok becomes more popular among global users, more and more cross-border e-commerce companies are beginning to use TikTok Shop to expand into the international market. Currently, TikTok Shop mainly provides two modes - self-operated mode and fully managed mode. The operation mode, management specifications, and suitable business types of each mode are different. During the warm-up period of TikTok's Black Friday event this year, TikTok implemented different management policies for self-operated and fully managed merchants. Therefore, it is crucial for enterprises to understand and choose the appropriate model. This article will compare the characteristics, applicability, and advantages and disadvantages of the self-operated mode and the fully managed mode, and provide a reference for cross-border merchants to open stores on TikTok.

What is TikTok Shop self-operated mode (POP mode)

Definition

The self-operated model (POP model) refers to merchants operating independently on the platform, including product listing, sales management, logistics arrangement, content promotion and influencer cooperation. Merchants can flexibly participate in marketing activities and set their own prices. This model is suitable for merchants with certain e-commerce operation experience, especially for enterprises that focus on brand operation.

Applicable scenarios and merchant types

1. Southeast Asian market

Sales area: Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines

Open categories: Categories that merchants can apply to enter include clothing, shoes and hats, home furnishings, beauty products, 3C digital products, etc.

Invitation categories: jewelry, food, personal care products, etc. (Enterprises need to submit a form to TikTok to apply)

2. US market

Applicable merchant types: Merchants holding business licenses in mainland China or Hong Kong, cross-border merchants with US entities (Chinese shareholders hold more than 25% of the shares)

Open categories: including beauty, 3C hardware, fashion accessories, home furnishings, collectibles, food, etc.

Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of TikTok's self-operated model

advantage:

1. Sellers have high autonomy and flexible operations.

2. Capture market trends at the first time and optimize products quickly.

3. Take charge of after-sales service and ensure after-sales service attitude

shortcoming:

1. Merchants need to invest more time, resources and manpower costs in all aspects of marketing.

2. Merchants need to have more professional knowledge to manage TikTok accounts and self-operated stores.

What is TikTok's full hosting model

definition

The full-hosting model is suitable for merchants who focus on product supply. Merchants are responsible for providing products, while the TikTok platform assists in a series of tasks such as operation , sales, influencer cooperation, and after-sales service. The full-hosting model can save management energy and allow companies to focus more on product supply chain management.

Applicable scenarios and merchant types

Sales area: the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Open categories: including clothing, home furnishings, fast-moving consumer goods, digital hardware and other categories.

Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of TikTok's full hosting model

advantage:

1. No need to worry about operation management, suitable for companies that lack cross-border e-commerce experience.

2. The entry threshold is relatively low, making it easy for new companies to get started quickly.

3. Merchants can focus on product research and development and supply chain optimization.

shortcoming:

1. Lack of autonomy and limited brand building.

2. The platform controls pricing and promotion, and merchants’ orders and profits are restricted.

3. Opportunities of end consumers that are not reached

Self-operation vs fully managed: How to choose?

1. Self-assessment of abilities

In cross-border e-commerce, logistics and after-sales service are often the primary challenges faced by companies. Therefore, for companies that have just started to go overseas, if they do not have a deep understanding of product procurement, warehouse management, logistics distribution, payment settlement and after-sales service, the full trusteeship model may be a more ideal choice. If the company has a certain understanding of each link of cross-border logistics and has certain financial support, and at the same time hopes to shape its brand image, the self-operated model is a more appropriate choice, allowing companies to flexibly control the process and realize brand personalization, so that they can maintain market initiative and protect data privacy.

2. Positioning matches market demand

The self-operated model is more suitable for companies that value user interaction and want to build brand loyalty . This model allows merchants to communicate directly with consumers, so as to better understand user needs and flexibly adjust products and marketing strategies. In turn, it can show personality and enhance emotional connection with users. Relatively speaking, the fully managed model is more suitable for companies that aim to sell in bulk , allowing them to achieve more efficient resource allocation and stable sales growth through large-scale sales.

3. Risk and Benefit Analysis

The self-operated model has high autonomy and greater potential profits, but the costs in all aspects are higher ; the fully managed model saves time and effort , but the profits are limited by the platform's share and rules, and the profits may be lower .

Operation strategy of self-operation model

TikTok's self-operated model combines content e-commerce with shelf e-commerce. If a company chooses the self-operated model, it can use creative videos or live broadcasts to quickly attract users, build brand awareness and promote purchasing behavior.

1. Bind multiple TikTok channel accounts for matrix promotion

Since the basic logic of TikTok's self-operated business is " content drives sales ", operating the TikTok account is a necessary process. During the new store inspection period, stores can only bind one official TikTok account (the official account entity must be the same as the store entity). After the new store inspection period, the company can bind one official TikTok account and four channel accounts.

Operating multiple TikTok accounts can not only reach different audiences through multiple accounts , but also guide traffic to stores through matrix accounts , and there is an opportunity to guide another part of the traffic brought by channel accounts to the private domain for in-depth operation. Enterprises can integrate all channel accounts into SaleSmartly to manage and receive messages from multiple TikTok accounts on one platform. This function greatly improves the efficiency of message processing, allowing private messages and comments to be taken over by professional customer service staff for efficient management and conversion, thereby enhancing the effect of conversion to the private domain and improving customer experience.

2. Live broadcast strategy

TikTok accounts with good data can maintain their activity through daily live broadcast operations and interact with customers in real time. This not only helps to increase the exposure and user engagement of the account, but also can slice and convert live broadcast content into subsequent video materials for further promotion. In addition, live broadcast capabilities also provide preparation for taking over popular videos. Once a video with good data appears, merchants can quickly start live broadcasts to take over this traffic and promote product conversion.

3. Accurate advertising delivery

The account should be clearly positioned in the early stage. If the TikTok operation positioning is not clear (including a series of issues such as store style, product attributes, and live broadcast room style), do not place advertisements to increase users. Otherwise, it is easy to disrupt the fan tags and lead to account failure . It is more effective to operate the store and account first, accumulate a certain fan base, and ensure that the account tag is consistent with the target user, and then conduct advertising promotion.

Fully managed model operation strategy

Although the majority of the work in the fully managed model relies on the daily management of the platform, merchants should also do key preparation and support work to ensure optimal sales results and customer satisfaction .

1. Ensure sufficient supply

In the full-hosting model, merchants are mainly responsible for the supply of products, so ensuring sufficient supply is the top priority. Merchants are advised to make reasonable inventory planning based on market demand to ensure that they can quickly replenish stocks during sales peaks such as big promotions and holidays to avoid sales losses due to out-of-stock situations.

2. Regularly update some popular products and seasonal products

Since fully managed merchants have less autonomy and find it difficult to respond to the market quickly, but popular trends on the TikTok platform change rapidly, merchants should regularly introduce new products or update merchandise that meets seasonal needs to maintain the attractiveness of store products.

3. Communicate with the platform and provide good after-sales service

In the full-hosting model, the platform is responsible for specific after-sales management, and merchants basically have no access to consumers. Therefore, merchants are required to maintain active communication with the platform, cooperate with the platform to optimize the after-sales process, and quickly resolve service issues such as returns, exchanges, and refunds.

Further reading

TikTok Operation Guide: 20 Professional Tips to Create Popular Videos (salesmartly.com)

How to add WhatsApp and LINE contact information to TikTok? Seamlessly guide customers to private domains (salesmartly.com)

How does TikTok divert traffic to private domains? And how can it be taken over? (salesmartly.com)

Mastering Multi-Account TikTok Marketing: Advanced Strategy and Analysis Techniques (salesmartly.com)