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TikTok Shop Open Collaborations allow TikTok Sellers to manage their product catalogs and set a portion or the entirety of their store available for TikTok Shop affiliates to request samples, promote products, and earn commissions.
Open Collaborations function differently than Targeted Collaborations, which I cover in a separate post.
After syncing your products in the TikTok Seller Center, you can find the menu for Open Collaboration on the left sidebar when signed in to affiliate.tiktok.com.
TikTok will give you the option to add products one by one or in bulk, as well as auto-add to an Open Collaboration. To manage product settings in an Open Collaboration, you can select a specific product or batch select at the page level.
From here, you can:
- Edit commission rates
- Change sample settings for products
- Remove products from the collaboration
Commission Rates
TikTok will study your product category and suggest a commission rate that will excite affiliates, "activating" them to start promoting your products in their shoppable videos.
TikTok's suggestions are usually accurate here, so staying in that range or even exceeding it is a great way to set your brand apart and set it up for success.
Open Collaborations allows you to set a blanket commission rate across all products or a commission for each.
Sample Settings
As of December 2024, you can choose four different sample settings in your Open Collaborations.
Disable samples entirely - Creators will not be able to request product samples at all. They will still be able to tag your product in shoppable videos, but they will need to obtain the product themselves.
Free samples across the board - Any TikTok Shop affiliate can request a sample. Brands can gate sample requests behind manual approval to keep affiliate quality in check. Taking it a step further, TikTok Sellers can set specific criteria for the types of creators who can openly request a sample from you. Assuming my client's products have yet to be invited to Auto-Optimized samples (covered later), this is the setting I recommend for clients.
Refundable samples - Samples are available to any TikTok Shop Affiliate, but they are initially charged full price for the requested product sample. Upon the Creator posting a Shoppable Video for the product, they will receive a refund. This is in place to protect the brands from Creators who request samples but never post.
“Auto Optimized” samples - Brands set a target ROI. TikTok's algorithms predict the sales capability of Creators and dynamically display the option for TikTok affiliates to receive a sample on a case-by-case basis. The higher the target ROI number is, the less TikTok will recommend your product samples to creators, as their criteria for sample send-outs are stricter. This is the setting I used for my clients at Afflytics once TikTok invites you.
Austin Tuwiner
Austin has worked in the affiliate marketing industry for over eight years, with experience as a publisher, technology provider, and now affiliate management. Based in Miami, Florida, when he's not at a computer, you'll find him spearfishing South Florida's reefs, lifting something heavy, or on the tennis courts.
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