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If you know someone who'd enjoy The DTC Insider, I'd really appreciate you forwarding them today's edition.

Let’s go!

Topics we'll cover today:
💠 We Quit TikTok Shop at Month 3. Why That Was the Mistake.
💠 OpenAI Is Building a ChatGPT Analytics Dashboard for Businesses
💠 Inside The TikTok Shop Growth Playbook feat. Jordan West
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

A few years ago, I tested TikTok Shop with a handful of brands.

Three months later, we had made $0.

So we gave up.

That's why I was SO excited to sit down with Jordan West, founder of Social Commerce Club, one of the agencies running TikTok Shop for some of the biggest brands out there.

And honestly, a few things he told me felt like a list of everything we did wrong.

Six months!

We quit at three.

Jordan sees it as a marketing channel, not a marketplace. The real win is what it does to the rest of your business: your website, Amazon, even retail.

His math: send 100 samples, and about 20 creators make an "okay" video. Of those, about 4 turn out to be gold for your product.

You can't find your 4 without sending all 100.

We sent a handful. 😅

My take?

TikTok Shop didn't fail us. We just didn't know what to expect.

We also got into how to pay creators, why live selling is a different skill, and what most brands get wrong when they launch.

🎧 Tune in.

—
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content.

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OpenAI is building an analytics tool for businesses inside ChatGPT.

The idea is simple: it would show you how many times your brand appears in ChatGPT's answers, and how many people click through to your website.

We know about it thanks to e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukėnas, who spotted an unannounced “Claim your business in ChatGPT” banner last week.

The analytics would live inside ChatGPT's Business Hub.

To get in, you have to verify that you own the business, for example by linking your Shopify store. Once you're in, you can add your latest products and keep your business details up to date.

You can also set up an agent that answers customer questions using information you control.

What about the dashboard?

For now, it only shows mentions and clicks.

You won't see which prompts led to a mention, or how you compare with your competitors. At least not initially.

Maybe some of those features will become premium add-ons down the road.

This is a highly expected feature, so I’ll keep you updated when I know more about it.

—
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content.

Not every day you get a 1:1 with Jordan West.

And what did we talk about? TikTok Shop, of course!

I've been following Jordan for years, but when he decided to go ALL IN on TikTok Shop, I started paying even closer attention.

Remember, this was back when nobody knew whether TikTok would be sold or banned in the US.

Quite a gamble, right?

Well, he took it. And I've been learning from his experience ever since.

I even had the chance to learn directly from him in his TTS mastermind (highly recommended).

But this time, I got to ask him all the questions I've been wanting to ask about what's actually working on TikTok Shop.

The strategies, the mistakes, the DOs and DON'Ts, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

And the best part? We recorded the whole conversation so you can learn from him, too.

If you're running an e-commerce brand and TikTok Shop is on your radar, you don't want to miss this one.

🎧 Tune in. 👇

📰 TikTok Updates Its AI Video Ad Tools [read more]
📰 Meta Adds Mini App Creation Option to Muse [read more]
📰 TikTok Launches a Standalone App for TikTok Shop [read more]

📖 The First 90 Days on TikTok Shop
📖 How to Build a Business-First Meta Ad Account
📖 How To Set Up ChatGPT Ads
📖 Where 7–8 Figure Brands Get Stuck (And How To Fix It)
📖 What Do Successful Brands Have In Common?

If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.

Brian Roisentul is the founder & CEO of BSR, a growth marketing agency he started in 2013 to help e-commerce brands unlock hidden revenue by identifying misalignments between their marketing and customer behavior. He is also the host of The DTC Insider podcast, where he interviews thought leaders, founders, and directors in the e-commerce space.

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