Anisa Casalino, Amie’s TikTok Shop ECommerce and Operations Manager that works 1:1 with Amie’s Sephora and Ulta Beauty brands to make sure their Shop is set up for success before you even send out samples to creators.

Highlight Bullets:

In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley interviews Anisa Casalino, TikTok Shop Operations Manager for Amie’s Sephora and Ulta Beauty brands. Anisa shares strategies for scaling sales on TikTok Shop, including creating virtual bundles to increase average order value, leveraging affiliate marketing, and utilizing TikTok’s built-in CRM tools for customer outreach. She emphasizes the importance of maintaining a strong shop performance score and establishing solid operational foundations before launching creator campaigns. Anisa also highlights key team roles needed for success and recommends understanding consumer psychology to drive effective social commerce growth.

Here are the 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:

Timestamps:

00:00:00 The Importance of Shop Performance Score
Anisa explains how a strong shop performance score, covering product satisfaction, fulfillment, and customer service, is crucial for success.

00:00:42 Podcast and Guest Introduction
The podcast is introduced, followed by host Josh Hadley, who then introduces the guest, Anisa Castellano, a TikTok Shop manager.

00:02:39 Anisa’s Role as Operations Manager
Anisa details her day-to-day responsibilities, which include optimizing listings, managing inventory, creating promotions, and monitoring shop performance.

00:04:23 Leveraging Virtual Bundles
Anisa identifies virtual bundles as a key strategy to increase average order value (AOV) and support hero product strategies.

00:05:05 Setting Up and Promoting Bundles
Discussion on how bundles are created as standalone products, promoted with stickers, and highlighted in the shop’s design.

00:06:29 Affiliate Strategy for Bundles
Anisa explains that affiliates are a crucial part of promoting virtual bundles, working closely with the affiliate manager.

00:08:05 Customer Outreach Strategies
Anisa describes using TikTok’s built-in tools to send customized messages about new bundles and promotions to various customer segments.

00:10:32 Positioning Bundles on TikTok Shop
Anisa clarifies that virtual bundles are created as standalone SKUs rather than variations of existing products to maintain performance metrics.

00:12:45 The Benefits of Virtual Bundles
Josh and Anisa discuss how bundles improve unit economics for brands and increase commission potential for creators and affiliates.

00:15:22 Key Analytics and Shop Performance
Anisa emphasizes that the shop performance score is the most important metric, as it impacts eligibility for platform incentives.

00:17:27 Common Shop Score Issues
Anisa outlines common problems that hurt a shop’s score, such as delayed shipments, high cancellation rates, and negative reviews.

00:19:18 Handling TikTok Shop Violations
Anisa shares her experience resolving violations, noting that integration issues between Shopify and TikTok can cause high cancellation rates.

00:21:23 Working with TikTok Support
The challenges of getting appeals approved are discussed, highlighting the need for persistence and escalating issues to account managers.

00:23:13 Misconceptions About TikTok Shop
Anisa explains that TikTok Shop is a living ecosystem that requires daily management, unlike other e-commerce platforms.

00:25:03 Communicating with Account Managers
Anisa confirms she is the main point of contact with TikTok account managers, which is crucial for troubleshooting issues.

00:26:29 The Importance of an Ecosystem Approach
Anisa stresses that success requires an ecosystem where operations, affiliates, and paid media work together, starting with a strong operational foundation.

00:29:30 Leveraging CRM Tools and Coupons
Anisa suggests using follower coupons and review incentives to nurture existing customers and encourage repeat purchases and engagement.

00:30:28 Three Actionable Takeaways
Josh summarizes the key takeaways: implement virtual bundles, use customer outreach tools, and maintain a high shop performance score.

00:33:43 Most Influential Book
Anisa shares that “The Psychology of Persuasion” is influential because the core principles of why people buy remain consistent.

00:34:46 Favorite AI Tools
Anisa discusses using TikTok’s built-in AI for SEO optimization and smart modules in the shop design for personalization.

00:35:49 Who to Follow in E-commerce
Anisa finds inspiration from the talented people she works with daily rather than one specific public figure.

Links and Mentions:

Tools and Websites
“TikTok Shop“: “00:00:00”
“Shopify“: “00:20:14”
“Base“: “00:20:36”
“Seller Central“: “00:34:52”

Books
“The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber“: “00:01:19”
“The Psychology of Persuasion“: “00:33:51”

Strategies and Metrics
“Virtual Bundles”: “00:04:23”
“Customer Outreach”: “00:08:37”
“Shop Performance Score”: “00:16:39”

Episode Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure e-commerce owners grow to eight figures.

I started my business in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.

I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.

If you’ve hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com and in your subject line say “strategy audit” for the chance to win a $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit at no cost!

Transcript:

Anisa Casalino 00:00:00  Without a strong shop performance score. TikTok actually won’t give you a lot of incentives and a lot of additional features, so it’s really important to stay on top of it. Like with product satisfaction, you want to look at things like reviews, product quality concerns, return and refund behavior. Fulfillment and logistics is going to measure, you know, whether orders are being shipped accurately and on time. Customer service looks at how quickly and effectively sellers are responding to customer issues, the refund requests rate, and after sales cases as well.

MC 00:00:42  Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough podcast. Are you ready to unlock the full potential and growth in your business? You’ve already crossed seven figures in sales, but the challenge is knowing how to take your business to the next level.

Josh Hadley 00:00:56  Do you want to know the secret levers to grow your TikTok shop sales and your average order value. Today’s guest has the answers and is implementing them across multiple brands. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Hadley. I scaled my own brand from 0 to 8 figures in sales, and now my mission is to take it to over nine figures on my journey to nine figures.

Josh Hadley 00:01:19  I bring you the unfiltered conversations with the smartest minds in e-commerce. Past guests include Ezra Firestone, Kevin King, Brandon Young, and Michael E Gerber, author of the E! Myth. Today, I’m excited to welcome a guest, Anisa Casalino. She is Amie’s TikTok shop e-commerce and operations manager that works one on one with Amie’s, Sephora and Ulta Beauty brands to make sure that their shop is set up for success before they even send out a single sample to any creator. With that introduction, welcome to the show, Anisa.

Anisa Casalino 00:01:55  Hi. Thank you. Excited to be here.

Josh Hadley 00:02:00  Anisa, I’m super excited to have you on the show. We’ve had your founder, Julia Rubin, on the show, and we’ve had a few of your other team members, because what you guys are doing in the TikTok shop space is amazing. You’re driving really good results for a lot of those brands that are in Ulta Beauty stores. That’s what I love, like your guys. You guys are so niche. You’ve got to be in Sephora or Ulta in order to become a client.

Josh Hadley 00:02:26  And so you’re very targeted at what you do. And so I would love to hear a little bit more from you, Anissa. Like what is your day to day look like as the TikTok shop operations manager and what are you doing?

Anisa Casalino 00:02:39  So a day to day involves a lot of different aspects. I would say as an operations manager, we’re responsible for ensuring that every aspect of a brand’s TikTok shop is optimized for growth. So, you know, while content and creators generate excitement around a product. Shop operations make sure that the business can convert that interest into sales and deliver a great customer experience. So that includes everything from optimizing product listings with strong SEO, managing inventory and product catalogs, creating bundles like adding in promotions, registering brands for platform campaigns, and just monitoring the shop performance score on a daily basis as well. And then of course, like if you need to appeal violations and provide like more troubleshooting assistance, we could do that also.

Josh Hadley 00:03:41  Love it. Well, it definitely sounds like you keep your hands full for sure.

Josh Hadley 00:03:46  there’s always a number of things, and TikTok is ever evolving. I think that’s one of the challenges on the platform is, you know, there’s always updates. And the way I see TikTok shop is they are progressing at the speed of what Amazon was doing and growing in three years. TikTok Shop is kind of like rolling out and changing in just a year’s amount of time. And so, Anissa, I know you went through a lot of different things that you cover and you helped get these shops set up to succeed with, but what would you say is like one of the biggest levers that you’re implementing in these brands right now, that you’re actually seeing good results in success from.

Anisa Casalino 00:04:23  I would say, virtual bundles would be one of the main levers that I’ve been implementing. I think leaning into virtual bundles allows the brand to like, increase their AOV, support their hero product strategy, especially for the brands that tend to be more discount shy. This is like a great way that you can, like, stay competitive and provide some exclusivity to the platform.

Josh Hadley 00:04:48  I love it. So tell me a little bit more about like, how are you setting up these virtual bundles and where do they get merchandise? Are they, you know? Are they part of, like, the variation on the product or where are you including them, and how do customers even find them?

Anisa Casalino 00:05:05  So for the virtual bundles, we it depends like you can kind of do it two ways. We do standalone virtual bundles. and it usually has like maybe 2 to 3 hero products. Or sometimes it can be a hero product and a new product that we want to introduce to the customer as well. and, you know, to make it something that, like, catches the customer’s eye, we always add in stickers. So we’ll have like a 15% off sticker or a TikTok shop exclusive sticker just to really drive that attention and awareness. And I like to, like further support it. I will add it into the shop design. So I’ll like add a module that highlights any new bundles, any TikTok shop exclusives, and I think it’s just like a nice additional lever that like, further supports any virtual bundles.

Josh Hadley 00:06:04  So you’re saying that the main way that people find it is when they go to, like, the shop, or is this something that you’re actually, like trying to tell your affiliates to, hey, don’t just talk about the single product. I want you to actually, you know, when you’re adding the link, I want you to link to the virtual bundle, not the one product I want the product with our new product included as well.

Anisa Casalino 00:06:29  Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Sometimes the virtual bundle can be part of our like hero product strategy. So I work very closely with affiliate and paid and like really the full team and like determining what products should be the hero product. And then from there we’ll create the virtual bundle and make sure that our affiliates are aware of it as soon as it goes live. I’m like, I immediately reach out to my affiliate manager and let her know we stay in the loop and, Yeah, it’s it’s a full circle. Everyone participates.

Josh Hadley 00:07:00  So is the main focus then to have the affiliates push it, or is the main focus to just on the merchandising side, like when people stumble upon it when they come to the shop, like, what’s the what’s the underlying strategy that’s working for you guys?

Anisa Casalino 00:07:14  I would say it’s both.

Anisa Casalino 00:07:16  We definitely want the affiliates to push it and to promote it. but also it’s just it’s a great lever to utilize, with like a product that we know is already working. So if we want to increase the AOV, we know that, you know, these two products work really well separately and they could even, you know, complement each other and it can tell a story. So like if it’s for fragrance, maybe it’s a layering story or like, you know, in makeup we could do a seasonality bundle, something that, you know, is good for holiday or for the summer or for whatever and those so like we definitely push it in that way. And then I’ll also support it with customer outreach. So we are like sending it out, letting the customer know like we have this bundle via chat and email.

Josh Hadley 00:08:05  So tell me a little bit more about like how are you reaching out to the customers then. Is this through email or is this just through the TikTok you know support channels. Tell me more about how you’re actually like that.

Josh Hadley 00:08:18  That’s always been the challenge on Amazon right? Amazon does not want to give you the contact info for your customers, and they don’t want you reaching out or sending anything to them. But you’re saying like you’re reaching out to your TikTok customers and making them aware of new products. So how are you doing that? And is it is it effective?

Anisa Casalino 00:08:37  I think it’s very effective, and that’s one of my favorite. I feel like one of my favorite analytics to look at because it does it. It helps with performance tremendously. So when we do have a promotion or a new launch or a virtual bundle. I will create customer outreach so I will target different customer segments, new customers, new potential customers, repeat customers, new followers. There are so many different segments within that channel of TikTok that you can utilize. And so I’ll send out these messages via chat and via email if if that option is available.

Josh Hadley 00:09:22  Okay, so you’re saying you’re just using this feature that sits inside of TikTok shop then, right.

Josh Hadley 00:09:28  And it’s just reaching out to the customers through the TikTok platform. Do you get to customize the messages or like how much wiggle room do you have with them?

Anisa Casalino 00:09:37  You can completely customize the message. So I try to make it like very you know, sometimes our clients will provide an approved copy internally. Sometimes they’re like, just have fun with it. So, you know, we do it based on the brands and, kind of like what their, their style is and cater it to them.

Josh Hadley 00:09:56  Love that is. Has there been one particular message that’s outperformed the others like. Is it potential customers or is it more like returning customers, lapsed customers? Which ones have you found the more success with?

Anisa Casalino 00:10:12  I would say potential new customers delivers some great results but also repeat customers.

Josh Hadley 00:10:19  Okay, so both of those segments have been working well for you. Yeah. going back to I want to go back to like the virtual bundle thing because I’m really interested in this. And this is something we’re also testing for ourselves.

Josh Hadley 00:10:32  how else do you get customers to know that that virtual bundle. is there are you able to add it as like a variation to, you know, one of the existing products that’s in that bundle so that it shows up as a secondary image, almost like a it’s a color option, but it’s not actually a color. It’s a completely different like bundle of products. I’m just kind of curious, like where is that sitting when somebody comes into your main hero SKU and yet you have additional like bundled items like where do where is that merchandise on the TikTok platform?

Anisa Casalino 00:11:10  So I if we are doing like a bundle that’s a two pack of an item, we can link that as a variation within the existing parent skew. for our virtual bundles, we keep them as like standalone SKUs. But if like we have variations of a product, if there’s like, you know, I, I go back to makeup because that’s, you know what most of our clients are with makeup and like body care. But if we have a lipstick, for example, that’s in five different shades, you of course want to have that variation within the main listing to retain all historical and metrics and have everything go back to that one.

Anisa Casalino 00:11:54  But with our virtual bundles, they are standalone.

Josh Hadley 00:11:59  Interesting. Okay. And so you’re saying people are just discovering them by going to the shop, maybe some affiliates. Where would you say, like most people are discovering it, is it just coming to the shop storefront, or is it through the affiliates that are mainly driving the awareness for it?

Anisa Casalino 00:12:16  I think it’s having a strong affiliate strategy. because again, we all like come together and determining what virtual bundle we want to push and what would perform well with affiliates so that, you know, we we know that it will perform well with the affiliates. We know we’re going to love that, we’re going to love what they put out. And so I think that, you know, those virtual bundles, we have them in mind when we are creating them.

Josh Hadley 00:12:45  That makes sense. So what you’re saying here is if you create virtual bundles, I see this as like it’s kind of a win win across the board when you create the virtual bundle and then you’re trying to push it through with your affiliates.

Josh Hadley 00:12:58  The benefit that you’re going to get from this is twofold. Number one, your AOV is going to increase on TikTok. And as you know, many if not most brands on TikTok shop are not making a profit because, you know, based on the fees, the affiliate commissions, things like that, it’s hard to stay profitable, especially when you’re running ads at the same time to actually drive those sales. And then you’re giving out all these samples. So it’s an extremely challenging platform to stay profitable on. But this is a game changer because if you can flip the script and increase your average order value, you save on shipping and fulfillment costs, because now you’re shipping 2 or 3 items together instead of just one, so your unit economics look better that way, but I think one of the biggest like sleepers on this that I think gets me excited is this is really going to incentivize your creators to really focus on having higher ticket items that they can sell and thus impacting their commissions. So instead of selling, hey, here’s my $20 product or $25 product and I’m making 20% commission.

Josh Hadley 00:14:13  Great. What does that get me? Like maybe $4? Well, now if you can give them a $50 product. Right. And now they’re making $10 in commission, right. That’s a lot more appealing. That’s a lot more interesting. Even if they only generate a handful of sales a day. You know, $50 a day can compound for a creator like that makes a significant difference. So I love it from the business side. Like I think unit economics make a lot more sense, but I almost see this as like more powerful for the creators. Is that the feedback? Like, are you getting any feedback from craters that they’re like, yeah, actually, I want to only talk about your virtual bundles instead of just your one off products, because like, I make more commission at the end of the day.

Anisa Casalino 00:14:58  Yeah, I mean, absolutely, I, I would say that our affiliate manager book would probably be able to speak to it better because she’s in direct contact with the creators. I usually don’t have that connection, but our bundles perform well amongst our affiliates, so I think they do enjoy promoting them and creating content for them.

Anisa Casalino 00:15:17  And I think it helps like tell a better story in general.

Josh Hadley 00:15:22  Yeah, I love that. And you say you also talked about how how many like analytics and reports you have to go through. So I’m curious, walk me through and the rest of our audience, what are the key analytics reports that are in TikTok shop that you think brand owners need to be paying attention to? Which ones are you paying attention to and why?

Anisa Casalino 00:15:43  Yeah, I think you know, you want to look into your customer service metrics. That’s a huge one because it all links back to the shop performance score. So I feel like first I should dive into shop performance, which is basically TikTok’s report card. it kind of shows you how well a seller is performing on the platform, and it involves product satisfaction, customer service, fulfillment, and logistics. So it’s not just asking like, are you making sales? But it’s asking our customers happy with the product, our orders shipping on time are issues being handled quickly. So I think it’s that’s the most important metric to pay attention to when you are on shop, because without a strong shop performance score, TikTok actually won’t give you a lot of incentives and a lot of additional features.

Anisa Casalino 00:16:39  So it’s really important to stay on top of it. Like with product satisfaction, you want to look at things like reviews, product quality concerns, return and refund behavior. Fulfillment and logistics is going to measure whether orders are being shipped accurately and on time. Customer service looks at how quickly and effectively sellers are responding to customer issues, the refund requests rate and after sales cases as well. So I think it’s super important. I think a strong score signals to TikTok that the seller is providing a good customer experience overall, which then of course increases customer trust. It gives you campaign eligibility, and I think it provides you with long term growth on the platform.

Josh Hadley 00:17:27  Yeah, I love that. So you’re saying the shop score is the most important, like analytic metric that you’re at least measuring as the operations manager, what are some of the issues that you’re like where do brands go wrong with their shop score. What are some of the easy things that people overlook that they need to be paying more attention to? And how do you make sure you maintain a you know, I think it’s what’s the threshold? Is it like 4.5 or above, like you get the benefits or something like that?

Anisa Casalino 00:17:56  Yeah, exactly.

Anisa Casalino 00:17:58  well, I mean, if a shop starts seeing things like delayed shipments, high cancellation rates, negative reviews, or just like slow customer service handling that can immediately create friction and potentially limit the shop’s ability to scale. so you’ll start getting warnings. If you have extremely high cancellation rates, you could potentially get violations. and it’s very easy to miss those things if you’re not in the shop day to day. I think if you are seeing like an influx of negative reviews, you want to really dissect it and see, is it is there one product specifically that’s, you know, taking up the majority of negative reviews, like which product is leading it and why? What’s the primary concern of the customer? and just like from the shop performance score, you can dive into so many different, smaller metrics that ultimately determine your success on the platform.

Josh Hadley 00:18:59  Yeah, no, I think those are really good takeaways. Do you have to deal with a lot of violations? And are you the person that has to deal with like if you if somebody gets a violation from listings or anything like that, or are you the person that has to resolve those? And what violations are you seeing most common that brands are getting?

Anisa Casalino 00:19:18  Yes, I am the person that has to resolve them.

Anisa Casalino 00:19:22  so it involves a lot of consistent, appealing and, I feel like one of the common violations that I have seen, would be like the high cancellation, high seller fault cancellation rate, and that was actually do. I’ve seen that twice before, and it was actually due to integration issues from Shopify to TikTok shop where the orders weren’t syncing properly. And so that resulted in the brands not receiving those orders on Shopify. And as a result, TikTok automatically cancelled those orders because they weren’t being filled. So just something super important. Always like make sure your your integration is set up correctly, because it just all kind of creates a domino effect.

Josh Hadley 00:20:14  Yeah, totally. Like those integrations. We’ve had our own challenges with that. we use base right now for all of our integration. We used to be going through Shopify, but we started using base to help us connect to, you know, Amazon MCF to fulfill orders. And we’ve seen, you know, better success that way rather than going through the Shopify route.

Josh Hadley 00:20:36  So if people are looking for options of, you know, good fulfillment partners, you know? Base has been a good one. They’re not a three PL, but they do all the integration. So that’s the trick. You touched on this, which is like if you get a violation, you have to, you know, follow up with, seller support. And we thought that Amazon was bad on seller support. I think TikTok takes it to a whole nother level of bad. So yeah, tell me, like, how do you even get like, it’s just it seems like it’s just like bot automatically denying or approving a lot of these things. Like what are you seeing working when you do have to, you know, counteract a violation that you got and get it appealed, like, what’s working, what’s not working in terms of working with TikTok support to actually get things done?

Anisa Casalino 00:21:23  I would say a lot of standard appeals are not working. you really, really have to work hard to get an appeal successfully approved or a violation revoked.

Anisa Casalino 00:21:35  I would say I always follow the like the appeal template. So they’ll kind of provide you with a template within the violation itself. and then I work closely with like the TikTok account manager to see once you know, two appeals are rejected, they can step in and try to escalate it internally if needed. so I think like just keeping a close eye on it, following up and submitting anything possible you can like if we have a product that, received a violation because of leakage, then, you know, we’re bringing it back to the brand. We’re communicating the issue, we’re following up, making sure that the brand is improving that issue, to put the product back on shop and then providing the necessary documentation so that I can then appeal with that documentation. So it involves a lot of teams. but, you know, once you have all the right documents, you get it done.

Josh Hadley 00:22:37  Yeah. No, it’s always, It’s always testing and improving and reaching out to people when you need to. Now, Anisa, you came from a background of, you know, you were always in e-commerce.

Josh Hadley 00:22:50  You were with Estée Lauder before. Tell me, what’s been the most eye opening thing as it relates to TikTok Shop? Because this has been relatively new for yourself. So what what’s kind of like your recommendations for other sellers that you’ve had to learn along the way that could, you know, save some other people some time?

Anisa Casalino 00:23:13  I would say. I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about TikTok shop. and I would say even, you know, coming into it, I figured that the maintenance would be similar to Amazon account maintenance, but I didn’t realize how fundamental and important it is to have someone managing shop operations day to day and how much truly goes into it. I feel like TikTok is truly a living ecosystem. And, you know, every day there’s new performance metrics to monitor, there’s inventory levels to manage, customer reviews coming in, campaigns to register. My biggest form, my biggest advice piece of advice would probably be like, stay in the platform, stay active, stay aware. TikTok is constantly rolling out new.

Anisa Casalino 00:24:08  I feel like new AI tools, new campaign like benefits or incentives. A good example would be like for deals for you days. They they are doing a module within the shop design itself that like highlights all of the deals for you days, discounted items if you’re participating. And I think that was a really cool addition to it, but it was also something that even the internal TikTok account managers weren’t aware of it. And, you know, I called it out because I was working on the shop design at the time and I was like, hey, is this module going to be something that is automatically integrated into our shop design? And they like they had to take it back internally because they didn’t even know. So like it’s just it just shows how quickly the platform is evolving and changing. And I feel like it’s very easy to miss something if you’re not in their day to day.

Josh Hadley 00:25:03  Yeah, I totally agree. It is evolving quite frequently. Who’s the main point of contact on your teams or with the brands with like the account managers? Is that your role, and is that what you would recommend for other brand managers is to have like an operations manager that is kind of like the face or the representative to communicate with the TikTok shop reps?

Anisa Casalino 00:25:24  Yeah, for sure.

Anisa Casalino 00:25:25  I think that, I, I communicate with our account managers daily for sure, especially with like if there are violations, if I have a question about like a product warning or, you know, if a certain product is being flagged and like, there’s just if we’re troubleshooting, I always reach out to them for questions. And I definitely think it’s important to have someone that is like the primary contact.

Josh Hadley 00:25:52  Yeah. Would you recommend for anybody else that’s, you know, maybe just getting started on TikTok shop. How important is it to, you know, get the operations manager position in place even before maybe you even do your sampling strategy? Or would you almost say, hey, well, go get the samples, try to break some stuff first before, and then you can build up operations later. Like which is it like, do you think it’s the the is it the egg before the chicken or the chicken before the egg here.

Anisa Casalino 00:26:24  I think I think shop operations is the best way to set up the shop.

Anisa Casalino 00:26:29  So I, I feel like and I always say it’s an ecosystem. I think one of the biggest reasons that brands struggle on TikTok shop is because they’re viewing it as a single channel and not as an entire ecosystem. So I feel like success on TikTok shop isn’t driven by just one thing. You can’t solely rely on great products or affiliates. all of the pillars need to work together to create a well-oiled machine. But I think first you need to set up and establish that like fundamental framework. And with that, you know, you want to make sure that your catalog is optimized. you have a hero product strategy. You have your you’re understanding the shop performance. You know, where your shop is, you know, today and where you need to improve from there. I’m understanding what the fulfillment and logistics side is, understanding the customer reviews and like where you need to improve with product. So I definitely think establishing like shop operations initially and then following it up with affiliate. You know, once everything is set up, once the framework is laid out, it’s probably for the best.

Josh Hadley 00:27:43  I love that. I love that you talked about, you know, it needing to be like an ecosystem that works hand in hand together. Because you’re right. Like, you’ve got to have the right listings, the right backend set up, and obviously the right integrations in order for it to succeed. So what from your perspective and what you see, even on your own team, what are like the key roles that you think any brand owner should have? If we check off the list, like, all right, an operations manager is going to be responsible for the listings, the integrations, the shop performance score, customer service, and some inventory. Okay. That’s operations. You know, I think like obviously there’s an affiliate manager that is obviously coordinating and working with the affiliates. But then like, what else? Who are the other players that you think a brand needs to have on their team.

Anisa Casalino 00:28:33  I mean, we need someone managing paid media. I think that’s so important as well. and probably like in, like, creating content creator content, someone that’s supporting the creative side of the business.

Anisa Casalino 00:28:46  I think it’s it really is like a in order to make it like a well-oiled machine, you need all parts to, you know, to succeed.

Josh Hadley 00:28:55  Yeah. I think like definitely adding in the advertising component, adding in, you know, overall like a data analytics perspective as well. I think like a data scientist and testing and optimizing your titles, your bullets I think like listing optimization, just like you do on Amazon, becomes so important on that. Anisa, as we wrap things up here today, is there anything we we haven’t dove into that you feel like we’ve overlooked or we need to double down on before we wrap things up?

MC 00:29:29  I don’t.

Anisa Casalino 00:29:30  Think so. I mean, I think that another like important lever is like leveraging CRM tools and coupons. I definitely think that’s another thing that’s like maybe underutilized. I think a lot of sellers focus on acquiring new customers, but it’s also important to like, nurture the ones that you’ve already earned. So like having the follower coupon set in place is great, but also creating a review coupon to incentivize customers to leave positive reviews or, you know, targeted outreach for lapsed customers or repeat customers.

Anisa Casalino 00:30:09  I think it’s all great ways to encourage repeat purchases to generate more reviews, to grow your follower base. And it’s a pretty low effort tool that, you know, you can activate. And I think it provides great results. So I think that’s another key. Call out.

Josh Hadley 00:30:28  Yeah. Really good idea. It’s definitely don’t sleep on. You know, the tools, resources TikTok has given you to build relationships with your customers, giving them incentives and coupons. So really well noted on that. Now, Anissa, as we wrap things up, I’d love to leave the audience with three actionable takeaways from every episode. Here are the three takeaways that I noted. You let me know if I’m missing something. Action item number one is implementing virtual bundles. If you’re already an existing seller on TikTok shop and you’ve already got momentum, I think one of the easiest, lowest hanging fruit option opportunities that you have in front of you is increasing your average order value, thus benefiting not just you as the brand and hoping to actually create some profitability on TikTok shop.

Josh Hadley 00:31:16  But number two, driving your affiliates to actually create content around those bundles so that they make even more commission. my other favorite thing about this is like, if this can be true where these virtual bundles work well, and it sounds like you’re proving it, that it’s working for you guys and the brand you’re working with, but you no longer have to deal with as many like buy box issues on Amazon because you have this virtual bundle that’s its own living and breathing thing that you can’t really do the same thing on Amazon. And so Amazon does have virtual bundles, but it’s kind of, I think gone over like a lead balloon in my opinion. But on TikTok shop I see even more potential with these virtual bundles. So that’s my first action item. Don’t sleep on this. As Anissa said, make sure that you pair you know some of your best selling products together, and even include some new product launches as part of that action. Item number two is making sure that you implement some of those low hanging fruit with, just like the new follower coupons that you can give out to people, it’s potential Customers, giving them a discount, giving them custom messaging that allows you to again generate more revenue than you would have otherwise.

Josh Hadley 00:32:36  So don’t sleep on that. Make sure you have a process because you know it is something that somebody actually has to go in and maintain for you. And then my third and final action item here is to not sleep on your shop score. And how important it is that if this is something that you’re not paying attention to or just kind of accumulating little small violations here and there can really have a detrimental effect to you, your ability to participate in some of their, monthly campaigns, their ability to, you know, get reimbursements or coupons from TikTok Shop gets limited. And I also believe that there’s a strong aspect of the algorithm that helps you go viral and get your products featured more and more on TikTok shop, that is connected to your shop score. If you have a low shop performance score, your your creators are probably also going to be frustrated because they’re not going to see the momentum. So Anisa, those are my three action items. Anything you think I missed or anything to elaborate further on?

MC 00:33:40  No, I think you covered it perfectly.

Josh Hadley 00:33:43  Awesome. Well, these are my final three questions for you. Or this number one. What’s been the most influential book that you’ve read and why?

MC 00:33:51  I.

Anisa Casalino 00:33:51  Would say the most influential book would be the The Psychology of Persuasion. And why? I would say because e-commerce has evolved, but people haven’t. Meaning like technology changes, platforms change. But the psychology behind why we buy still remains remarkably consistent. So I think that, you know, the book, it explains those behaviors. And I think it’s still very relevant to today, especially in social commerce, where trust and authenticity is everything.

Josh Hadley 00:34:30  Yeah. I love that. I think you hit the nail on the head there. Yeah. We as humans, we’ve evolved, but we haven’t evolved that much. And so I love that. Those are timeless principles. Question number two. What’s your favorite AI tool that you’ve been using and how have you been using it.

Anisa Casalino 00:34:46  Yeah I. Okay. So I actually love the AI tools on TikTok shop in Seller Center.

Anisa Casalino 00:34:52  So I’ve been utilizing for listings the SEO optimization. you know, I will tweak it, but I try to utilize some of it just to see if it’s like leaning into maybe like TikTok’s algorithm a little more. Showing that we’re utilizing those tools maybe will give us additional visibility. So I have been playing with that, but also in our shop design, there’s a ton of smart modules that, that I think are great to utilize as well. So like I’ll use the, you know, best picks for you. Like it’s a module that pretty much reviews the customers behavior and then creates an assortment like curates products within your shop for that person. So I love incorporating that in our shop design as well.

Josh Hadley 00:35:38  Love it. Yeah, that’s I like using their own AI to optimize because ideally, hopefully their AI sits upon, you know, their own algorithm. So.

MC 00:35:47  Exactly.

Josh Hadley 00:35:48  Yeah.

MC 00:35:49  Yes.

Josh Hadley 00:35:49  Third and final question who is somebody that you admire or respect the most in the e-commerce space that other people should be following and why?

Anisa Casalino 00:35:57  Okay, I feel like my answer is a little bit unconventional, but I feel like I find a lot of my inspiration in the e-commerce space from the people around me.

Anisa Casalino 00:36:07  I, I work with a lot of incredibly talented account managers and like brands and teams and even just being in the beauty and fashion industry, being in the e-commerce space for a few years now, I feel like I constantly learn by asking questions and having hands on experiences from like those mentors. So I think that, you know, it’s not a specific person, but rather like a lot of the people around me that are working in e-commerce and that are constantly learning and willing to teach.

Josh Hadley 00:36:40  Yeah, I love that. It’s all about who you associate with, that’s for sure. And then surrounding yourself with a players on any team raises the bar. Well, Anisa, this has been so much fun. Thanks for joining us today. If people want to reach out to you or connect, what’s the best way to do so?

Anisa Casalino 00:36:59  I linked in Anisa Castellano on LinkedIn.

Josh Hadley 00:37:03  Awesome. Easy enough. Well, thank you again for your time today, Anisa.

Anisa Casalino 00:37:07  Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

MC 00:37:09  Thank you for listening.

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