Guide for TikTok Shop sellers
How to vet TikTok Shop creators before you send a free sample
Six checks you can run on a creator's public profile in a few minutes. Each comes with what we found when we checked 63 US creators who post shoppable videos.
These checks only rule creators out. They can't tell you which creator will make sales. Across the 63 creators, our overall screening score showed no relationship with how much the products they linked had sold (Spearman ρ = −0.01, 61 creators) or with the share of comments that showed buying intent (ρ = 0.11, 25 creators). Sales per creator are not public.
Where the numbers come from
On 2026-10-03 we pulled public profile and video data for 64 creators who had posted shoppable or commission-tagged videos in the US, 16 in each follower band (under 1K, 1K–10K, 10K–100K, over 100K), across 22 product categories. 63 returned enough data to score. Medians count only videos at least 3 days old and skip pinned videos. Names are removed.
The checklist
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Median views in the last 30 days
How to check: open their profile, skip pinned videos and anything posted in the last 3 days, and take the middle view count of the rest from the last 30 days. Ignore the follower count.
14 of 63 creators had a 30-day median under 300 views. The median across all 63 was 1,088. Followers say little: creators over 100K followers got about 1% of their follower count per video, creators under 1K got 1.5 times theirs, and one creator with 222 followers had a median of 3.9K.
The window matters. For one creator, the latest 10 videos gave a median of 1.7K, because fresh videos were still counting up; the 44 videos from the last 30 days that were at least 3 days old gave 13K.
Under 300 views: don't send. A sample is unlikely to earn enough views.
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Batch posting
How to check: count their posts from the last 7 days.
14 of 63 posted more than 35 times a week; the busiest posted about 184. The typical creator posted 12.6 a week.
More than 35 a week, nearly all selling something: send with care. Work on commission only, or ask for a script before you ship.
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A viral hit that rose in one sudden jump
How to check: find their most-viewed shoppable video. Compare its like rate (likes ÷ views) with their usual videos, and compare its views with their median.
10 of 63 creators had an unusual rise on their top shoppable video. Of 46 shoppable videos with 50K+ views from 27 creators, 9 jumped suddenly after day 2, and in 6 of those 9 the like rate was under half the creator's usual. Of 12 that peaked in the first days and tailed off, 10 had a normal like rate. 14 of the 46 got most of their views after day 14, beyond the 14-day daily curve that public data shows, so their shape couldn't be judged.
One creator had shoppable videos at 4.9M and 4.3M views, while a typical video got about 900.
A sudden jump with a low like rate is common with paid promotion and doesn't show the creator's own reach. It isn't a verdict on the creator: they may have promoted a video that sold well. Judge them by their median, not their best video.
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Posts TikTok labels as AI-generated
How to check: scroll their recent posts for TikTok's AI-generated label.
7 of 63 creators had the label on more than half their posts. Across 5,488 posts, 682 (12.4%) carried it. Of the 16 creators under 1K followers, 14 had at least one labeled post. One account went from 10K to 100K followers in a week with the label on 48 of 48 posts, each about 10 seconds long with the same line.
If your brand doesn't allow AI-generated content and more than half their posts are labeled: don't send. Videos made with outside tools may carry no label, so no label proves nothing.
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Category focus
How to check: open the products they have linked. How many are in your category?
For the typical creator, 61% of linked products were in their main category. It was 44% for creators over 100K followers and 100% for those under 1K.
70% or more in your category is a good fit; under 40% is a poor one. Their viewers didn't follow them for products like yours.
Three things only you can check
Public data doesn't answer these, so look at the profile yourself before you ship:
- Does a real person show the product on camera in their latest 3 videos?
- Will they work on commission only, and is any fee agreed in writing?
- Are they tied to a competing brand right now?
A real check, name removed
One of the 63 creators, as the checklist reads them:
Don't send · pet products · 1K–10K followers · 42/100
- Median views, last 30 days
- 886
- Engagement rate
- 0.7%
- Posts per week
- 4.4
- Posts that link a product
- 100%
- Linked products in the top category
- 30%
Their three most-viewed shoppable videos (4.9M, 4.3M and 290K views) all rose in sudden jumps, with like rates around 40% of their usual. Looking only at the hits would have sent this sample.
Run these checks on a creator
Paste up to 10 creator handles. The free sample check runs these checks from public data, plus engagement, comment quality and follower growth, and gives send, send with care or don't send, with the reason. It does the ruling out; the decision stays yours.
Common questions
How do I know if a creator is worth sending a free sample to?
Start with their median views over the last 30 days, not their follower count or their best video. Then check how often they post, whether their top shoppable video rose in a sudden spike with a low like rate, how many posts TikTok labels as AI-generated, how many posts sell something and whether their products match your category.
Should I send samples to creators with under 1,000 followers?
Followers alone won't tell you. In our sample, creators under 1K followers got a median of 1.5 times their follower count in views per video, while creators over 100K got about 1%. One creator with 222 followers had a 30-day median of 3.9K views. Check the median views instead.
A creator has a video with millions of views. Is that a good sign?
Not on its own. One creator in our sample had shoppable videos with 4.9M and 4.3M views while a typical video got about 900. Judge a creator by their median video, and look at how the big one rose and how its like rate compares with their usual.
Can this checklist tell me which creator will make sales?
No. It only rules creators out. Across 63 creators, our overall screening score showed no relationship with how much the products they linked had sold, and sales per creator are not public.