$0 to $1M: Scaling automated selling on TikTok Shop

$0 to $1M: Scaling automated selling on TikTok Shop

$0 to $1M: Scaling automated selling on TikTok Shop

Wally is a team of 4 that turned an idea into a platform moving $1M GMV in just 3 months. By enabling creators to sell virtually any product in their social channels, Wally has established themselves as a top 20 store on TikTok. Discover how Wally worked with Rye to go from a startup idea, to rapidly scaling their infrastructure, to having $7M in annual run rate.

Kisum Chan

Head of Growth @ Rye

Nov 14, 2023

3 min read

Products used

Sell Anything API

Sync API

Industry

Social and creator platform

Company Size

Startup

Automated & reliable Amazon Business ordering

99.9% successful order placement

1-click install

to earn commissions from partner merchants

Developer-ready

Powered an early builder on TikTok Shop before it was even launched

Scalable

One integration that delivered the end-to-end shopping experience

Ready to get started?

Challenge

Turning a loophole into an opportunity

After spending a long time talking to influencers and understanding the problems that they faced, the Wally team discovered that there was a major flaw in how they currently were able to monetize. Creator store platforms like LTK and Amazon Storefronts help influencers create their own store, curated with products they’d promote to their audience and get a small cut from every sale, but creators felt that sales were being lost because shoppers had to navigate through many links before completing a purchase..


Most shoppers needed to take 3 actions: from a TikTok video → bio → link-in-bio → creator store. Influencers also voiced dissatisfaction with unreliable and insufficient affiliate rewards.



Becoming one of the first developers on TikTok Shop

The launch of TikTok Shop was intended to provide a solution to this convoluted user journey. Creators could tag products directly on relevant videos. Users could immediately purchase that product and complete checkout natively on TikTok. Fewer clicks would equal more sales. Right?


However, it suffered from low creator adoption. Why? The products available on TikTok Shop were… not great. They were typically low-quality products sourced from Aliexpress.


Spotting this gap, Wally devised a solution to help source higher-quality products that leveraged existing marketplaces.


“Back then, TikTok Shop was just entering beta in the US. So we had the idea to basically onboard a lot of merchants quickly using Rye’s API, to bring high quality products into the TikTok Shop ecosystem and drive sales for them” - Mayank, CEO of Wally



Turning a loophole into an opportunity

After spending a long time talking to influencers and understanding the problems that they faced, the Wally team discovered that there was a major flaw in how they currently were able to monetize. Creator store platforms like LTK and Amazon Storefronts help influencers create their own store, curated with products they’d promote to their audience and get a small cut from every sale, but creators felt that sales were being lost because shoppers had to navigate through many links before completing a purchase..


Most shoppers needed to take 3 actions: from a TikTok video → bio → link-in-bio → creator store. Influencers also voiced dissatisfaction with unreliable and insufficient affiliate rewards.



Becoming one of the first developers on TikTok Shop

The launch of TikTok Shop was intended to provide a solution to this convoluted user journey. Creators could tag products directly on relevant videos. Users could immediately purchase that product and complete checkout natively on TikTok. Fewer clicks would equal more sales. Right?


However, it suffered from low creator adoption. Why? The products available on TikTok Shop were… not great. They were typically low-quality products sourced from Aliexpress.


Spotting this gap, Wally devised a solution to help source higher-quality products that leveraged existing marketplaces.


“Back then, TikTok Shop was just entering beta in the US. So we had the idea to basically onboard a lot of merchants quickly using Rye’s API, to bring high quality products into the TikTok Shop ecosystem and drive sales for them” - Mayank, CEO of Wally



Turning a loophole into an opportunity

After spending a long time talking to influencers and understanding the problems that they faced, the Wally team discovered that there was a major flaw in how they currently were able to monetize. Creator store platforms like LTK and Amazon Storefronts help influencers create their own store, curated with products they’d promote to their audience and get a small cut from every sale, but creators felt that sales were being lost because shoppers had to navigate through many links before completing a purchase..


Most shoppers needed to take 3 actions: from a TikTok video → bio → link-in-bio → creator store. Influencers also voiced dissatisfaction with unreliable and insufficient affiliate rewards.



Becoming one of the first developers on TikTok Shop

The launch of TikTok Shop was intended to provide a solution to this convoluted user journey. Creators could tag products directly on relevant videos. Users could immediately purchase that product and complete checkout natively on TikTok. Fewer clicks would equal more sales. Right?


However, it suffered from low creator adoption. Why? The products available on TikTok Shop were… not great. They were typically low-quality products sourced from Aliexpress.


Spotting this gap, Wally devised a solution to help source higher-quality products that leveraged existing marketplaces.


“Back then, TikTok Shop was just entering beta in the US. So we had the idea to basically onboard a lot of merchants quickly using Rye’s API, to bring high quality products into the TikTok Shop ecosystem and drive sales for them” - Mayank, CEO of Wally



Initial Validation and Growth

Manual inventory management and fulfillment

Wally tested out this idea by collecting product requests from influencers and manually listed them on their TikTok Shop. They also priced products above MSRP and passed this margin along to creators as incentives.


To add requested products, the team manually copied and pasted product titles, descriptions, images from marketplace product listings. Then, they listed the products on TikTok Shop for creators to tag in their videos. Once a shopper purchased a product on TikTok, the Wally team would manually find the product on a marketplace like Amazon, and ship it out to the original shopper.


Experiencing Rapid Growth

This approach quickly gained traction; influencers started posting tagged videos, and shoppers started actually purchasing products. They had proved their model.


But it worked a little too well. The Google sheet being used as the temporary order tracker was crashing due to the extraordinary volumes. It was clear that manually placing hundreds of orders on Amazon was near impossible with their team of 4 people.


Wally had to find a way to scale.



Solution

  1. Automate Amazon Business Ordering: Wally turned to Rye's Sell Anything API to automate their product ordering flow. In less than 2 days, the Wally team built their systems so that every time a shopper made a purchase, an order would automatically be placed to Amazon Business and be fulfilled by the Amazon seller.

  2. Automate Product Listing: Listing new products on their TikTok store was the next biggest operational bottleneck. Wally built a system for influencers to request new products simply by copying and pasting an Amazon product URL on their Wally dashboards. With Rye’s Sell Anything API, Wally was able to automatically and instantaneously fetch the product data to be listed on TikTok Shop.

  3. Earning additional commissions: Wally also began earning commissions on sales through brand partnerships. Their partnered brands simply would install the Rye Shopify app and set a percentage of commission in under 2 minutes. The Shopify connector app not only unlocks order placement directly to the merchant’s backend, it also automatically distributes commission to Wally upon each sale.

Client Testimonial: “Rye's swift and supportive response was pivotal in our journey. Their APIs not only simplified the complexities of online retail but also played a crucial role in enabling Wally's rapid growth and operational efficiency.” - Mayank, CEO of Wally

  1. Automate Amazon Business Ordering: Wally turned to Rye's Sell Anything API to automate their product ordering flow. In less than 2 days, the Wally team built their systems so that every time a shopper made a purchase, an order would automatically be placed to Amazon Business and be fulfilled by the Amazon seller.

  2. Automate Product Listing: Listing new products on their TikTok store was the next biggest operational bottleneck. Wally built a system for influencers to request new products simply by copying and pasting an Amazon product URL on their Wally dashboards. With Rye’s Sell Anything API, Wally was able to automatically and instantaneously fetch the product data to be listed on TikTok Shop.

  3. Earning additional commissions: Wally also began earning commissions on sales through brand partnerships. Their partnered brands simply would install the Rye Shopify app and set a percentage of commission in under 2 minutes. The Shopify connector app not only unlocks order placement directly to the merchant’s backend, it also automatically distributes commission to Wally upon each sale.

Client Testimonial: “Rye's swift and supportive response was pivotal in our journey. Their APIs not only simplified the complexities of online retail but also played a crucial role in enabling Wally's rapid growth and operational efficiency.” - Mayank, CEO of Wally

  1. Automate Amazon Business Ordering: Wally turned to Rye's Sell Anything API to automate their product ordering flow. In less than 2 days, the Wally team built their systems so that every time a shopper made a purchase, an order would automatically be placed to Amazon Business and be fulfilled by the Amazon seller.

  2. Automate Product Listing: Listing new products on their TikTok store was the next biggest operational bottleneck. Wally built a system for influencers to request new products simply by copying and pasting an Amazon product URL on their Wally dashboards. With Rye’s Sell Anything API, Wally was able to automatically and instantaneously fetch the product data to be listed on TikTok Shop.

  3. Earning additional commissions: Wally also began earning commissions on sales through brand partnerships. Their partnered brands simply would install the Rye Shopify app and set a percentage of commission in under 2 minutes. The Shopify connector app not only unlocks order placement directly to the merchant’s backend, it also automatically distributes commission to Wally upon each sale.

Client Testimonial: “Rye's swift and supportive response was pivotal in our journey. Their APIs not only simplified the complexities of online retail but also played a crucial role in enabling Wally's rapid growth and operational efficiency.” - Mayank, CEO of Wally

Results

Rapid Growth: From MVP to a scaling venture in a few months.

Revenue Milestones: Achieved six-figure revenue in the first two weeks; approached half-a-million in the first two months.

Operational Efficiency: Over 99.9% automation in Amazon Business product orders after complete integration.

Market Position: Ranked a top 20 TikTok Shop by transaction volume.

Rapid Growth: From MVP to a scaling venture in a few months.

Revenue Milestones: Achieved six-figure revenue in the first two weeks; approached half-a-million in the first two months.

Operational Efficiency: Over 99.9% automation in Amazon Business product orders after complete integration.

Market Position: Ranked a top 20 TikTok Shop by transaction volume.

Rapid Growth: From MVP to a scaling venture in a few months.

Revenue Milestones: Achieved six-figure revenue in the first two weeks; approached half-a-million in the first two months.

Operational Efficiency: Over 99.9% automation in Amazon Business product orders after complete integration.

Market Position: Ranked a top 20 TikTok Shop by transaction volume.

Conclusion

Wally's story is a powerful example of how innovative use of technology like Rye's APIs can revolutionize the e-commerce landscape. If you’re curious about TikTok Shop, reach out to see how Wally can help your brand become a top selling shop.


By addressing specific influencer market challenges and streamlining e-commerce operations, Rye enabled Wally to capture and capitalize on emerging market opportunities, setting a precedent in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce.


Introducing Rye’s Universal Checkout API

Universal checkout is here: place orders from any store, in seconds, with a simple API call.

👉 Get started

Wally's story is a powerful example of how innovative use of technology like Rye's APIs can revolutionize the e-commerce landscape. If you’re curious about TikTok Shop, reach out to see how Wally can help your brand become a top selling shop.


By addressing specific influencer market challenges and streamlining e-commerce operations, Rye enabled Wally to capture and capitalize on emerging market opportunities, setting a precedent in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce.


Introducing Rye’s Universal Checkout API

Universal checkout is here: place orders from any store, in seconds, with a simple API call.

👉 Get started

Wally's story is a powerful example of how innovative use of technology like Rye's APIs can revolutionize the e-commerce landscape. If you’re curious about TikTok Shop, reach out to see how Wally can help your brand become a top selling shop.


By addressing specific influencer market challenges and streamlining e-commerce operations, Rye enabled Wally to capture and capitalize on emerging market opportunities, setting a precedent in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce.


Introducing Rye’s Universal Checkout API

Universal checkout is here: place orders from any store, in seconds, with a simple API call.

👉 Get started

Monetize
your AI platform
with shopping.

Airpods Max
Levoit Air Filter
Taylor guitar
Stumptown Coffee

Monetize
your AI platform
with shopping.

Airpods Max
Levoit Air Filter
Taylor guitar
Stumptown Coffee

Monetize
your AI platform
with shopping.

Airpods Max
Levoit Air Filter
Taylor guitar
Stumptown Coffee

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