What are Samples?

Sellers can offer product samples to creators so they can test, review, and create engaging content designed to generate more orders. Sellers can manage and track the entire sample workflow from Affiliate Center, setting up samples for their Open and Target Collaborations, approving and rejecting requests, reviewing and tracking content posted with samples, and more.

Seller benefits of samples

1. Access creators, content, and users that fit your brand: You'll have access to high-performing creators, content creation requirements, and personalized creator recommendations all inside our Affiliate Center.
2. Gain insight into individual product performance: Get a signal on how your products' performance by testing out different product positioning strategies and creator Collaboration tactics in order to inform your overall selling strategy on TikTok.
3. Tailor your sample strategy based on your needs: Offer Refundable Samples to a wider range of creators who will either post GMV-generating content or earn you an additional purchase, and offer free samples to higher-value creators as an additional partnership incentive.

Samples: The Basics

You can offer two types of samples - Free Samples and Refundable Samples. In most cases, you can offer both types of samples for the same product.
Free Samples: Send free samples of products to creators who request them through Product Marketplace or who you send Target Collaborations to. Sellers pay for the product, shipping and tax.
Refundable Samples: Sell samples to creators who purchase them through Product Marketplace. In order for the creators to receive a refund, they need to fulfill specific criteria that you set up. Once the creator meets those criteria, you send an automated refund for the purchase price. If the creator does not meet your criteria after 90 days, the sample becomes a regular purchase. Refundable Samples can only be set up in Open Collaborations at this time.

Step 1: Set up an Open or Target collaboration with samples.

• For Open Collaborations, start in the Affiliate Center and click on Open collaboration. Select the product(s) you'd like to offer. Under Offer samples, toggle on Refundable samples and set the refund criteria, or toggle on Free samples and select the sample quantity, how long you'd like to allow for sample requests, and a creator threshold.

• For Target Collaborations, start in the Affiliate Center and click on Target Collaboration. Press Invite to collaborate. In the Target Collaboration creation flow, turn on the Set up free samples toggle and select whether you want to manually or automatically approve sample requests from these creators. For automatically approving sample option, creators can request > 5 sample products

Step 2: Approve or reject sample requests from creators & view Refundable Sample orders

• On the Free sample order Page, you can view creators' free sample requests along with the requesting creators' metrics like Followers, Fulfillment, Sales Volume and Average videos per video. You can then approve or reject free sample requests from creators.
• Keep in mind that a product's free sample quota is reduced on a per-approval basis, meaning that once you approve a creator's single free sample request, that sample's inventory is reduced by 1. Alternatively, you can leverage the "no limitation" option as an "always-on sample strategy," keeping samples available for creators to request regardless of your sample quota.

• On the Refundable sample order Page, you can view the status of past and ongoing Refundable Sample orders that creators have made, the refund criteria, as well as navigate to Seller Center to arrange shipments.

Step 3: Ship samples to creators.

• In the Ready to Ship tab, click Arrange Shipment to navigate to the Seller Center and ship the sample.

• Once you're in the Seller Center, click Create labels to purchase shipping labels from TikTok or press Add tracking info if you've purchased shipping labels from third parties.

Samples: Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1A: Open Collaboration Sample Set Up

There are various ways to add samples in Open collaboration. Choose the method that works best for you.
Option 1: If you receive a pop up in the Seller Center highlighting the option to add samples to all your products in open collaboration, you can choose the option to accept or close. Once you've accepted, sample settings are triggered on existing affiliate inventory. *You will able to see a confirmation pop up explaining the changes.
Once you accept the pop-up, samples will be added to all your existing products in Open Collaboration and "Auto Add New Product's toggle will be turned on. However, products that are not part of Open Collaboration will not be added
Existing products:

• Refundable sample

1. Free samples are added for all existing affiliate products that already do not have any free sample settings turned on. The default sample settings are :

Creator generates 1 sales. You can adjust your products' refund criteria. At this time, refund criteria for minimum sales orders ranges from values of 1-3.

• Free Samples

Sample Quantity: No limitations. Sellers do not impose restrictions on the number of samples. This allows sellers to adopt a "always-on sample strategy" strategy, keeping samples live for creators to request regardless of your sample quota. Sellers still maintain full control by approving or rejecting these requests as needed
Request Period - Indefinite
Fan Number - More than 0
Average views per video - More than 0
30 days sale volume - More than 0
Est. Post rate = All
Option 2: Auto-Add New Products - Enable the 'Auto Add New Products' toggle to automatically add samples to open collaborations for future products. Please note that this setting applies only to future products and does not affect your existing products. All future products will be assigned the following default settings. *

• Refundable sample
  • Creator generates 1 sales
• Free Samples
  • Sample Quantity: No limitations. Sellers do not impose restrictions on the number of samples. This allows sellers to adopt a "always-on sample strategy" strategy, keeping samples live for creators to request regardless of your sample quota. Sellers still maintain full control by approving or rejecting these requests as needed
  • Request Period - Indefinite
  • Fan Number - More than 0
  • Average views per video - More than 0
  • 30 days sale volume - More than 0
  • Est. Post rate = All

Option 3: If you do not have auto add products toggle on, you can manually add products to your open collaboration. For products already added to your Open collaboration in the "Added products" tab, add samples for products individually or for multiple products at once.

• Step 1: To set up a free sample for a product, click the edit icon next to the desired product and enable the 'Offer free sample" toggle. You can also set up refundable samples at the same time. If your product is eligible, you can enable auto-optimized samples as well. - you can learn more about this option for automated sample workflows here.

• Step 2: You can configure the sample requirements here by specifying the sample quantity, defining the creator request period, setting up samples by SKU, and establishing threshold limits. Additionally, you can sort by price or inventory, where inventory refers to the TikTok Shop (TTS) SKU inventory.
• Step 3 : For SKU-level samples, you can choose to make all SKUs eligible or restrict eligibility to specific SKUs. Non-eligible SKUs will appear grayed out when creators request samples. As a best practice, consider disabling SKUs with high costs or low demand (i.e., those that are not key sales drivers).

Refundable Samples

1. Turn on the Refundable Sample toggle and navigate to the Refundable samples menu. Set the refund criteria that creators need to meet in order to receive a refund
2. Generate orders: Creator must generate between 1-3 orders from the sample content they post

Note: You can edit and disable these rules so that going forward, no creators will be able to see a Refundable Sample option, but creators who have already purchased Refundable Samples under the pre-existing rules will have their refunds honored if they meet the criteria that had been in effect at time of purchase.
Once your Open Collaboration with samples is in effect, creators will see a Get sample or Buy refundable sample button for samples when browsing for products in Product Marketplace. Depending on the product's free sample rules and Refundable Sample availability, they can either purchase a Refundable Sample or request a free sample from you.

Step 1B: Target Collaboration Sample Set Up

1. Turn on the Free sample available toggle.

2. Choose whether to approve free sample requests manually or automatically.

• If you select automatic approval, requests will be instantly moved to the Ready to Ship tab on the Sample Requests - Free Sample Order page.
• Creators can request more than five sample products. However, only requests from creators within this Target Collaboration will be automatically approved.
• If you have already set up SKU-level samples in Open Collaboration, these rules will also apply to your Target Collaboration products.

2. To edit an existing Target Collaboration and add free samples, navigate to the Target collaborations tab, select the specific Collaboration and click edit.

3. You'll be taken into the Edit Invitation view, where you can set up free samples and decide whether to manually or automatically approve sample requests. Once toggled on, invited creators can request a free sample of every product in the Target Invitation, including variations.

Step 2: Manage & Track Free Sample Track Refundable Sample Orders

After creators submit requests for free samples or purchase Refundable Samples, you'll receive all requests and orders in the Sample Requests page of Affiliate Center to manage.
We recently updated the experience so you can use the Recommended and Exposure Plus filter to make it easier to find sample requests that are more likely to generate sales.

Free Sample Orders

• All Free Sample Orders are to be reviewed within seven (7) days or the requests will be automatically cancelled.
• The To Review tab includes all requests to be reviewed, approved, or rejected. You can view details of creators in this section including name, follower count, and more details.

• Here, you can also filter applications for specific criteria to more easily find the creators you would like to approve for samples.
  • You can filter based on four categories:
    • Creators

Product category: Select creators who generated revenue or promoted products in selected categories
Follower count: Select creators based their follower tier
Content type: Select creators who create video or LIVE content, or both
Creator agency: Select creators managed by an agency or independent creators
Fulfillment Rate: Select creators with a 'Ok', 'Good', or 'Better' sample content fulfillment rate, based on their historical posting rates
Past collaborations: Only show creators who generate sales with your products

• Followers

Follower age: Select creators who have a high share of followers in the selected age demographic
Follower gender: Select creators who have majority male or female followers

• Performance

GMV: Select creators with revenue from LIVE, shoppable video or showcase in the last 30 days
Average views per video: Select creators based on the average number of views per video
Turn on the toggle if you want to search for creators whose shoppable videos meet this criteria
Average viewers per LIVE: Select creators based on the average number of viewers per LIVE
Turn on the toggle if you want to search for creators whose shoppable LIVE videos meet this criteria

• Sample requests

Expiring within 1-3 days: Select creators who have sample requests that will expire within 1-3 days
From reliable creators: Select creators who are in the top 20% of creators, based on the ratio of received free samples and posted content.
Rejected within 30 days: Select creators whose requests were rejected within the last 30 days

• Rejected requests will be moved to the Cancelled tab
• Approved requests will move to the Ready to ship tab
  • When a request is approved, a pop-up will let you know whether the sample request was approved successfully or not. In cases when the request is not approved, it will be due to an error, such as:
    • Insufficient quantity of samples available
    • Insufficient quantity of product in stock

• In the pop-up window, you'll be prompted to go to the Seller Center to ship the sample. To learn more about how to ship your samples from the Seller Center, refer to our guide on Shipping Solutions.

You may see the same creator requesting samples, as creators can now reapply immediately after withdrawing a request or 30 days after a request has been disapproved, expired, or canceled.

Refundable Sample Orders

• When creators purchase Refundable Samples, you can view and manage those purchases, as well as navigate to Seller Center for logistics and order management information

• For each order, you'll see the purchasing creator, the product ID, SKU, Refund criteria, Order Status, and Actions to take depending on Order Status
• Different order statuses include:
  • All
  • Ready to Ship: Order has been made and is ready for shipment
  • Shipped: Sample has shipped
  • Content Pending: Creator has received the product and has not yet met the refund criteria
  • Refunded: Creator has been refunded for their sample
  • Not Refunded: Creator has not been refunded due to not meeting refund criteria in time
  • Canceled: Creator has canceled their order or due to issues such as out of stock product, they are no longer able to post sample content
• Actions that you can take include:
  • Arrange Shipment: Navigate to Seller Center to arrange shipment
  • View Logistics: Once the sample has shipped, navigate to Seller Center Manage Orders to track shipment
  • View Content: Once creator has posted, view the content and performance for short video and LIVE
  • View Refund details: Once creator has been refunded, view the refund amount, time and more in Seller Financials

Step 3: Ship the Samples

Once you've approved any free sample orders, the samples need to be shipped within seven (7) days of the approval. If not, requests will be automatically cancelled.

• In Affiliate Center, go to Sample Requests and click on Ready to Ship. Under Awaiting Shipment, you'll see all orders that need to be shipped.
  • You can fulfill shipments individually (one product per creator) or in batches (if you have approved one creator to receive multiple product samples).
  • From there, you can arrange a shipment to be fulfilled in the Seller Center.

• You'll be navigated to the Seller Center, where you can ship the samples either by:
  • Clicking Create labels to purchase shipping labels from TikTok, or
  • Clicking Add tracking info if you've purchased shipping labels from third parties.
    • Note that free samples will be shown with a Free sample tag.

Step 4: Monitor creator content creation

Once samples are delivered, sellers can track and monitor the content that is being created in Sample Requests

• For free sample orders, creators are required to create content within 14 days of receiving the sample. TikTok sends automated notifications reminding creators that they need to post content for their samples.
• For Refundable Samples, creators have 90 days to meet the refund criteria - if they do not meet the criteria within that timeframe, the sample becomes a regular purchase.
• Once a creator has completed their content creation, their request will move to the "Completed" tab in Seller Center and "Content pending" tab in the Affiliate Center.

Step 5: Analyze creator and content performance

Once a sample request is completed, Sellers can go to View Content to see how their free sample product content performed. For Refundable Samples, navigate to Refund Pending to view creators' content.

• Sellers can view Video and LIVE content performance, including the content itself, publish time, content views, likes, comments, and number of orders generated from the content.

Bulk Edit Sample Rules

Sellers who manage large catalogs can edit their sample rules at scale with Bulk Edit in Open Collaboration. Here, you can download and upload your catalogs as flat files (.CSV, .XLS, .TXT) in order to update sample rules, set up and remove samples for SKUs, and bulk set up Refundable Samples.

Step 1: Navigate to Open Collaboration and click 'Bulk edit'

Step 2: Download your products as a template for future uploads

• The flat file will contain the following locked column labels:
  • Product ID, product name, Product price, Stock, Product status, Add to open collaboration, Commission rate, Est. Commission, Approve creators, Creator showcase, Creator post, Offer free sample, Sample quantity, minimum follower, Minimum 30 day sales volume, Minimum 30 days e-commerce content number, Creator fulfillment rate, Refundable Samples, Refund Minimum
• Specific rows and columns will be locked to minimize data entry errors and upload failure. For instance, where product status is "unavailable", that row will be locked

Step 3: Upload your updated template in Bulk edit

• You can drag and drop or select the template from your files.
• You'll see the status of your upload via text within the flat file module.

Upload Success

• You can then see how many SKUs were successfully uploaded.

Upload Failure

• Within the UI module, you can see how many SKUs failed to upload.
• You can click download failed results for a list of SKUs with failed uploads.

How to rate creators as a seller

There are two ways to leave a review for a creator.
Entrance 1: Affiliate Home Page : Under the Items Needing Your Attention section, you’ll see the number of sample applications awaiting your review. Click the Review button, and you’ll be directed to the Sample Request page. There, you’ll find a list of creators pending your feedback. Simply click the Leave a Review link, a pop-up window will appear, allowing you to rate the creator and provide your written review.
Entrance 2: Sample Request Page Go directly to the Sample Request page. Use the Pending Rating checkbox filter at the top of the page. This will show all creators you haven’t reviewed yet. Click the “Leave a Review” link to open the pop-up form and complete your review.
You’ll also be able to view the creator’s overall rating and see feedback left by other sellers in the Creator Details section.

Rating Eligibility Conditions

For Free Samples

You can rate and review a creator only if one of the following applies:

• Completed Collaborations
  • The creator has posted content and the content has remained published for at least 3 days, or
  • The creator has pinned your product in their LIVE shopping bag for over 10 minutes
• Incomplete Collaborations
  • You may leave a rating if the product was delivered at least 14 days ago, and the creator has not submitted an appeal or requested a timeline extension
  • If the creator requested additional time, you must wait until 21 days after delivery to rate
  • If the creator filed an appeal, you can rate immediately after the appeal is resolved

Refundable Samples

• You may rate and review when the refundable sample was successfully refunded, meaning the creator met the refund criteria

You cannot rate or review a creator under the following circumstances:

• The collaboration was canceled due to seller's fault
• The product was out of stock for more than 10 days, preventing the creator from fulfilling content
• The product or your shop has received a permanent GNE violation
• The product has been delisted or is no longer available for sale

FAQs

1. Who can apply for free samples?
   • Any creator in TikTok Shop can apply for free samples (5K+ followers).
2. How many free samples can a creator receive?
   • Open Collaboration:
     • Less than $5K monthly Affiliate GMV: 5 samples at a time
     • $5K-$150K monthly Affiliate GMV: 20 samples at a time
     • More than $150K monthly Affiliate GMV: 50 samples at a time
   • Target Collaboration:
     • No limits
3. Can creators request more than one sample of the same product?
   • Creators can only request one sample of a specific product from a single seller. However, they can request more free samples of other products (up to the limits listed in the previous question).
4. Will sellers be reminded of pending free sample requests?
   • TikTok Shop will send an email reminding sellers to review pending free sample requests.
5. How can I approve or reject free sample requests in bulk?
   • Step 1: Filter creator requests according to specific tags (number of fans, creator tags, etc.)

• Step 2: After filtering for creators, click "Select all" to approve or reject in batches.

6. If for some reason the creator cannot fulfill the free sample content requirement, what will happen？
   • Creators may not be able to fulfill sample content requirements for the following reasons (and the sample request will be cancelled):
     • The seller account has been closed
     • The seller has been banned from TikTok Shop
     • The product has been banned from TikTok Shop
     • The seller is forever banned from working with affiliates
     • The collaboration has been deleted

Note: In these instances, the system will automatically cancel any requests and creators will not be required to fulfill their sample content requirements.

• In other instances, creators may not be able to fulfill their sample content requirements for the following reasons (and their fulfillment requirements will be paused):
  • The product has been deleted
  • The product has been inactivated
  • The product is under review
  • The product is sold out

Note: If the product is sold out, the system will pause requirements in the short term until the product status returns to active.

7. How do sellers change the product status back to active？
   • Product deleted: Go to Seller Center -> Manage products -> Deleted tab -> Recover this product
   • Product inactivated: Go to Seller Center -> Manage products-> Inactive tab -> Check inactive reason and activate the product
   • Product under review: Wait until it passes platform review
   • Sold out: Add more inventory in Seller Center
8. Where can I get more information on creators' sample request and purchase experience?
   1. You can reference this TikTok Shop Academy article to learn more
9. Where can I learn about Auto-Optimized Samples?
   1. You can reference this TikTok Shop Academy article to learn more or speak to your account manager
10. Can creators use coupons or other discounts to purchase Refundable Samples?
    1. Yes - creators can use certain platform promotions to purchase Refundable Samples. Once they meet the refund criteria, their purchase price will be refunded.