TikTok Shop ManagementHow do you choose a TikTok Shop agency?
Pick the agency that will connect you to the person running TikTok Shop at a brand it lists, and that leaves you owning everything when you go. Both checks come from Joel Contartese of Bloom, who worked with an agency and later took the program in house.
Did the agency run the whole shop for the brands it lists?
Ask to talk to someone at the brand, because a logo can mean very little. TikTok has a program called TAP, where an agency picks products off a list, sends links to its creators and earns commission on the sales. Joel says some agencies list every brand they ran a TAP campaign for. That doesn't mean they ran the rest of the shop, and the brand may not know who they are.
Before you sign anything, ask to be connected to a person at the brand who runs the Tiktok Shop program. If the answer is anything other than yes, it's a huge red flag.Joel Contartese of Bloom, LinkedIn, May 2026
Source: Joel Contartese, before you hire a TikTok Shop agency
What do you keep if you leave?
You should keep the creators, the tools and the know-how, so ask this early. Joel's test is one question: if we brought this in house in a year, what would we keep?
Bloom's agency set it up that way. The creator relationships were Bloom's, the tools stayed under Bloom's control, the agency wrote process documents, and it helped train the people who replaced it. Bloom went in house on June 1, 2026, and Joel says the first month ran a seven figure shop with thousands of affiliates and nothing broke.
Source: Joel Contartese, what to look for in an agency
Source: Joel Contartese, going in house
Is TikTok Shop what the agency mainly does?
It should be, and Joel has listed the red flags that tell you it isn't.
- It has added TikTok Shop to a menu of ten other things. He'd pick a smaller agency that only does this.
- It isn't on Lark, TikTok's internal chat tool.
- It insists you pay retainers to creators with high past sales. He says nine times out of ten that money does more spread across your community.
- It tells you to focus on one product early. He says to test your catalog.
Source: Joel Contartese, red flags in a TikTok Shop agency
Who gets paid, and is anything marked up?
Ask for the whole money picture, because the fee on the proposal may not be the only one.
- Ad spend. Social Tale says some agencies charge a retainer or a share of sales, and then a separate 10% to 20% fee on ad spend.
- Creator pay. MediaLabs says to ask directly if they mark up creator pay or ad spend, since some add 10% to 20% without saying so.
- Who else pays them. Digiday reported in November 2025 that TikTok offered its partner agencies $5,000 to $20,000 in cash for growing daily sales in Q4. Ask what they get from TikTok on your account.
Source: Social Tale, what a TikTok Shop agency costs
Source: MediaLabs, what a TikTok Shop agency costs
Source: Digiday, TikTok's incentives for Shop spending
For what each pay model adds up to, see what TikTok Shop management costs.
How will it keep creators posting?
Ask for the plan after the first video, because a program with no plan for it pays twice. Micah Whitehead of Zeroto1 says that without retention, doubling the program doubles your sample cost.
Source: Zeroto1, TikTok Shop masterclass
Our answer to that question is a private creator community, with perks like creator coaching, creator dinners and content review, that incentivizes creators to post more on an affiliate basis. We quickly iterate to find your top-performing creators, get them making more content, and keep growing your creator network.
When is a commission only agency the wrong pick?
When you run the shop for something other than shop sales, when your shop is already large, or when you want a fixed fee.
- You judge it on reach and retail. Joel says sales are a byproduct at Bloom, and revenue isn't the core number for its team. An agency paid only on shop sales is pointed at a different number from yours.
- You're at a size where a percentage costs more than a retainer. The math is in the cost guide linked above.
- Your first months need more than the agency will put in. MediaLabs warns commission only may under-invest in long term accounts, so ask who is on your account and for how long.
- You're not who we built it for. We work with consumable wellness and supplement brands doing $10M+ a year. Outside of that, or if you'd rather pay a fixed monthly fee, pick someone else.
Source: Joel Contartese, The Art of the Brand
Source: MediaLabs, TikTok Shop agency
What's the last check before you sign?
Have the agency look through your shop first. Avenue Z says a hard call and a trial audit tell you more than any set of breakdowns. Ours is free, it comes with our TikTok Shop management offer, and it shows you how we think before you pay anything.