The Future of Product Selling: TikTok Shop, Faire & a VA Who Gets It Done

Hey — Jared here from Grow My Etsy Shop. If you've been following along, you know I filmed a four-part podcast binge while traveling (yes, same shirt, yes, Walmart — judge me later). In this piece I'm diving into a strategy I recently discussed with a guy who lives and breathes TikTok Shop and wholesale: how to take advantage of TikTok Shop, Faire.com (yep — the wholesale platform), and how to get a Virtual Assistant to do 80% of the heavy lifting so you don’t have to sell your soul to content creation.

This is a conversational, slightly dramatic but friendly breakdown — the kind of no-nonsense advice I’d give in my mastermind. I’ll walk you through the platforms, the playbook, the exact outreach process I’d use (and hire for), and the mistakes to avoid. If you want growth without becoming a full-time TikTok creator, read on.

Why TikTok Shop and Faire matter in 2025

Short answer: attention and distribution. TikTok remains one of the fastest places to get a product in front of an audience that buys impulse products. Faire is one of the biggest wholesale marketplaces where retail stores discover new brands. Together they let you reach end consumers and retailers without reinventing the wheel.

But they each have quirks. TikTok Shop lets people buy directly on TikTok — which is powerful — yet it's hyper-consumer-friendly: unhappy customers can get refunds easily and that money can be pulled from your account. Faire is an established wholesale channel where retailers place orders seasonally (think: twice a year), and it's perfect for scaling into physical stores and gift shops.

Two ways to win on TikTok (and why most sellers don’t have time)

There are two big schools of thought on TikTok:

• Organic, viral content

  — the machine-gun approach: 24/7 content creation, iterate, learn, repeat. Make a thousand videos and you’ll get good. This works if you have the bandwidth and love making content.

• TikTok Shop + affiliate creators

  — upload your catalog, recruit creators or affiliates to promote your items, and let them drive sales (they get commissions). This is what we’re focused on if you don’t want to become a professional content machine.

Most Etsy shop owners and makers don’t have time for the machine-gun approach. They’re running production, packaging orders, and trying to actually sleep. So the question becomes: can you use TikTok without doing it all yourself? Yes — by outsourcing the outreach and leveraging other people’s content.

How TikTok Shop works (quick primer)

• You upload products into TikTok Shop’s catalog.

• Creators can discover your products and promote them for a commission.

• TikTok handles the transaction, notifications, and some fulfillment integrations — you still fulfill your end but TikTok manages buyer interactions.

• Creators earn commission on sales they generate. You can also run Spark Ads on creator videos that mention your product to amplify content that performs well.

Great in theory. In practice, creators won't magically knock on your door asking to promote your stuff. You have to get them to notice you. That’s where outreach and volume come in.

Important quote to keep in mind

The playbook: delegate outreach to a VA and scale with volume

Here’s the single most useful idea: hire someone to do the outreach volume you don’t have time for. Whether that outreach is to TikTok creators or to retail buyers on Faire and via direct email, volume wins.

Why hire a VA?

• Outreach is a repetitive, time-consuming task that’s easy to standardize.

• You can pay overseas VAs competitive rates and scale contacts every day.

• They can scrape emails, build spreadsheets, send templated DMs, and manage sample requests.

How I’d set up the VA workflow (step-by-step)

1. Define target creator/retailer profile. (Example: creators in the home decor + small gifts niche, or gift shops in the Northwest.)

2. Have the VA scrape TikTok / Google / Etsy / Faire for potential partners. Create a spreadsheet with name, profile link, email, follower count, and notes.

3. Set daily outreach quotas. Aim for volume but be careful with platform limits — about 50 DMs/day is a reasonable cap to avoid being flagged.

4. Use templated messages with personalization tokens: name, niche, why your product fits their audience.

5. Track replies and move interested creators/retailers into a follow-up pipeline. Automate drip emails for retailers.

6. Send samples when requested — or use clever sample tactics (cut a sample of a towel, send a partial sample for lower cost) — and log results.

7. When creators post, repurpose that content: run Spark Ads to amplify high-performing creator videos. Accept that creators will earn commissions for sales they drive.

What to say in your outreach (the pitch)

Be truthful, concrete, and specific. Nobody wants a wishy-washy cold email. If you have traction, flaunt it. If you don’t, don’t pretend you do.

A solid pitch structure:

• Opening line: compliment + relevance (I saw your content about X — this fits perfectly)

• Proof: real numbers if you have them (e.g., "We're doing $10,000/month on Etsy with this product")

• Offer: commission in TikTok Shop OR wholesale terms + free sample

• Low-friction CTA: "Would you like a free sample? If so, where should I send it?

Example message you can hand to a VA:

Wholesale via Faire: systematize your B2B outreach

Faire and direct wholesale email outreach are both about volume and timing. Retailers buy seasonally — usually at the start of the year and again in late summer/early fall as they prep for Q4. Your job is to be on the top of their inbox when they’re placing orders.

The VA-driven process for wholesale:

1. Search for gift shops and boutiques that match your product vibe. Use Google, Etsy, local directories.

2. Pull emails into a spreadsheet and import into an email tool (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc.).

3. Create a drip campaign: initial pitch, follow-up if opened, follow-up if unopened, and a re-engagement every 6 months.

4. Offer to send a sample. If they respond, ship the sample and follow up after a week or two.

5. Make the wholesale re-order simple and rewarding: offer terms that make it easy to say yes.

A couple of tactical notes:

• A sample doesn’t always mean the full product. If you sell towels, consider sending a cut sample so they can feel the fabric without you spending a fortune on full samples.

• If you're not selling decent numbers on Etsy (or another channel), don't hire an outreach VA yet. Prove demand first — retailers and creators respond to momentum.

Repurpose creator content and use Spark Ads

One of the best parts of recruiting creators: they make the content for you. When a creator posts a great video, you can run a Spark Ad on that creator’s content to scale it. Yes, they’ll earn commission, but the ROI can be excellent if the creator nails the angle and the video converts.

This turns your outreach into a content acquisition strategy: hire for volume, get creators to produce, and then amplify the best pieces.

Pitfalls and things to watch

• Refund risk on TikTok Shop:

  TikTok is consumer-friendly. Expect some refunds and the occasional headache where money gets returned from your account.

• Don't fake traction:

  Be honest with numbers. If you’re doing $10k on Etsy, say it. If you’re doing $0, don’t invent numbers — either build traction first or sell the sample differently.

• Outreach fatigue:

  Don’t burn your VA out. Set daily limits and rotate messaging to avoid being flagged or flagged as spam.

• Timing matters for wholesale:

  Twice a year pushes will outperform sporadic outreach. Have a calendar and hit retailers when they’re buying.

My recommended setup in one page (TL;DR playbook)

1. Validate demand: sell on Etsy or another direct channel and get consistent sales.

2. Upload products to TikTok Shop and set affiliate/commission terms.

3. Hire a VA to: scrape creators/retailers, send personalized outreach, manage sample requests, and log responses.

4. Run a drip campaign for retailers (import scraped emails to an email tool).

5. When creators post, repurpose and amplify high-performing videos with Spark Ads.

6. Repeat volume outreach consistently — aim for daily touchpoints, and re-engage every 6 months.

7. Measure and iterate: track conversion rates from DM -> sample -> sale and tweak messaging accordingly.

Final thoughts — don’t bottleneck your growth

You don’t have to choose between TikTok fame and staying sane. The smarter move is to systematize outreach and pay someone to do the grind. If you set up a VA with clear daily goals, scripts, a spreadsheet, and a simple follow-up cadence, you can expand into two big lanes at once: creator-driven retail via TikTok Shop and wholesale expansion via Faire and direct outreach.

It’s loud-sounding, sometimes frustrating, and definitely not glamorous — I mean, I got this shirt at Walmart — but it works when you pair smart hustle with other people’s attention.

If you want to grow without turning into a full-time content creator, this is the playbook: validate, upload, outsource, amplify, and measure. Twice a year, hit the wholesale market. Every day, be reaching for creators. And remember: volume wins.

Are you using a VA for this kind of outreach yet? If not, start small: one VA, one daily task list, one spreadsheet. Test for 90 days and see what happens. You might be surprised at how much momentum a grown-up outreach machine can create.

Resources & next steps

No external links were provided with the article. Replace the placeholders below with the URLs you want to include.

• TikTok Shop

  — Learn how to upload products and set commissions.

• Faire

  — Start your wholesale listings and reach retailers.

• VA services

  — Where to hire trained outreach assistants.

• Spark Ads

  — Amplify creator content on TikTok.

• Mailchimp

  — Set up drip campaigns for retailers.

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