#96: TikTok Shop Isn’t Saturated, Agencies Just Aren’t Ready
Scaling a digital agency in today’s landscape isn’t just about ads, funnels, or flashy pitches, it’s about people, process, and positioning.
Collin Cavanaugh, founder and CEO of Commerce Social, has built a TikTok Shop focused agency from the ground up, navigating the wild, evolving world of social commerce while helping brands hit six- and seven-figure growth.
In this post, we’ll break down the lessons, strategies, and frameworks he and I shared that any agency owner can apply to scale their business in 2026 and beyond.
The Wild West of TikTok Shop: Why Early Adoption Matters
TikTok Shop has only been active in the U.S. for a couple of years, but the early gold rush created unprecedented opportunities. Collin saw brands go from zero to six figures in just 30 days, without ad spend.
The key takeaways for agency owners:
Specialization beats generalization. Agencies that focused solely on TikTok Shop or social commerce were able to leverage deep expertise rather than spreading thin across multiple channels.
Speed of adoption is critical. Brands and agencies that moved early were able to capture the low competition environment, secure top creators, and define the market.
Platform knowledge creates trust. Being involved in TikTok Shop’s early corporate programs gave Collin insider knowledge, making him an invaluable partner for clients.
Building Your Agency Team: Talent, Training, and Ownership
One of the biggest hurdles for new social commerce agencies is talent acquisition. TikTok Shop is new, so pre-trained experts are rare. Collin emphasizes the importance of:
Cross functional hires: Look for talent from adjacent industries like Amazon, Shopify, or affiliate marketing. Their experience can be adapted to your agency processes.
Blank slate training: Instead of trying to reprogram experienced but misaligned employees, train new hires according to your SOPs, frameworks, and processes.
Ownership clarity: Every task needs an owner, a clear outcome, and a definition of what “good” looks like. This single principle drastically improves accountability and execution.
“If a few people own something, nobody owns it. It’s like the three stooges pointing at each other.”
Collin and I both stress iterative learning, building processes that adapt as the platform evolves. This isn’t a static operation; TikTok Shop’s rules, algorithms, and creator economy are constantly shifting.
Sales, Qualification, and Client Selection
Social commerce agencies face a unique challenge: clients often expect TikTok Shop to solve all their problems, even if their core operations are weak. Collin shares the importance of setting expectations up front:
Ensure brands have sufficient net margins, inventory, and operational readiness before taking them on.
Qualify based on product, impulse potential, and creator fit, not just category.
Customize your sales process depending on whether the brand is new to TikTok Shop or already experienced.
This approach prevents wasted resources and positions your agency as a trusted advisor, not just a service provider.
Creators as Your Competitive Advantage
At the heart of TikTok Shop success is the creator economy. Collin emphasizes:
High quality creators drive revenue. Quantity alone isn’t enough; content quality, alignment with the brand, and engagement matter more than volume.
Build a creator network. Agencies that maintain their own creator communities can kickstart content and leverage affiliates immediately for new clients.
Multi-channel engagement. Top creators are bombarded with requests, so your agency must meet them where they live, LinkedIn, TikTok DMs, YouTube, or email.
Agencies that build this infrastructure early create long term, high ROI partnerships for their clients.
Scaling Beyond the Founder: Leadership and Systems
Collin and Sean agree that people are the agency bottleneck. Many founders start as specialists, delivering services themselves, only to realize that scaling requires letting go:
Identify leaders within your team early. Delegate ownership of key processes and client accounts.
Build SOPs, dashboards, and training programs. Tools like NotebookLM can transform SOPs into video, quizzes, and interactive content at scale.
Foster ruthless clarity. Communicate outcomes, ownership, and definitions of success to prevent rework and inefficiency.
This mindset shift from doing to leading is essential for breaking through $1–2M ceilings in agency revenue.
Real Results: The Highlands Case Study
One of Commerce Social’s clients, Highlands (a homeopathic nutritional brand), illustrates the power of strategic levers:
After onboarding, revenue doubled in just three weeks through minor strategic adjustments.
Incentive programs, affiliate gamification, and creative optimizations pushed revenue further, projecting multiple six figure months within 60 days.
The lesson: knowledge in execution beats brute-force effort. Understanding the levers that drive TikTok Shop performance allows agencies to deliver rapid, measurable ROI for clients.
Preparing for 2026: Enterprise Brands and Unified Commerce
Looking forward, Collin plans to double down on TikTok Shop, particularly with enterprise brands like Disney and Ralph Lauren entering the platform. Agencies that:
Leverage experience with six and seven figure brands
Build creator networks and SOP driven teams
Maintain clarity and ownership in operations
will be positioned to capture large contracts and scale rapidly.
Additionally, I share how merging social commerce with traditional DTC services creates “unified commerce” offerings, allowing agencies to deliver sticky retainers across multiple channels, increasing revenue while maintaining client loyalty.
Step By Step Workflow to Scale a Social Commerce Agency
Validate the Market: Identify early adopter niches, measure margins, and test product impulse potential.
Build a Core Team: Hire cross-functional talent, implement training SOPs, and define ownership.
Develop a Creator Network: Recruit high quality creators and build multi channel engagement strategies.
Qualify Clients: Assess operational readiness, margins, and product suitability before onboarding.
Set Sales & Delivery SOPs: Customize sales decks, discovery calls, and TikTok Shop educational materials.
Track, Iterate, and Optimize: Continuously refine processes, track KPIs, and empower internal leaders.
Expand Offerings: Leverage unified commerce strategies to upsell clients across additional channels.
For agency owners looking to scale into social commerce, TikTok Shop is more than just a platform, it’s a blue ocean opportunity that rewards strategic execution, high quality teams, and relentless clarity.
If you want to go deeper, you can run the full version at agencyuplift.co/mini.Even if you never book a call, the clarity alone is worth it.
