In recent weeks, the short-form video app has shared a plethora of incentives and challenges with its TikTok Shop Partners (TSP) which Digiday has seen — almost gamifying the process, in a bid to encourage more spending. The result: if they qualify, TSPs could receive ad credits or cash bonuses.
And here’s what those incentives are:
Daily GMV Incentive Program
TSPs can earn cash incentives between $5,000 and $20,000 between Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, based on their Q4 incremental daily GMV growth — or how much they sell.
Partner onboard and upgrade incentive
TSPs can earn up to $10,000 in cash for upgrading through TikTok Shop’s partner rankings for the first time, provided they stay at their new ranking for the duration of the incentive period (Oct. 1 to Dec. 31).
Vertical creator incubation incentive
TSPs can earn between $1,000 and $10,000 per creator between Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 for successfully incubating TikTok’s target list creators.
Affiliate service incentive — milestone program
- Incentive 1: Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, TikTok will rank its TSPs in descending order from 15 to one, based on their target plan short video GMV increment. Each month, those which also meet the minimum incremental GMV requirement can earn between $1,000 and $5,000 in ad credits. There’s even the option to earn a bonus $2,000 in ad credits for ranking in the top 15 for all three months.
- Incentive 2: Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, TSPs that provide creator services can earn up to $1,000 in ad credits per seller (up to 70 sellers), provided they meet all eligibility requirements and incentive conditions.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday offerings
BFCM partner challenge
Between Nov. 12 and Dec. 1, TikTok created the following challenges depending on TSPs ranking level (according to the number of new short video posts):
- Challenge 1: TSPs that provide creator matchmaking services can earn up to $25,000 in cash.
- Challenge 2: TSPs with a daily GMV either greater than or equal to $20,000 in October can earn up to $12,000.
- Challenge 3: TSPs with a daily GMV of less than $20,000 in October can earn up to $2,000.
There’s even three content challenges specifically for BFCM around short video, a livestream championship and key livestream (by invitation only).
TikTok covers the costs
And for those sellers who aren’t in the mood for free cash or ad credits, for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, TikTok is still offering brands fully-funded and partially-funded coupons and discounts, where TikTok will cover all or part of their marketing costs, as well as the invitation-only flash sales.
The big picture
For the most part, TikTok Shop has been one of the short-form video app’s huge success stories since it launched in the U.S. in September 2023. Since then, it appears to have gone from strength to strength in terms of revenues generated, so much so it’s been reportedly likened and compared to its 30-year-old competitor, eBay.
Between September 2023 to August 2024, TikTok Shop recorded $1.1 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), and shifted around 67 million units of stock, according to data from Charm.io. This increased to $2.5 billion GMV and around 139 million units of stock between September 2024 and August 2025.
And BFCM has been a big part of that story. According to TikTok’s internal data, which was presented on its 2025 TikTok Shop Black Friday & Cyber Monday seller deck that Digiday has seen, BFCM raked in more than 100 million sales, while sellers saw a three times uplift in GMV (compared to the previous year). Added to that, TikTok Shop saw more than four billion views on #TikTokShopBlackFriday and a third of TikTok Shop purchases went to small- to medium-sized businesses.
When it comes to ad spend, from January 2025 through to Nov. 10 this year, TikTok Shop has raked in $498.8 million in ad spend, per Charm.io.
“As a bet, TikTok Shop has already hit, but the payoff is only just beginning to roll in,” said Max Willens, principal analyst, social media and the creator economy at eMarketer. “It will be interesting to see how TikTok’s AI-powered ad solution, GMV Max, influences TikTok Shop’s growth, now that merchants are required to use it. If GMV Max can continue to deliver efficient results as its use keeps scaling, it could push TikTok Shop into another gear of growth.”
But that’s only been part of its focus. Motivating marketers to push harder on its e-commerce arm comes at a time when TikTok has already been aggressively on the hunt for ad dollars in recent weeks. It’s been reported that the platform has been encouraging brands and agencies to boost their ad spend — despite there still being no clarity around its U.S. deal.
“It makes perfect sense for TikTok to try to boost its business ahead of the deal, especially given the underwhelming valuation of $14 billion,” said Jasmine Enberg, co-founder and co-CEO of Scalable. “TikTok will want to make its business as attractive as possible to buyers and give itself as much negotiating power as possible. It wants to get as many advertisers on board and spending ahead of the sale to try to mitigate the inevitable disruption to its business.”
If all goes well, the short-form video app will be on track to meet WARC’s global social media ad spend forecast.
Social media ad spend is projected to rise 14.9% to $306.4 billion, according to WARC’s updated global ad spend forecasts. Within that, TikTok is expected to take 10.3% of all social media spend this year, increasing to 11.7% by 2027.