I decided to properly give TikTok Shop a go on 18 September 2026.
I already had a TikTok account that was eligible for TikTok Shop, so rather than starting from scratch, I cleared it out and decided to use it specifically for testing TikTok Shop content.
I had no idea what to expect.
I’ve worked with affiliate marketing for years, so the concept of earning commission from recommending products wasn’t new to me. But TikTok Shop felt different because the whole process happens so much faster.
Someone sees a video, clicks the product and potentially buys it there and then.
That was what made me curious.
I wanted to see whether I could actually make sales from TikTok Shop without turning myself into a traditional influencer.
And, more importantly, I wanted to document the results honestly from the beginning.
Not just the exciting numbers if things eventually take off, but the tiny commissions, the returns, the orders that don’t qualify and everything in between.
So this is my first-week update.
My First TikTok Shop Sale
My first sale came on 20 September.
The product?
Asevi Fresh Toilet Drops.
😂
Not exactly the most glamorous first product, but I didn’t care.
Someone had actually bought something through one of my videos.
The order generated around £12.19 in GMV, but because the commission rate was only around 1%, my estimated commission was approximately 12p.
Yes, 12p.
And I was still ridiculously pleased.
Because 12p wasn’t really the point.
The point was that I had gone from having no TikTok Shop sales to having an actual customer purchase something through my content.
It proved that the process could work.
That tiny 12p was my first bit of evidence that this could potentially become another income stream.
Then Things Started Picking Up
Not long after that, I started getting sales for Lenor Spring Awakening Crease Release.
That was when I started paying a little more attention.
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An early reporting period showed 4 items sold, £38.44 in attributed GMV and £2.98 in estimated commission.
Three of those sales were Lenor and one was the Asevi order.
Then another reporting period showed 5 items sold, £58.59 in GMV and £5.16 in estimated commission.
Still tiny numbers, obviously.
But this was only a few days into the experiment.
I wasn’t expecting thousands of pounds.
I just wanted to see whether people would actually buy.
And they were.
For a brief moment, I thought I might have already found my first little TikTok Shop winner.
Then I got my first proper lesson in how TikTok Shop earnings work.
Estimated Commission Isn’t the Same as Money in Your Bank
Some of the Lenor orders later became ineligible.
That meant the commission I had originally seen as an estimate didn’t necessarily become money I would actually receive.
This was probably one of the most important things I learned during my first week.
It is very easy to look at a TikTok Shop dashboard and get excited when you see GMV and estimated commission increasing.
But those numbers aren’t necessarily the same as settled income.
TikTok’s UK guidance confirms that estimated commission can change because of things such as refunds and returns, and commission is only paid once qualifying orders have been settled.
So I’ve become much more careful about the way I record my results.
If I say I generated £145 in GMV, that’s what I’m reporting.
If TikTok says I have £16.10 estimated commission, I’ll call it estimated commission.
I’m not going to pretend I’ve earned £16.10 until I know what actually settles.
I think that’s particularly important when you’re documenting an income journey publicly.
I don’t want to make the numbers look better than they really are.
My First Week of Numbers
By the end of my first week, the numbers had moved quite a bit from that original 12p.
On Saturday 26 September, my seven-day TikTok Shop dashboard showed:
£145 attributed GMV
8 items sold
£16.10 estimated commission
That was a pretty exciting screenshot to see.
I’d gone from a single 12p commission to eight items sold and more than £145 in attributed sales within a very short period of time.
And that was when I started thinking, okay…
Maybe there really is something here.
The following morning, the dashboard had moved again.
On Sunday 27 September, it was showing £175 attributed GMV, 8 items sold and £20.30 estimated commission over the previous seven days.
The number of items hadn’t changed, but the GMV and estimated commission had increased as the dashboard updated.
It was another reminder that these figures can move around as orders are processed.
I wasn’t going to count that £20.30 as money I’d actually earned.
But it was still encouraging to see the progression.
I’m Not Trying to Become an Influencer
One thing I knew from the beginning was that I didn’t want to build a traditional influencer account.
I’m much happier keeping my TikTok Shop content faceless.
I don’t particularly want to spend my days talking to the camera or making myself the centre of every video.
For me, the product can be the star.
I like being able to create straightforward product-focused content without having to put my face in front of the camera every time.
It also makes the whole thing feel much more manageable.
I’m trying to build online income that gives me more freedom, not another job where I have to constantly be “on”.
How Much Am I Posting?
At this stage, I was aiming for around 3–5 TikTok Shop videos a day.
That gives me enough content going out consistently without making the whole day about TikTok.
I’ve also started batching my content on Fridays.
Rather than waking up every morning thinking, “What am I going to post today?”, I prefer getting a batch of content prepared and then scheduling it.
That suits me much better.
Eventually, I want the content to feel like a system running in the background rather than something I have to constantly think about.
I’m also experimenting with AI-generated content.
I’ve been testing tools such as Google Flow to create some product-style videos, which has been interesting.
I’m not claiming AI is some magic answer, and I’m still testing what works and what doesn’t.
But I like having it as another option.
The whole point of this first stage is to experiment and see what happens.
I’m Watching the Numbers Rather Than Chasing Them
One thing I’m trying very hard not to do is get obsessed with individual videos.
A video getting good views doesn’t automatically mean it’s successful.
A sale is more interesting.
And ultimately, a sale that actually settles is more interesting again.
That’s why I’m paying attention to the difference between GMV, estimated commission and actual earnings.
I want to know what genuinely makes money rather than simply what looks good on a dashboard.
That is something I didn’t fully appreciate when I first started.
When you see a figure increasing, your brain naturally starts thinking, “I’ve made that.”
But that’s not necessarily the case.
An order can still be returned.
A commission can change.
An order can become ineligible.
And suddenly the number you thought you had earned isn’t the number that eventually settles.
So I’m learning to be patient with the figures.
My First Week Wasn’t Perfect
It wasn’t all sales and excitement.
Some orders didn’t stick.
Some estimated commissions disappeared.
There were plenty of videos that didn’t do much.
And I obviously haven’t suddenly built a huge TikTok Shop business in seven days.
But that’s okay.
I’m actually glad I’m documenting it at this stage.
If I only started talking about TikTok Shop once I was making £2,000 a month, you’d miss all of this.
You’d miss the first 12p.
You’d miss the first few sales.
You’d miss the returns.
You’d miss me figuring out what the different numbers actually mean.
And you’d miss the point where I wasn’t even sure whether this was going to work.
That’s the part I’m interested in recording.
So, Was the First Week Worth It?
Absolutely.
Not because I’ve made a fortune.
I haven’t.
But because I now have evidence that people will actually buy products through my content.
That’s very different from simply hoping something might work.
My first sale generated around 12p in estimated commission.
Then the numbers gradually increased.
By the weekend, my rolling seven-day dashboard was showing £175 attributed GMV, 8 items sold and £20.30 estimated commission.
Again, those figures shouldn’t be added together as separate income totals because they’re rolling seven-day snapshots.
But they show the direction things were moving.
And that was enough to make me want to continue.
What Happens Next?
That’s the part I don’t know yet.
And honestly, that’s what makes this experiment interesting.
I’m not going into this expecting TikTok Shop to suddenly replace everything else I’m doing.
I already have other online income projects, including affiliate marketing, digital products and my other websites.
TikTok Shop is another experiment.
I’m giving it a proper chance and watching the numbers.
If it continues growing, brilliant.
If it eventually becomes a meaningful monthly income stream, even better.
But if it doesn’t, I’ll still have learned something from doing it rather than just wondering whether it could have worked.
For now, I’m keeping the content going, continuing to experiment with faceless and AI content, batching my videos and watching the actual earnings rather than getting carried away with estimated numbers.
And I’m going to keep documenting it here on VeriPassive.
Because if this eventually turns into something substantial, I’ll have the entire journey recorded.
Not just the good bit.
The 12p bit too.
And I think that’s actually the most interesting part.
Week-one snapshot: £175 attributed GMV, 8 items sold and £20.30 estimated commission.
Not life-changing.
But definitely enough to make me want to see what happens next. ❤️
This post documents my personal TikTok Shop experience and results. Income and results will vary. Estimated commission is not the same as settled earnings, and orders can be affected by returns, refunds or eligibility.
Shaz xx