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Good morning DTC and happy Friday! I’ve got a special deep dive on a platform near and dear to my heart today…
I've interviewed over 500 founders and operators for the podcast. A few years ago, TikTok Shop was a footnote in those calls. Now it comes up in most of my conversations, and some of the brands I respect most plan around it.
The numbers back that up. TikTok Shop's US GMV hit $15.1B in 2025, up 68% from $9B the year before, per Momentum Works. Worldwide it cleared $64.3B.
Today's issue is about one specific window inside that channel: Deals For You Days. It kicked off on June 17th. If you want to test the platform during its highest intent window outside of the holiday shopping season, this is the best chance all summer.
What's happening: Deals For You Days
DFYD is TikTok Shop's biggest summer event, and it runs through July 2. TikTok ranks it alongside Black Friday and Cyber Monday in its own 2026 Seller Playbook, so this is a peak-demand window, not a normal two weeks.
Like Black Friday, DFYD runs on deals. Shoppers show up expecting a markdown, so plan accordingly. I chatted with a friend (off the record) who runs one of the top TikTok Shop brands who confirmed that this event is a huge deal for them and mentioned most brands are discounting between 5 - 20%.
It also lands early. DFYD runs before the mid-July retail crush, when other major retailers and Fourth of July promotions split everyone's attention. If you get in now, you're capturing summer demand while fewer sales are competing for the same scroll.
Discovery Ecommerce and why TikTok has mastered it
I’m sure most of you reading this newsletter know the ins and outs of how TikTok Shop works - but for those that are still solely focused on Meta and Google: on TikTok Shop, the product finds the customer: someone scrolling casually and for entertainment watches a creator use something, wants it, and checks out without ever leaving the app. The video, the reviews, and the buy button all live in the app, so the path from "never heard of it" to "bought it" can close in under a minute. It's a mix of content, creators, and community driving the purchase, and brands that lean into that dynamic are better positioned than those that just list products.
Another important point is that TikTok sits right where culture and commerce meet. Trends are born on TikTok, and commerce follows. A viral moment or a community conversation turns into a buying opportunity in real time, and the brands that win are the ones positioned to ride it as it happens.
Most successful brands out there that I’m seeing have a TikTok Shop strategy, and it’s becoming more important every year.
How to win DFYD
There’s an increasing number of brands that have figured out how to get the most out of DFYD. Here’s what some of the top ones are doing:
Get creators live now. Rhino USA, a family-owned maker of truck and off-road gear, sold three months of expected inventory in a single day during last year’s Deals For You Days. That’s crazy. They prepped for it for months and its approach is scaled content and a steady stream of creators running across the whole event. With 13 days on the clock, the move is to get creators posting now and keep them going, not to wait for a "ready" moment. Its team's phrase for it is "content, content, content."
Go LIVE daily with something exclusive. TraxNYC, a Diamond District jeweler, clears $100K+ in a single LIVE. Through DFYD it's going LIVE every day with exclusive drops and limited-time offers available only through TikTok Shop.
Run a Super Brand Day to concentrate the moment. Bask & Lather, a haircare brand, is building its DFYD around its third Super Brand Day, (TikTok's spotlight format where the platform throws creator collaborations and extra promotion behind a single brand for a dedicated push). It's pairing that with exclusive bundles to raise average order value.
Make the sale a launch window. Laura Geller Beauty is using DFYD's reach to debut new products on LIVE, giving its community and creators first access. When the audience is already there to buy, a sale doubles as a launch.
Stack discounts and keep the content pipeline full. Cata-Kor, a supplement brand that grew 9,000% in its first year almost entirely through creator content, is running new launches, stacked discounts, and creator incentives to keep videos flowing across the event.
Keep hero SKUs in stock as demand spikes. Physician's Choice allocates inventory specifically so creator-driven demand doesn't hit an out-of-stock mid-event. On a discovery channel, a viral video is wasted if you can't fulfill it.
What to do next
DFYD is live as you’re reading. Here’s how any brand can take advantage regardless of their experience with TikTok:
Already selling on TikTok Shop? Make sure you have a DFYD strategy starting today! Look back at the brands above and find the one whose situation looks most like yours, size, category, starting point. Then look at what they actually did through the lens of ACE (TikTok gives a pretty clear rundown of how to best position your brand for success). What was their Assortment move, the product, pricing, or timing decision that put the right thing in front of people? What was their Content move, the format or channel where they actually showed up? And what was their Empowerment move, the thing they amplified once it started working?
Not on TikTok Shop yet? Right now, new sellers can get up to $11,900 in launch rewards and ad credits, with $0 setup fees.
The bottom line
We all know TikTok Shop is becoming a bigger and bigger deal in ecommerce circles and DFYD brings in a lot of customers with buying intent. If you haven’t pushed your store on TikTok Shop yet (or you’ve tried in the past but haven’t seen the results you were looking for), now is a really good time to retest. A major sale pulls buyers and discounts into two weeks, so it's some of the best conditions this year to get started.
You don't have to bet the quarter on it. Pick one hero SKU, get a few creators posting, and run it through July 2. Worst case, you learn where your product stands on the channel. Best case, you're Rhino and you’ll sell out in a day.
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