Full disclosure: we’re one of them. Sohva is a TikTok Shop agency, and we’re in this guide. We’ve put ourselves where we actually belong rather than at the top, and we’ve said what we’re not good for. If that costs us the ranking, fine — you’re going to find out on the call anyway.
Most “best TikTok Shop agency” lists are written by agencies ranking themselves first. We read all of them before writing this one. What they mostly don’t tell you is which agency fits which kind of brand, which is the only question that matters when you’re the one hiring.
So this is sorted by what you are, not by who we think is best.
First: do you need an agency at all?
If you’re doing under roughly $20K a month on TikTok Shop and you have someone in-house who can brief creators, you probably don’t. The affiliate engine does real work on its own once you’ve got twenty or thirty creators posting. An agency earns its fee when the creator management becomes a full-time job, when you need live selling running on a schedule, or when paid media has to work alongside the organic side instead of cannibalizing it.
We turn away brands that aren’t ready. It’s cheaper for everyone.
What actually separates these agencies
Six questions, and the answers are harder to get than they should be.
Are they an official TikTok Shop Partner?
TSP status means TikTok has vetted them and they get partner-level support and tooling. We’re one, so treat that as a disclosed interest. It isn’t everything, but its absence is worth a question.
Do they run an affiliate engine, or do they just do influencer campaigns?
These are different businesses. An influencer campaign is a set of posts you pay for. An affiliate engine is an always-on system where hundreds of creators earn commission on your SKUs. Most brands need the second and get pitched the first.
How many creators do they actually activate per month, for you?
Not roster size. Roster size is a vanity number — anyone can say 50,000. Ask how many will post about your product in month two.
Can they show you a live dashboard?
Not a deck. The Seller Center, with real GMV.
What’s the client-to-manager ratio?
If one person is running twelve accounts, your creator outreach is a template.
Who owns the creator relationships when you leave?
Ask before you sign, not after.
If you’re launching on TikTok Shop for the first time
You need someone who’ll do the unglamorous setup work — catalog, pricing, sample logistics, affiliate terms — and then get creators posting fast enough to clear the cold start.
Sohva — we’re an official TikTok Shop Partner, and this is the only platform we work on. One platform, end to end: shop setup, creator and affiliate program buildout, content briefing, live selling, paid media, and SKU-level reporting. We’re built for the first six months, when the problem is getting from zero to a working affiliate engine rather than squeezing another point of ROAS out of a mature one. Our fee is $5,000 a month plus a 5% revenue share, published here so you don’t have to sit through a call to get it. We’re newer than most firms on this list and we don’t have a decade of case studies. What we have is a company where TikTok Shop is the whole business, not one service line among ten.
Elevate TikTok Shop — positions around getting Shopify brands live quickly. Worth a look if speed to launch is the whole brief.
Livano — describes itself as an end-to-end TikTok Shop partner, similar shape.
If you’re an established DTC brand doing six figures a month
You’ve got product-market fit and the constraint is operational depth.
The Brand Buddies — pitch is TikTok Shop run end to end by operators. Their own guide is one of the more honest ones in the category.
TokShop Agency — explicitly targets established DTC brands already at six figures monthly.
Sociallyin — mid-market and enterprise, and one of the few running social and Shop under the same roof, which matters if you don’t want two agencies arguing about whose content worked.
If live selling is the strategy
Live is a different discipline. It needs hosts, scripts, a schedule, and someone who’s run enough streams to know that the third hour outperforms the first.
MomentIQ — positions around live shopping at enterprise scale.
BA Media — built specifically around livestream commerce.
Sohva — we run live selling as one of seven service lines, including scripting, offer structure and creator partnerships. If live is 80% of your plan, the two above are more specialized than we are. If it’s one channel inside a broader Shop program, that’s our shape.
If you need creator volume above everything
Ubiquitous — made its name on TikTok-first influencer marketing at large scale with household-name brands.
inBeat — micro-influencer UGC at volume, including localized content.
House of Marketers — TikTok-first with genuine platform heritage.
If you’re enterprise and TikTok is one of several channels
MediaLabs — the loudest operator in the category, claiming over $500M in creator-driven GMV, 3,000+ vetted creators and official TSP status. Those are their numbers, not verified ones. They run the full stack.
The Social Shepherd — full-service social with offices in London, Bath, New York and Miami, with TikTok Shop as a flagship offering.
Avenue Z — commerce plus communications, so PR sits alongside the Shop work.
Pattern — enterprise multi-marketplace, if TikTok is one line in a much larger marketplace strategy.
If you’re in beauty
Iced Media — New York social commerce shop with deep beauty and skincare roots, counting brands like Kiehl’s and La Roche-Posay among its clients.
Beauty moves differently on TikTok Shop than anything else. The category has more creator supply, faster trend cycles, and much tighter margins on discounting. Specialists earn their fee here more than in most verticals.
The questions to ask on every one of these calls
- Show me a live Seller Center dashboard for a brand like mine.
- How many creators posted about your last client’s product in month two? Not the roster — the number who posted.
- Who writes the briefs, and can I see three?
- What’s your fee structure, and what happens to it if we don’t hit the number?
- Who manages my account day to day, and how many other accounts do they have?
- What happens to the creator relationships if we part ways?
- What kind of brand do you turn away?
The last one is the tell. Any agency that says yes to everyone is running a template.
What we’d tell you not to do
Don’t hire on GMV claims. Every agency in this category quotes a cumulative number and none of them are audited, ours included. A firm that managed $500M across four years and 150 brands is telling you almost nothing about what happens to your SKU.
Don’t hire an influencer agency and expect an affiliate program. Ask which one they’re selling.
Don’t sign a twelve-month contract before you’ve seen month two. TikTok Shop has a real cold start — the first thirty days look bad on almost every account, and any agency worth hiring will tell you that up front rather than after you’ve signed.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a TikTok Shop agency cost?
Most work on a monthly retainer, a commission on GMV, or a blend of the two, and very few publish their numbers — which is why this question usually takes three calls to answer. Ours is $5,000 a month plus a 5% revenue share. Whoever you talk to, ask what happens to the fee if the target is missed. That answer separates agencies faster than the fee itself does.
What is a TikTok Shop Partner (TSP)?
An agency TikTok has formally vetted, which gets partner-level tooling and support. Sohva is one. It isn’t a guarantee of quality and plenty of capable operators aren’t TSPs, but if an agency claims the status, ask to see it confirmed in TikTok’s own partner directory rather than on their homepage.
How long before TikTok Shop works?
Plan on 60 to 90 days before the affiliate engine is producing predictably. Anyone promising week-one results is describing a paid campaign, not a Shop program.
Can I run TikTok Shop in-house?
Yes, and plenty of brands should. The line is roughly where creator management stops being something one person can do alongside another job. Below that, an agency is overhead. Above it, doing it in-house quietly costs more than the retainer would.
Is Sohva an official TikTok Shop Partner?
Yes. TikTok has formally vetted us as a TikTok Shop Partner, which means partner-level tooling and support. Ask us for it in TikTok’s directory and we’ll point you at it — which is what we’d tell you to do with any agency claiming the same thing.
How much does Sohva cost?
$5,000 a month plus a 5% revenue share. We publish it because the alternative is three calls before anyone says a number, and because a fee with a revenue share in it only grows when yours does. If you’re below roughly $20K a month on TikTok Shop, say so on the first call — we’ll usually tell you to wait.