Role Overview
Clients hire you to find products that are not only trending but also commercially viable, specifically for the TikTok Shop + dropshipping model. Your job is to de-risk their store by identifying high-potential items that match platform behavior, fit fast-moving consumer patterns, and have margin to scale. You’re not just scanning for “virals”—you’re forecasting what moves and why, with business sense behind every pick. The value to the client is simple: the right product means revenue and growth. The wrong one means wasted ad spend, dead inventory, and a store that stalls before it starts.
This is not a content role, and it’s not about copying what’s already saturated. Clients are not paying for guesses, trends ripped from a feed, or supplier dumps with no proof of concept. They need someone who thinks like an operator—who can balance trend velocity with seller logistics, market timing with profit windows. The entire store performance hinges on product selection, especially in fast-cycle models like TikTok Shop. Done well, your work becomes the foundation for daily sales and long-term wins. Done poorly, it drags everything else down.
Standards You Must Meet
• Products must be backed by real data — clients expect demand proof, not just trending visuals or guesswork.
• You’re hired to find emerging winners, not repackage saturated picks every other seller is pushing.
• Each product pitch needs a clear case: why now, why this angle, and what margin it can realistically hit.
• Your research should factor in TikTok-native behavior, not just general ecommerce or Amazon-style validation.
• Listings with fragile logistics, unreliable suppliers, or unclear delivery windows should never make it past your filter.
• Clients rely on you to de-risk their ad spend — no product should go forward without a buyer persona, hook concept, and delivery margin.
• Speed is expected, but so is judgment; rushed picks that flop in live testing reflect directly on your value.
• Final output must be polished and usable: proper product sheet, supplier link, strategic notes, and go-to-market angle every time.
What You’ll Be Doing
• Source TikTok-relevant products using real-time data tools, filtering for early-stage winners with clear margin windows.
• Cross-analyze product demand, platform behavior, and demographic trends to build high-confidence product suggestions.
• Reject saturated or recycled product picks — even if trending — based on lifecycle stage, price pressure, and logistics risk.
• Draft mini product briefs that include go-to-market angles, buyer psychology, and creative hook opportunities for ad testing.
• Investigate supplier reliability, fulfillment speed, and inventory consistency before marking any item as launch-ready.
• Track and flag TikTok-native trends that align with consumer behavior shifts, platform updates, or seasonal angles.
• Package final selections into clean, client-ready product decks — complete with supplier links, positioning notes, and test plan context.
• Use automation (or structured workflows) to streamline product tracking, supplier comparisons, and niche signal monitoring.
What You’ll Hand Over
• A validated product shortlist with TikTok relevance, margin potential, saturation check, and supplier links.
• A product strategy brief per item, including buyer persona, angle-to-market, and ad-test insights.
• A fulfillment-ready sourcing summary showing shipping times, cost breakdowns, and stock reliability.
• A go/no-go recommendation file detailing trend lifecycle timing, scaling window, and projected ROI logic.
• A compiled product research sheet with proof points, competitive gaps, and TikTok-native content hooks.
Tools You’ll Need to Use
• TikTok Creative Center – Tracks viral products, top-performing ads, and market trends directly from TikTok’s native insights.
• AliExpress – Core sourcing platform to evaluate product viability, supplier reputation, and pricing for fulfillment.
• CJDropshipping – Used to validate product availability, shipping times, and cost efficiency for TikTok Shop compatibility.
• Amazon Best Sellers & Movers – Benchmarks consumer demand signals and trending items across categories.
• Shopify (Product Pages) – Assesses how top sellers structure offers, pricing, and product messaging.
• Facebook Ad Library – Researches competitor ads for creative direction, positioning, and offer strategies.
• Google Trends – Validates product interest levels over time and identifies seasonal/evergreen potential.
Why Work Smarter
We’re not saying you need to master these platforms overnight. But if you’re not even aware of what automation can do, or where it can be applied, that’s already a liability. Knowing how to streamline repetitive research tasks, scrape or process data at scale, or trigger alerts without a human touch — these are quickly becoming baseline skills for the role.
At OES, this standard is non-negotiable. We train to what the market actually expects, not what used to be enough.
Why Your Work Matters
Everything in TikTok Shop starts with the product. If the product is wrong, no angle, ad, or offer can save it. Clients are moving fast, spending real money, and depending on your research to prevent costly misfires. A single bad pick means wasted ad spend, slow fulfillment complaints, refund churn, and a stalled store—those are outcomes you’re responsible for avoiding. And in this model, they happen fast.
This isn’t background work—it’s operational risk control. Clients don’t just want ideas; they want decisions they can build a launch around. You are directly accountable for what products go live and how confident the client feels before they invest in creatives, ads, or inventory. That makes this role central to both revenue and retention. If your picks hit, the client scales. If they flop, they won’t trust the system—or you.
What We Expect From You
As a Specialist Product Research Expert for TikTok Shop + Dropshipping, your job is to track market signals, identify data-backed opportunities, and position winning products before the curve—not after. You are expected to move beyond surface-level research tools and into actionable insights that anticipate platform trends, creator behavior, and consumer demand. You understand that judgment is currency here; OES expects you to weigh ROI against risk, filter out distractions, and bring only products with real conversion potential to the table. Precision, pace, and performance are non-negotiable. You don’t guess—you validate, vet, and move decisively.
Specialists at OES operate with daily accountability to profitability, compliance, and strategic alignment. You take full ownership of your product calls because you understand their direct impact on store performance and client trust. If a SKU fails or a trend flops, you know exactly where to look, recalibrate fast, and document the learning. We want someone who treats product research as strategic work, not checklist work. This is not an entry-level function—it’s an expert tier with real business consequences.
Login to Get Matched
To view salary standard, expectation based on experience level, or even request a customize or personalize version of this role, please log in.
$440 – $1,220
OES salary standards reflect real market benchmarks, tier and experience level, ensuring fair pay for VAs and realistic expectations for clients.
Can't find a client that fits?
You can get it here, we will match you based on your preferences - salary, set up, schedule and more. Just say the word, we got you covered!