Director, Social Commerce

Role Overview

The Director of Social Commerce leads the agency’s TikTok Shop department and owns the strategy, execution, growth, and operational development of TikTok Shop services across the client portfolio. This role is responsible for building and scaling a best-in-class social commerce offering that drives revenue for clients, strengthens creator partnerships, improves client retention, and positions the agency as a leading TikTok Shop management partner.

This role oversees the full TikTok Shop lifecycle, including shop setup, product and listing optimization, affiliate program strategy, creator recruitment, sample management, campaign planning, paid amplification, performance reporting, and client-facing strategic recommendations. The Director of Social Commerce also manages internal team members, develops scalable systems and processes, evaluates tools and platform updates, and ensures the department operates efficiently as the client roster grows.

Core Responsibilities

Department Leadership & Strategy

• Lead the overall vision, direction, and growth strategy for the TikTok Shop department.
• Build, refine, and scale internal processes that improve team efficiency, client outcomes, and operational consistency.
• Identify new service opportunities, platform features, revenue levers, and strategic initiatives that can improve client performance and agency value.
• Collaborate with leadership to define department goals, pricing models, client expectations, staffing needs, and long-term growth plans.
• Stay closely informed on TikTok Shop platform updates, policy changes, logistics requirements, affiliate tools, paid media opportunities, and marketplace trends.
• Translate platform changes into clear internal guidance, client recommendations, SOPs, and updated workflows.

Client Strategy & Account Growth

• Oversee TikTok Shop strategy for a portfolio of client brands across multiple verticals.
• Develop customized growth plans based on each client’s product category, shop maturity, creator pipeline, GMV performance, sampling capacity, and business goals.
• Lead strategic client conversations around creator recruitment, sampling volume, promotions, TikTok One, GMV Max, affiliate commissions, content quality, listing optimization, and retention.
• Identify performance gaps and recommend practical solutions to improve creator activation, content output, conversion, GMV, and long-term channel health.
• Support client retention by setting clear expectations, communicating progress effectively, and proactively identifying risks or growth blockers.
• Partner with client success and sales teams to improve onboarding, expectation-setting, upsell opportunities, and client education.

TikTok Shop Management

• Oversee end-to-end TikTok Shop setup and management for clients, including account readiness, product catalog setup, affiliate center activation, product visibility, and operational compliance.
• Guide product listing optimization, including titles, product copy, pricing, commission strategy, shipping thresholds, and campaign eligibility.
• Monitor shop health factors such as Shop Performance Score, fulfillment issues, logistics compliance, customer service requirements, product approval issues, and creator outreach restrictions.
• Coordinate with clients and internal teams to resolve operational blockers that may limit creator outreach, sampling, product promotion, or sales performance.
• Ensure clients are positioned to participate in relevant TikTok Shop campaigns, seasonal promotions, flash sales, and platform-driven growth opportunities.

Creator Affiliate Strategy

• Oversee creator recruitment strategy across TikTok Shop affiliate programs, including Target Collaboration, Open Collaboration, TikTok One, and external creator relationship-building efforts.
• Develop creator outreach strategies based on product-market fit, creator quality, historical GMV, posting behavior, audience alignment, category relevance, and content style.
• Guide team members on sample approval criteria, creator vetting, outreach messaging, follow-up strategy, and creator relationship management.
• Create strategies to improve creator post rate, content quality, creator retention, and repeat collaboration.
• Build and manage initiatives for top-performing creators, including paid placements, bonus incentives, retainer programs, Discord community engagement, and VIP creator nurturing.

Paid Amplification & Revenue Growth

• Lead strategy around GMV Max and other TikTok paid amplification opportunities.
• Identify when and how to use GMV Max to test, validate, and scale affiliate content.
• Recommend budget, ROI targets, campaign structure, creative selection, and optimization strategy based on client goals and available content.
• Educate clients and internal teams on how GMV Max, Smart+, TikTok One, affiliate content, and organic creator programs work together.
• Use paid amplification as a lever to improve content performance, drive GMV, and maximize the value of creator-generated assets.

Reporting & Performance Analysis

• Oversee client reporting standards for TikTok Shop performance, creator activity, content output, GMV, sample volume, campaign performance, and operational progress.
• Analyze program trends to identify what is working, what needs improvement, and where strategic changes are needed.
• Translate performance data into clear, client-facing insights and recommendations.
• Create executive-level reporting for leadership on department performance, active client trends, churn risk, staffing needs, tool performance, and revenue opportunities.
• Use data to refine internal benchmarks, improve forecasting, and guide department decision-making.

Team Management & Training

• Manage and support TikTok Shop team members, including full-time employees, interns, contractors, and operational support roles.
• Delegate responsibilities across creator outreach, sample tracking, reporting, client communications, campaign execution, and operational workflows.
• Train team members on TikTok Shop best practices, creator vetting, outreach strategy, tool usage, reporting standards, and client communication.
• Set clear KPIs and expectations for team members while encouraging ownership, problem-solving, and proactive thinking.
• Create SOPs, training materials, internal playbooks, and workflows to support consistency and scalability.

Tools, Systems & Process Development

• Evaluate, implement, and optimize tools used for creator outreach, CRM management, reporting, TikTok Shop tracking, campaign execution, and operational efficiency.
• Work with internal stakeholders to improve systems such as Bloom, HubSpot, Euka, Reacher, Cruva, Kalodata, ShopDance, AfterShip, Discord, and other social commerce tools.
• Identify opportunities for automation, workflow improvements, internal dashboards, and custom integrations.
• Partner with technical or product teams when needed to scope internal tools that improve creator tracking, reporting, outreach, or operational visibility.

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this role may be measured by:

• Client GMV growth across TikTok Shop programs

• GMV Max performance and paid amplification efficiency

• Creator outreach volume and response rate

• Client retention and churn reduction

• Sample request volume and sample approval volume

• Shop health improvements, including SPS, fulfillment performance, and product approval stability

• Creator post rate after samples are delivered

• Campaign participation and promotional execution

• Number of active creators producing content

• Team productivity and process adoption

• Number of creators driving sales

• Internal reporting accuracy and consistency

• Affiliate-driven GMV and percentage of total shop revenue

• New service revenue, upsells, or strategic growth initiatives

• Content volume and quality

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong understanding of TikTok Shop, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, creator commerce, and social selling.
• Experience managing client relationships and leading strategic client conversations.
• Ability to analyze performance data and turn it into actionable recommendations.
• Strong knowledge of creator outreach, creator vetting, sampling strategy, and affiliate program management.
• Understanding of TikTok Shop Seller Center, Affiliate Center, TikTok One, GMV Max, product listings, promotions, and shop health metrics.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple client programs, priorities, and moving parts at once.
• Experience building processes, SOPs, reports, and internal systems.
• Comfortable managing team members and holding them accountable to KPIs.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate in a fast-changing platform environment.
• Ability to communicate clearly with leadership, clients, team members, and external partners.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with tools such as HubSpot, Bloom, Kalodata, Euka, Reacher, Cruva, ShopDance, AfterShip, Discord, Shopify, WooCommerce, and TikTok Ads Manager.
• Experience building or improving internal workflows, dashboards, or CRM systems.
• Understanding of paid media strategy, especially GMV Max, Spark Ads, and TikTok Shop ad formats.
• Experience creating client-facing reports, strategy documents, growth audits, and executive summaries.
• Familiarity with e-commerce operations, fulfillment, logistics, customer service, and marketplace compliance.
• Technical fluency or experience working with developers/product teams is a plus.

Role Expectations

The Director of Social Commerce is expected to operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on department owner. This role requires someone who can think at a high level about where the department needs to go while also understanding the tactical details that determine whether a client program succeeds.

This person should be proactive, solutions-oriented, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to move quickly as TikTok Shop evolves. They should be able to identify issues before they become client risks, create structure where processes are unclear, and consistently push the department toward stronger performance, better retention, and more scalable execution.

Summary

The Director of Social Commerce is responsible for leading the agency’s TikTok Shop offering from strategy through execution. This role owns client growth, creator affiliate strategy, paid amplification, internal operations, team development, reporting, tool optimization, and department scalability.

The ideal person in this role combines deep TikTok Shop expertise, strong client communication, operational discipline, creator marketing knowledge, and leadership ability to help brands grow meaningfully through social commerce.

Originally posted on Himalayas