Free Sample Guide for Sellers

Want to attract more creators to make shoppable short videos or LIVE for your products?
Need to collaborate with top creators more frequently?
Looking for creators that truly match your brand’s image?
If you've ever felt this way while using our Affiliate Marketplace, you're not alone. To better support our sellers and help you connect with the right creators, we’re introducing the Free Sample feature.
This guide will walk you through what Free Samples are, how they benefit you as a seller, and how to manage them efficiently.
🔎 FAQ
Q1: What is a Free Sample?A1: A Free Sample is a product you provide to creators at no cost. This lowers the barrier for creators to promote your product—especially top creators—without requiring them to purchase it themselves. It’s an effective way to increase exposure and drive conversions.
Q2: I’m worried about giving away too much for free.A2: No worries. You can set the exact number of Free Samples in Seller Center based on your budget and inventory. You’re always in control—there’s no unlimited supply expected.
Q3: I only want creators who match my brand.A3: We’ve got you covered. Creators must apply to receive Free Samples, and you can choose to approve requests manually or automatically. You can filter creators based on follower count, past performance, viewer demographics (age/gender), and sales metrics.
Q4: Isn’t shipping samples complicated?A4: Not at all. Free Samples are shipped the same way as regular orders. If you’ve shipped a product before, you already know how.
Q5: How can I tell if the Free Sample worked?A5: Creators are required to use the Free Sample in promotional content within a set timeframe. After their content goes live, you can check performance data in Seller Center to track engagement, exposure, and impact. article will teach you everything you need to know about Free Samples from a Seller's standpoint. Free Samples can be used in both the Seller's Open Collaboration and Target Collaboration programs. In this article, we will go over how to add Free Sample offers to both of these Collaborations along with Shipping out your Free Samples to Creators.
Q6: I'm still concerned—what if a creator receives a free sample but doesn't fulfill the promotion task?A6: No worries. You may consider using our Refundable Sample feature. With this option, creators purchase the sample at the listed price and receive a full refund only after completing the tasks specified by the seller. This helps foster stronger collaboration and mutual trust between sellers and creators. For more details, please refer to the link.
For detailed information, please refer to the article below.

What are Free Samples?

Free Samples are products you can provide to Creators to boost their content's effectiveness in selling your products.

Open Collaboration Free Samples

For Creators to be able to request Free Samples, the Seller must first add their products to an Open Collaboration on Affiliate Marketplace in Seller Center.
Once you've added your desired products to the new Open Collaboration, you will see a column that indicates Free Sample.

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Adding the Free Sample Option for your Open Collaboration Products

1. New Products added in the Open Collaboration will show as "Not Created", click on the button and it will redirect you to the Free Sample Rule page below:
   

After you create your Open Collaboration, Creators can now start to request Free Samples of your Products for their Short Videos or LIVE Sessions. You can check these out under Free Sample Request in Affiliate Marketing.

2. Click on the edit button beside "Not Created" will prompt a pop-up on the right-hand side. The pop-up will allow you to turn on the Offer Free Samples option for your product.
   
3. Turning the Offer Free Samples option will open up the settings to apply to your Free Sample offer.
   

• Free Sample quantity: Amount of products a Seller is willing to provide to Creators as a Free Sample
• Request period:
  • Indefinite: Creators can request the Free Sample as long as there is still Free Sample quantity
  • Terminable: Creators can also request the Free Sample within the dates set by the Seller
• Threshold: Set a limit on which Creators can request for your product's Free Sample Offer. These limits are explained below:
  • Product category: This filter targets Creators who have generated revenue or promoted products in your chosen category in the last 30 days. Additionally, it can filter Creators who have added a product to their showcase in the last 90 days.
    
  • Fans number: A Creator's total number of Followers
  • 30-day sales volume: Filters the GMV produced by each Creator in the past 30 days
  • Average views per video: Filters the average views of all the Creator's videos

4. After applying the Free Sample offer for your product, each of the Products' info will reflect the current status of their Free Sample offer.
   

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Managing and Approving Free Sample Requests in Open Collaboration

Approve Free Sample requests on Affiliate Marketing > Free Sample Request. In the 'To review' tab, you can process creators' requests either individually or in batches. You have 7 days to review Free Samples to avoid automatic cancellation by the platform.
Once the chosen Free Sample requests are approved by the system, the requests will change it's status to "Ready to Ship".

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Filtering Free Sample Requests in Open Collaboration

Under Free Sample Requests, you can filter all the Free Sample Requests you have received for your Products under Open Collaboration.
Once you click on Filter, you can see the different ways you can pinpoint the perfect list of Creators that can receive your Free Samples. We'll start with Creators.
Under Creators, you have the option to filter them out using:

• Product category: This filter targets Creators who have generated revenue or promoted products in your chosen category in the last 30 days. Additionally, it can filter Creators who have added a product to their showcase in the last 90 days.
  
• Follower count: Filter your requests according to the size of each Creator's followers
• Content type: This option chooses Creators who used Videos, LIVE or both to promote products in the past 30 days
• Creator agency: Filter your Creators if they are managed by an Agency or if they work indepently
• Content language: You can select Japanese here to filter local creators
• Past collaborations: You have the option to filter the Creators who have worked with

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The second filter option is for Followers:

• Follower Age: Filter your Creators using Age ranges. Once applied, the filter will put the Creators with the most followers on top of the list
  
• Follower Gender: Filter your Creators based on the gender of their Followers. You can set a ratio of each gender.
  

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For Performance, you can filter how well the Creator is doing in terms of revenue they bring in, video views and viewers per LIVE:

• GMV: Filters the GMV produced by each Creator in the past 30 days
• Average views per video: Filter the average number of views each video the Creator releases, you have the option to only track the videos they create for Affiliate
• Average viewers per LIVE: Filter the average number of viewers each LIVE session the Creator releases. You have the option to only track the LIVE sessions they create for Affiliate
  

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Lastly, the Free Sample requests option allows you to filter the requests you received based on their expiry date and if the Free Sample requests will be automatically rejected if left unchecked for 30 days.

• From reliable Creators: This option provides you with the top 20% of Creators based on their ratio of received Free Samples and posted content.
  

Feel to explore all the available filtering options to get all the best requests for your products!

Target Collaboration Free Samples

Sellers can now provide Free Samples for their Invited Creators in Target Collaboration. The added benefit of the Target Invitation can increase the amount of Creators that will approve the partnership.
For new Sellers, a pop-up guide will provide a brief overview of what the Free Sample adds to your Target Invitation:

• To go through the process of Target Collaboration, read the feature guide here. For this guide, we will focus on the Free Sample step.

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Once you have added your Creators and Products for your Target Invitation, it is now time to set up your Free Samples. Click on the button beside Offer Free Samples to activate the option.
Activating the Free Sample option will automatically add it under the Benefits section of your Target Invitation (This is a preview of what your invited Creators will see on their end).
You have two options for Free Sample approvals:

• Manually review requests

As the name suggests, this option provides you with a more controlled release of your product. Once your Target Invitation is accepted by the Creator, they may request your products.
Check all the requests by going to any of your Collaborations and clicking on View Free Sample requests.
Upon clicking on View Free Sample requests, you will be redirected to the Free Sample Requests page. You can check all the pending requests of all your Creators.
Once you have approved the Creator's request for Free Samples, you will need to Ship the Free Samples. You can refer to the below content or the link here for shipping details.

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• Auto approve requests
  • Choosing this option will automatically approve all Free Sample requests you will receive from your invited Creators. Before turning it on, you will receive a pop-up to confirm your switch to Auto-approval.
    

Editing Free Sample Details in Target Invitations

Even if the Target Invitation has been sent, you can still edit the settings of your invitations. Simply select any of your Target Invitations and click on edit Free Sample. It will redirect you to the editing page, same as the one you've seen upon making a new Target Invitation.

Shipping Your Free Samples

1. After you have approved the Free Sample requests, click on 'Arrange shipment.' The system will automatically direct you to Seller Center, where you can ship Free Samples just like regular orders.

For any requests under Ready to Ship tab, you will be able to see a guide that prompts you to print shipping documents on Seller Center, ensuring easier navigation.

2. Within the Seller Center, you can arrange Free Sample shipments on the Manage Orders page. You can easily filter the order tags and select 'Free Free Sample from Seller.'
   
3. Prepare and arrange shipments as you would for regular orders. Print the packing list and shipping label, and hand them over to the logistics provider as usual.
4. Once you have completed the shipment arrangements, you can also track your shipments and view shipping information on Affiliate Marketing > Free Sample Request under 'Shipped' tab by clicking on 'View Shipping.'
   

In the case of shipping fees and applicable taxes, kindly note that it is the seller’s responsibility to account for them.

How to Combine Sample Orders

Product Overview

Group sample orders in Affiliate Center and save on shipping costs.

Benefits

• Ship smart and save: No more managing tons of tiny sample orders. Combine sample requests from the same creator and warehouse to save on shipping.
• Unlock a simpler workflow: Forget about manual workarounds and complex third-party tools. Grouping sample requests can now happen inside TikTok Shop.
• Stay in control:You can still approve samples at the creator or sample level. Approved samples within a five-minute window get auto-combined, giving you the benefit of combined samples, while still giving you the flexibility to approve more samples in the future.

How It Works

1. This feature will be default on for all sellers. If you want to change this, go to Sample Requests >> Free samples >> To review >> Automations >> Set auto-approval criteria.
2. Sample requests from the same creator that can be fulfilled from the same warehouse will be automatically combined.
3. You can choose to approve the creators' requests by checking the box next to the creator's name, or only approve specific samples for that creator.
4. If you approve a single sample, you have a 5-minute window to approve any other sample requests from the same creator. The system will hold onto these requests, getting ready to combine them for you.
5. The system does the rest. Once the 5 minutes are up (or if you don’t have any other samples to approve for that creator), the system will automatically group all of the approved samples into a single order ID.
6. Ship one combined order. Now, you can ship all the samples for that creator in a single package. This means you only need one tracking ID and you get to save on shipping costs!

Tips

• Set it and forget it! By default, this feature is turned on to make your life easier. Just approve samples as you normally would, and the system handles the grouping for you. You can turn this off if you'd rather create one order ID for each individual sample application.
• Keep an eye on the status. After you approve a request, you might see a "pending order" status. Don't worry, that just means the system is working its magic to combine the orders. The "Ship in Seller Center" button will be disabled during this short time, so you know exactly what’s happening.
• One order to rule them all. Even though the system combines the samples into one order ID, each sample application will still show up as its own line item in the Sample Request page. This way, you can easily see every single item that’s part of the larger group.
• Troubleshooting! In unique cases where a product may be out of stock or there are new creator violations, then the sample orders will not be combined and you will see the request again on the Sample request page. There will be an alert associated with it, and you can also use our filter options to identify these "failed" cases.

FAQ

1. What happens if I approve one sample and then a few minutes later I approve another from the same creator?

When you approve the first sample, a 5-minute countdown begins. If you approve another sample from the same creator within that window, both samples will be automatically grouped into a single order.

2. What happens if an order fails to generate?

If a sample request fails during the order generation process, it gets returned to the "To review" tab. You'll see a banner at the top of the page telling you which applications failed, and you can try to approve them again.

3. Can I still approve samples one by one?

Totally! You can choose to use the default group setting or you can turn off the "combine orders" toggle if you want to create a unique order ID for each sample.

4. Does this work for all types of samples?

This feature currently works for manual free samples. It doesn’t apply to refundable or mixed requests (where a creator may have both bought from your brand and requested samples).

Monitoring Your Creators

Creators are given 14 days to create the promotional content (LIVE or short video) using the Free Sample they received. They need to fulfill the task by adding the product link of the Free Sample to their content and keeping the Short Video public for at least 3 days or doing the LIVE Session for at least 10 minutes. During this time, the status of the Free Sample request will be in 'Content Pending'.
After creator finishes the task, the status will turned into 'Completed' and you will be able to check the Promotional Content's metrics by clicking on histories.