Is TikTok Shop worth setting up?

Where it is available and your products demonstrate well, yes. It removes the step that loses most social traffic — leaving the app to buy — and that step is where the money goes.

What decides it

The reservations are the same as every marketplace: the commission, and the customer being theirs rather than yours. Treat it as a discovery channel with an unusually good checkout, not as the business.

The part that gets skipped

The follower count almost never matches the sales. Engagement in the comments is a far better signal than reach.

Short-form video is the cheapest reach available right now, which is exactly why it will not stay cheap.

Influencer spend works when the audience already buys that category, and burns money when it is chosen on follower count.

Where an app fits

The point of an app in this picture is ownership: social brings somebody once, and the app is where they come back to.