From 500 to 40,000 Daily Orders: How a Candy Brand Went Viral on TikTok Shop

[Ebrun Exclusive] On TikTok Shop, a platform known for its content-driven approach, categories like beauty and personal care, consumer electronics, and trendy toys have become popular arenas due to their strong visual appeal, producing many successful merchants. In contrast, standout cases in the food category are relatively rare. On one hand, the constraints of food shelf life increase the difficulty of inventory turnover; on the other, products are highly susceptible to homogenized competition. However, an American candy brand named Kozed has achieved a sales miracle in this sector. Its TikTok Shop sales skyrocketed from an average of 500 orders per day to 40,000 orders per day in just over two months, with store GMV increasing tenfold and monthly sales exceeding $1 million. On the first day of 2026, it surged to the top of the Food & Beverage category on TikTok's US marketplace.

This brand, which started offline, did not have a smooth journey on TikTok. In the first two months, store sales showed no improvement, and with product shelf lives approaching, the brand had to switch its agency operator. After adjusting its operational strategy, GMV achieved tenfold growth within a month, propelling the brand to the top of its category and marking the successful opening of a new online growth channel.

It is reported that the agency operator behind this small miracle is GCube Glocal. With years of experience in e-commerce operations, initially operating on Tmall and Douyin, it began expanding overseas to Amazon in 2019. Two years ago, recognizing the rapid growth of TikTok e-commerce, it decided to enter the field and has since accumulated extensive practical experience across eight major categories including home appliances, personal care and cosmetics, and food and beverage.

How did it reach the top of its TikTok category in just one month? How can a food product become a hit through content-driven e-commerce? To explore these questions, Ebrun recently communicated with Rose, the founder of GCube Glocal, and team members, compiling their operational secrets as follows:

1. Leveraging Halal Certification to Target a Niche Audience and Tap into the Muslim Market.

The video that brought the first wave of traffic to the candy store featured a Muslim blogger wearing a headscarf.

Many are unaware that candy often contains gelatin, a substance derived from collagen in animal connective tissues. Since Islamic law prohibits the consumption of pork and its by-products, not all candies are permissible for Muslim consumers.

The viral video was titled, 'So good, fun, affordable, and Halal?!'. In the video, the Muslim blogger enthusiastically placed bags of all the candy flavors on a table, saying, 'I love them so much, look how many bags he sent me.' She specifically highlighted that the product had Halal certification, showing the Halal logo on the packaging to the camera.

The comments section was filled with discussions about gelatin. Some users commented that the candy contained pork products, to which the blogger replied, 'People see gelatin and assume it's from pork. But many foods no longer use pork gelatin; it's usually beef gelatin or a type of fish gelatin.'

The combination of the Muslim blogger's image and the Halal certification helped the brand gain its first Muslim consumers. Within a month, this brought in $60,000 in GMV. The video garnered over 40,000 likes, more than 2,000 shares, and over 5,000 saves. After this video went viral, the GCube team created a specific product listing targeting the Muslim community. The product description page clearly stated that the product contained no pork gelatin, was made with beef gelatin, and was Halal certified.

Subsequently, the brand focused on this niche segment, partnering with a large number of similar influencers—all of whom had promoted snack products, especially those with proven sales success. Reportedly, the number of Muslim influencers connected reached several hundred, with the total number of influencers contacted numbering in the thousands. The influencer profile primarily focused on women aged 38-45. Some influencers introduced each candy flavor, while others even used the candy to make jam, but all emphasized the Halal certification to alleviate consumer concerns about food safety.

GCube deeply understands that precise influencer outreach and audience coverage are essential steps. The broader and deeper the audience reach, the more accurate the tested and filtered results become, especially for TikTok Shop US. 'The US market is somewhat unique among all TikTok Shop regions. The proportion of live streaming is very low; over 70% of the content is short videos, and within that, influencer content accounts for about 70%. Videos made by merchants themselves definitely don't convert as well as those by influencers, due to lower follower counts and lack of authentic user experience,' a GCube team member told Ebrun.

2. Amplifying the Breakout Effect: Expanding from Muslim to Mainstream White and Hispanic Communities.

While the Muslim segment is vertical, its size is ultimately limited. To maximize sales, the second step was to expand to more demographics.

Three months after the first Muslim influencer's viral video, the Black Friday season arrived. The GCube team considered that for a new product to expand its market during the peak season, it would have to compete with top brands for traffic, requiring substantial marketing investment. Therefore, they targeted the tail end of Black Friday, concentrating their ad spend when overall competition decreased, thereby capturing the remaining traffic.

This cost-effective strategy proved highly effective. Kozed saw its best-performing video ever—a product placement video by a blonde white female influencer garnered 170,000 likes and 15,000 saves, boosting store GMV by more than ten times.

In the first scene of the video, she showed the camera a 'candy skewer' made from different fruit-shaped candies, saying, 'Real fruit candy, and so affordable.' The entire video presented a casual style of integrating candy into family life, mentioning, for example, that 'the kids love it' and 'it's for both adults and kids.' The video was posted just before Christmas, the most important holiday in the West. The caption read: 'My husband found these candies, and now I'm not sure how many will actually make it into the Christmas stockings.'

Due to its long history of immigration, the US is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse countries in the world. This means that merchants selling in the US market can target their product promotions based on ethnicity. Specifically, they cast a wide net to reach all ethnicities, then analyzed the data to identify demographics with better sales performance, concentrating resources to intensify promotion efforts. They discovered that mainstream White Americans and Hispanic communities became the new driving forces of consumption after the Muslim segment. Over a month later, the proportion of Muslim consumers dropped to about 30% of the total, indicating a successful audience expansion.

In addition to extensive and precise influencer outreach, GCube continuously optimized video scripts. They initially tested scripts similar to those of competitors; if the data was poor, they switched to their own scripts, while analyzing the characteristics of scripts used by top-performing influencers for continuous iteration. For instance, the viral video by the white blogger had the highest viewer retention rate within the first six seconds. A GCube member analyzed: 'At the beginning of the video, her expression was one of surprise, as if she had received a gift. A single bag of candy with so many flavors, all delicious—that captured the users' attention.'

Boosting videos is also a crucial step in TikTok operations, an important means for merchants to capitalize on a viral hit and further increase sales. Based on GCube's experience, when a video is picked up by the GMVmax algorithm and generates over 50 sales, with ROI stabilizing into an upward curve, it's time to consider boosting the video to further amplify the breakout effect.

3. Increasing Store Sales Through Bundling and Gifts, and Activating Existing Users with UGC.

Beyond marketing efforts, GCube also adjusted the brand's product pricing and implemented volume-based discount mechanisms. Specifically, the prices for 7-pack and 14-pack bundles were reduced by a few dollars each, with an additional discount offered for purchasing two sets. Rose indicated that price adjustments need to consider customer psychological expectations, competitor pricing, and sales performance. The post-adjustment price was set slightly lower than competitors by a few dollars, creating a price advantage.

Furthermore, the brand increased overall store sales by setting up gift-with-purchase bundles. 'The higher the sales volume of a TikTok Shop store, the more exposure it receives. Bundling a gift item with the main product link can boost the store's overall weight in the algorithm,' GCube stated.

They also emphasized the importance of choosing gifts that can potentially drive repeat purchases, preferably products with broad appeal. For example, they opted for a conventionally flavored candy instead of spicy chips or extreme mint candies.

Unlike ordinary food products, candy packaging is particularly important. Because candy is naturally suitable as a gift, good packaging can create a feeling of receiving a present. Consequently, GCube worked with the brand to replace the original insulated bags and bubble mailers with boxes printed with the brand logo. They also included instruction cards detailing the candy flavors or explaining how to operate musical lollipops.

On the logistics front, GCube optimized the store by switching from USPS to TikTok Shop's official logistics service. Shortly after this change, TikTok Shop US announced that it would discontinue the original 'Seller Shipping' model starting February 25, 2026. It can be said that GCube's operational strategy aligned with the platform's direction towards standardizing the logistics experience.

After GCube took over the operations of this candy brand, its TikTok followers surged from 500 to 30,000 in just over a month. At this point, the brand's operational focus shifted from acquiring new followers to retaining and activating existing users.

Therefore, they launched a hashtag challenge through the official store, encouraging users to participate by posting user-generated content (UGC). Users whose content gained significant traction could receive vouchers or products as rewards. This approach leveraged UGC to further expand the store's influence, while using tactics like loyalty vouchers to increase repurchase rates.

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